The number of students taking a language degree is at the lowest level in a decade.
A total of 302,500 took a language GCSE, compared with 321,000 last year and around 332,000 in 2013.
That number is slowly rising, but this year it was still only 44% of the cohort who took a language.
Next summer 54% of GCSE pupils are expected to take a language exam, the highest proportion since 2005, when the figure was 60%.
But is technology alone enough to persuade 16 year-olds of the substantial benefits of taking a language further?
Since 2004, when studying a foreign language beyond age 14 became optional in state schools, the number of students taking a language at GCSE has dropped dramatically.
After 2004, when the Labour government dropped languages as a compulsory subject at key stage 4, the proportion of pupils taking a language GCSE plummeted.
To that end, Middlebury College students are obligated to take a "language pledge" to speak only Arabic during their time in Alexandria, Egypt (the only exception being calls home).
I was never to take a language course with him — I had Mademoiselle Glucksman for French and Señorita Baleroso for Spanish — but I didn't forget him.
North Salem took a language teacher, Karen Hickson from the program, as well as Ms. Barham, but hired a math teacher outside the program.
