英國(guó)企業(yè)需要外語(yǔ)員工

Theresa May will trigger Article 50 on March 29, but much of UK business has no idea what Brexit will mean for them. During discussions in the past few weeks, I have heard of financial services companies applying for licences in EU countries in case they need to move some of their operations there. But most businesses are watching and waiting to assess what comes out of the negotiations.

特里薩•梅(Theresa May，見上圖)在3月29日觸發(fā)了里斯本條約第50條，但很多英國(guó)企業(yè)并不知道退歐對(duì)他們意味著什么。在過去幾周的討論中，我聽說有金融服務(wù)企業(yè)正在申請(qǐng)歐盟國(guó)家的許可證，以備萬(wàn)一需要向那里轉(zhuǎn)移一部分業(yè)務(wù)。但大多數(shù)企業(yè)還在觀望，以評(píng)估退歐談判的結(jié)局。

There is one thing many companies are sure of: they cannot manage without their EU staff. It is not just the numbers of EU nationals working in many industries. Some companies are also desperate to hold on to the languages those citizens speak.

有一件事是很多公司確定的：沒有歐盟雇員他們就無法應(yīng)付。這不僅是很多行業(yè)歐盟員工人數(shù)眾多的問題。一些公司迫切需要留住歐盟雇員的外語(yǔ)能力。

The head of training at a fashion company, speaking on a panel I recently chaired, said it is not true that all business is now done in English. Some retailers and distributors in Spain, France and Italy did not speak English well enough to do business in it, and some probably did not see why they should.

一家時(shí)尚企業(yè)的培訓(xùn)主管在我最近主持的一個(gè)專家小組討論中發(fā)言稱，如今并非所有生意都用英語(yǔ)達(dá)成。西班牙、法國(guó)和意大利的一些零售商和分銷商，英語(yǔ)還沒有好到可以用來開展業(yè)務(wù)，有些人甚至可能看不出為什么要用英語(yǔ)談生意。

You buy in your own language and you sell in your customer’s, the old saying goes. We can update the second half of this: you sell in your customer’s choice of language. These days, that is often English, but not always. If customers insist on speaking their own language, you had better have people who can talk to them.

老話說：用自己的語(yǔ)言買，用顧客的語(yǔ)言賣。我們可以更新一下后半句：你用顧客選擇的語(yǔ)言賣。如今，被選的往往是英語(yǔ)，但也不總是。如果客戶堅(jiān)持要說自己的語(yǔ)言，你最好擁有能跟他們交流的員工。

Many in the UK do speak another language. The 2011 census showed that 4.2m people — 7.7 per cent of the population in England and Wales — spoke a language other than English at home. The most widely spoken of those languages was Polish, used by 546,000 people, followed by Panjabi, Urdu and Bengali.

在英國(guó)有很多人能說另一門語(yǔ)言。2011年人口普查顯示，420萬(wàn)人(占英格蘭和威爾士總?cè)丝诘?.7%)在家不說英文。其中最廣泛使用的語(yǔ)言是波蘭語(yǔ)，為54.6萬(wàn)人所使用，其次分別是旁遮普語(yǔ)、烏爾都語(yǔ)和孟加拉語(yǔ)。

But the languages most in demand by UK business are French, German and Spanish, according to a survey last year by the CBI employers organisation and Pearson, the education group.

然而根據(jù)雇主組織英國(guó)工業(yè)聯(lián)合會(huì)(CBI)和教育集團(tuán)培生(Pearson)去年的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查，英國(guó)企業(yè)最需要的語(yǔ)言是法語(yǔ)、德語(yǔ)和西班牙語(yǔ)。

There are fewer speakers of those languages in England and Wales. The 2011 census showed that 147,000 spoke French as their main language; 77,000 spoke German and 120,000 Spanish. Not all of those people are available for recruitment by UK companies who need their languages skills. Many are already working, in English, in banking, information technology or the hotel and restaurant industries, and not all are adults.

英格蘭和威爾士說這幾門語(yǔ)言的人數(shù)較少。2011年的人口普查顯示，14.7萬(wàn)人的母語(yǔ)是法語(yǔ);7.7萬(wàn)人說德語(yǔ);還有12萬(wàn)人說西班牙語(yǔ)。這些人并非都能被需要其語(yǔ)言技能的公司雇用。他們中有很多人已經(jīng)用英語(yǔ)在銀行業(yè)、IT或者酒店和餐飲行業(yè)從事工作，而且并非都是成年人。

The census includes all language speakers aged three and over. And the UK residency status of EU citizens post-Brexit is still unclear.

人口普查涵蓋3歲及以上的所有語(yǔ)言的居民。而英國(guó)退歐之后，歐盟公民在英國(guó)的居民身份尚不確定。

So where, post-Brexit, will UK companies find their foreign language speakers? Probably not among young Britons learning foreign languages.

那么在退歐之后，英國(guó)公司該去哪里找說外語(yǔ)的雇員呢?大概不會(huì)去找學(xué)說外語(yǔ)的英國(guó)年輕人。

It is true that the UK government has made efforts to improve language teaching in schools. Almost all English primary schools were doing at least some foreign language teaching in 2015-16, according to a report by the British Council.

沒錯(cuò)，英國(guó)政府正致力于改善中小學(xué)的外語(yǔ)教學(xué)。根據(jù)英國(guó)文化教育協(xié)會(huì)(British Council)的一份報(bào)告，2015-16學(xué)年，英格蘭幾乎所有小學(xué)都開設(shè)了外語(yǔ)課。

The government is pushing the teaching of languages in secondary schools too, but the report said that since 2002, the number of students taking French A-levels, the school-leaving examination, had fallen by a third. Those studying German had fallen by nearly half. More students were studying Spanish and other languages, this was not enough to compensate for the falls in French and German.

政府也在推動(dòng)中學(xué)的外語(yǔ)教學(xué)，但該報(bào)告稱，自2002年以來，在中學(xué)畢業(yè)考試A-levels中選法語(yǔ)的學(xué)生人數(shù)減少了三分之一。學(xué)習(xí)德語(yǔ)的人數(shù)減少了近一半。有更多學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)西班牙語(yǔ)和其他語(yǔ)言，但這還不足以彌補(bǔ)法語(yǔ)和德語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)人數(shù)的減少。

Teachers said one of the reasons pupils did not want to learn languages was that it was hard. It is. Mastering another language requires huge motivation.

教師們說，學(xué)生不愿意學(xué)外語(yǔ)的原因之一是因?yàn)樘y。沒錯(cuò)。掌握另一門語(yǔ)言需要巨大的動(dòng)力。

For non-English speakers, learning English yields a wealth of opportunities. Most senior jobs are unobtainable without the language. For native English speakers, the employment rewards are less obvious. You can get along in most jobs in the UK without another language. Not everyone wants to work for a fashion company with business on the continent.

對(duì)非英語(yǔ)人士來說，學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)能帶來大量機(jī)遇。不懂英語(yǔ)就無法晉升至多數(shù)高級(jí)職位。對(duì)母語(yǔ)是英語(yǔ)的人來說，職業(yè)回報(bào)沒那么明顯。英國(guó)的多數(shù)工作不要求你懂外語(yǔ)。并不是每個(gè)人都想在有歐洲大陸業(yè)務(wù)的時(shí)尚企業(yè)工作。

What else can UK companies do to recruit foreign language speakers post-Brexit? If the outcome of the negotiations means these employees need work permits, companies can apply for them. But that adds to the cost. Another speaker on the panel I chaired said it cost £4,000 to get permits for each of his company’s Indian IT specialists.

退歐之后，英國(guó)企業(yè)還能用什么辦法來招聘到會(huì)說外語(yǔ)的人呢?如果退歐談判的結(jié)果意味著這些雇員需要工作許可，公司可以為他們申請(qǐng)。但這會(huì)增加成本。上述專家小組討論的另一名嘉賓表示，他的公司為每一名印度籍IT專家支出4000英鎊的工作許可申請(qǐng)費(fèi)用。

Companies could also move departments that need foreign language speakers to one of the remaining 27 EU countries.

公司還可以把需要外語(yǔ)員工的部門轉(zhuǎn)移到27個(gè)歐盟成員國(guó)之一。

Best of all would be a Brexit agreement that allows EU workers to come and go as freely as they have done until now. That would be a relief to UK business of all sorts, not just those recruiting speakers of other languages.

最好的情況是達(dá)成一項(xiàng)退歐協(xié)議，讓歐盟員工像以往那樣自由流動(dòng)。這將讓英國(guó)各行業(yè)的企業(yè)都松一口氣，而不僅僅是那些招聘外語(yǔ)雇員的公司。

But British prime minister Theresa May’s rhetoric suggests that is an unlikely outcome. In the meantime, employers worry and wait, and so do their foreign-language speaking staff.

但英國(guó)首相特里薩·梅的言論似乎表明這是不太可能的結(jié)果。與此同時(shí)，雇主們將焦慮等待，他們的說外語(yǔ)的雇員也一樣。