Language training does not have a high standing in UK organisations. We tend to think: “Everyone can speak English, so why bother?” But with greater migration, globalisation and offshoring, we should be motivated: language skills can give a real competitive edge. A recent EU study showed that SMEs that invested in staff with language skills achieved more than 40 per cent more export sales than those which didn’t. But learning requires the right attitude from employer and employees, good planning and hard work.

1 Start with confidence
Native English speakers have a head-start. No other Europeans (apart from Romanians) have verbal clues to more than five languages, but Britons can easily penetrate the vocabulary of 10. There are no such people as good or bad linguists, and there is no such thing as an easy or a difficult language. There are just languages that are similar to your own and languages that aren’t – English vocabulary originates from Latin tongues and the other 50 per cent is Germanic. Which means that 40 per cent of the words in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and various other dialects will be familiar.