أغنية لكأس العالم بأكثر من لغة من نادي أرسنال

Hello and welcome to BBC Xtra English!

Today we are talking about how the love of football can encourage to learn another language.

England's popular Arsenal Football Club has launched a World Cup song to encourage children to learn languages other than their own.

The song is multi-lingual and officials in the club expect it might convince especially young fans that it is "cool" to speak more than one language.

More than 17 million British people go to Spain each year but can't speak Spanish, for example.

The Shadow Foreign Office Minister, Chris Bryant, says that his countrymen go to other countries and speak English and hope to be understood.

"We just go abroad and just speak louder and slower and hope that people will understand what we're saying", he explained.

Bryant learnt Spanish as a child and also speaks French. He thinks that nowadays it would be far more useful if he spoke Mandarin or Arabic. "In the past, a hundred years ago, our universities were really good at making sure we learnt those languages", added Bryant.

Some argue that learning another language has advantages beyond better ability to communicate.

Eckhardt Lubkemeier, the Charge D'Affaires at the German Embassy, says: "It's about mental skills, it's about creativity, it's about logical thinking that is promoted by learning languages, not just your own but foreign languages as well.

So this is about much more than just economical usefulness."

Why do you think learning other languages is important? Write to us in English!
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Arsenal
نادي ارسنال
encourage
يشجع
debate
نقاش/حوار
lingua franca
لغة مشتركة
importance
أهمية
nowadays
الوقت الحاضر