A recent report by the British Council has found that Arabic is one of the top five languages that will be required by a post-Brexit UK.
The report highlights the following ten languages that are considered vital to the culture and trade of the UK in the next twenty years; Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin Chinese, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese.
Arabic was also endorsed due to its precedence as one of the world’s most widely spoken languages, of which it is fourth, with 223 million speakers.
Arabic is also one of the United Nation’s official languages alongside, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
The growing importance of the Arabic language in the UK is highlighted by its export markets where the UEA is ranked 14th in UK exports, generating £5,364 million in 2012, and the Arabic language ranking 9th in the UK’s current most important exports markets.
The report considered not only potential economic growth sectors, but also the importance of cultural, educational and diplomatic areas.
In this context Arabic was placed second, after Spanish, suggesting a closer connection with the Arabic world than previously supposed and signifying greater cultural links will be needed in the future.
Arabic was found to be the sixth most common language course taken at evening classes within the UK.
There are huge business benefits that can be achieved by learning to speak Arabic according to Vincent Fean, the British Consul General in Jerusalem, who says “People respect the fact that I have invested time and effort in their language and culture” meaning he has made “lasting friendships” and can now understand what is going on around him.
However, it seems the UK has a long way to go as language proficiency is low with only 25% of the population able to have a conversation in another language.
This deficiency was considered by the report to be a threat to the UK’s competitiveness, influence and standing in the world, and when combined with the low proficiency of native Arabic speakers to understand English it can be seen as an area that will require work to improve communication, business and relationships between the two nations.
