Why do we continue to isolate ourselves by only speaking English?

According to Will Hutton Britain's future economic and political wellbeing is being hamstrung by our reluctance to learn foreign languages

The Observer

JAPAN: Global Economy Exposes Japan's Shortage of English-Speaking Graduates

In Japan's business world, they call it the "Rakuten English shock." The country's largest online retailer has told its 6,000 employees that they must be fluent enough in English to converse with one another by next year. Executives who aren't up to speed will be fired; rank-and-file workers will find their path to promotion blocked.

That dramatic move by Rakuten's Harvard Business School-educated founder, Hiroshi Mikitani, is the latest sign that some Japanese companies are accepting a long-held truism: English is the language of global business. It is also, however, exposing a long-term shortage of local university graduates fluent in the world's lingua franca.

Chronicle of Higher Education

Read House of Lords debate on Modern Foreign Languages

On 3 December 2009, the House of Lords debated the importance of Modern Foreign Languages to the Economy.

The Hansard transciption of the debate can be found here

CILT: UK will be held back unless it boosts numbers of language graduates

The UK will be held back as it seeks to emerge from recession unless it boosts the number of language graduates, campaigners say.

CILT, The National Centre for Languages points to a worrying decline in the take-up of modern languages.

BBC website