Why don’t more Britons want to learn German?

I AGREE entirely with John Gordon in his recent letter (Yorkshire Post, November 21).

My daughter, who is qualified to teach both French and German, is unable find a position. The reason for this is that the profession demands French with Spanish. German is not popular. The fact that Germany is the powerhouse of Europe, and will be for some time to come, seems to be unimportant.

Nothing much has changed over the years, except this country’s need for linguists is increasing.

It seems very odd that the language spoken by the most influential country has been downgraded mainly because it is difficult to learn. A good French speaker will be able to master Spanish reasonably well, so why should it be preferred to German?

The rewards of being able to communicate well with your customer in Germany would always be much appreciated and probably rewarded.

We should not expect our potential business partner to speak our language.

There are probably more Germans who speak good English than vice versa; but there are still many who do not speak our language and do not want to be embarrassed by having to try to respond in English especially if they are the buyers.

I hesitate to write this but I think we should have our sites set on a more global objective, that isrecognising that one in three people in the world are Chinese so Mandarin should surely be on the menu.