Playgroup | Helping brands build genuine brand equity

Tim Moore

Managing Director

Loves: Snow & Mountains, Noisy Music, West Ham United & Jelly Babies
Hates: The Circle Line, Tea, Dishonesty
Inspired by:
- My granny
- Ordinary people doing extraordinary things
- Apple product design
My links:

Radiohead, Brazil, Monster trucks, stop, taxonomies, Sigur Rós, Svefn-G-Englar, Lisbon, teenager, Brands, miniature faking, ITV, SOAP, Internet, cyclists, esc, acronyms, tilt-shift, red light, time-lapse, REST, digital, Portugal, music, London, animation, Keith Loutit, Popplagio, Alexandra Palace, folksonomies

Multi-lingual Brits!

12 Feb

I'm proud to work one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world. I love the diversity, which brings all kinds of different experiences to my doorstep and I take pleasure in hearing other languages spoken. In our office alone we have a dozen or so languages spoken.

As I write, I am in France enjoying a snowboarding holiday with my family. The French language is, in my opinion, top of the charts. It's a beautiful language and so expressive I could listen to it all day.

My daughter, Lara, is studying French at school and intends to take it on to A level. So I thought it only right to cause her as much embarrassment as possible by asking her to book a table at a restaurant, not in the ski resort itself, but down in a more authentic village in the valley.

In her best French accent, "Bon apres-midi, je voudrais une reservation pour cinq personnes a huit heure ce soir, s'il vous plait." Nice effort. The reply? "OK, let me just check for you".

Hmm... This is supposed to be the last bastion of national pride. Where you get a look of haughty disdain, if you speak English and expect an answer. What’s going on? If the French can't be bothered to listen to us struggle then who will?

I think it's a real shame, but you can see why its happening. English has become the de-facto language of business. Playgroup clients like Unilever and Epson are huge multi-nationals with offices all over the world. Yet all their staff speak English. As the world continues to shrink, people are increasing mobile in their career moves and the younger generations of many nations now speak English better than I do. And they're are keen to brush up on their skills even when they are at home, working in a restaurant, in Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise!

So ironically, I think it may be up to us British to protect foreign languages. Let's be courteous enough to at least attempt the basics in the local language. 'Hello', 'goodbye', 'thank you', 'how much' and of course 'five large beers please' will probably be all you need.

Posted by Tim on 12 Feb 08, at 2:00 pm