40,000 jobs at risk as foreign pupils shun UK language schools

Sector faces ‘devastation’ by Brexit red tape and from pandemic

Language schools for foreign students are being “devastated” by a combination of post-Brexit red tape and the impact of the pandemic, threatening the future of a £3.2bn industry, tourism leaders have warned.

A report by the Tourism Alliance said even though the government had ended Covid travel measures, ministers had imposed unnecessary restrictions on children from France, Germany and other EU nations.

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Can you say Squid Game in Korean? TV show fuels demand for east Asian language learning

Japanese and Korean are in top five choices in UK this year at online platform Duolingo

Whether it’s down to Squid Game or kawaii culture, fascination with Korea and Japan is fuelling a boom in learning east Asian languages. Japanese is the fastest growing language to be learned in the UK this year on the online platform Duolingo, and Korean is the fourth fastest.

Most of the interest is driven by cultural issues, the firm said in its 2021 Duolingo language report, which will be published tomorrow and analyses how the 20 million downloads of its platform are used.

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