When it comes to speaking other people’s languages, the UK suffers from the winner’s curse. History — the British empire, followed by the US’s post-second world war hegemony — made English the world’s language and led Britons to conclude there was little point in learning anyone else’s.

The trends are well known and dispiriting. Only 32 per cent of UK 16- to 30-year-olds can read and write another language, compared with 89 per cent in the rest of the EU (and the British figure includes immigrants and their children who speak their families’ languages).

The number of students studying French at UK universities fell by 45 per cent between 2010-11 and 2016-17. German student numbers were down by 43 per cent over the same period and Italian dropped by 63 per cent. Between 2007 and 2017, 19 university language departments significantly downsized or closed.