Economic value of English speakers dwindles

说英语的人经济价值下降了

The economic advantage historically enjoyed by native English speakers is set to ebb away as the language becomes a near----universal global basic skill.

在历史上以英语的为母语的人所享有的经济优势渐渐消逝，因为说这种语言几乎已成了全球的一种基本技能。

A British Council study predicts that employers around the world will soon no longer be falling over themselves to hire people who speak good English.

一份英国文化委员会的研究预计，全世界的雇主不久将不再雇佣只英语说得好的人了。

Instead they will be liking for fluency in other languages, particularly Mandarin and Spanish, as well as English.

相反，他们更乐意雇那些除了英语外，其他语言也说得流利的人，特别是说汉语普通话和西班牙语的人。

David Graddol, an applied linguist who wrote the report for the UK agency that promotes British education abroad, said, “We are living in a new world where if you turn up for a job interview and say you have English that’s just not good enough.”

戴维·格拉多，一位应用语言学家，在为英国文化委员会撰写报告，此机构致力于把英国教育方式推广海外。他说，“我们已生活在一个新世界中了，这里你想找份工作，在面试时说你只会讲英语，恐怕情况不会太好了。”

“Employers expect excellent English in addition to other skills. The competitive advantage is just no longer there.”

“老板们想要出色的英语水平外，还想要其他技能。从前的竞争优势已经没有了。”

The emergence of English as the planet’s second tongue also has enormous ramifications for Anglophone governments, businesses and universities. “In organisations where English has become the corporate language, meetings sometimes go more smoothly when no native speaker are present, ”the report says.

英语成为了世界第二大语言也给说英语的国家的政府、商业及大学带来许多影响。报告说，“在英语成为共同语言的团体中，若会议没有只说本地语言的人发言，就会进行得更顺利。”

Already non-native speaking English teachers are deemed to be more employable in some Asian countries. Trainers form Belgium, for example, are more attuned than staff from the UK and US to the bilingual needs of students. British and American companies specialising in producing textbooks for the global English-learnig market could also lose out as governments demand materials that can be produced easily by local English speakers.

现在，在亚洲国家，非英语母语的教师被认为更易受雇。例如，来自比利时的教师比来自英美的更能满足学生对双语教育的需要。英美那些专门出版全球英语学习市场的教材的公司也将出局，因为政府需要当地会说英语的人编写这些材料。

“Within a few years there could be around 2bn people learning English,” the report says.

报告还说，“用不了几年，就将有20亿人学英语了。”

Mr. Graddol urged the UK and US to increase investment in the teaching of foreign languages.

因此格拉多先生呼吁英国及美国增加对外语教学的投资。