I would like to express a personal apology to Mr RG Jenkins (Letters, 25 March) for what he understood as an accusation of arrogance.
I wish to apologise without reservation to him. It was not my intention to suggest that he personally was arrogant in his suggesting that, as native English speakers, we should not bother with other languages.
I have, however, frequently encountered what I chose to call "linguistic arrogance", expressed in such sentences as "the world should learn our language" or even "we are a great power in the world so they need our language to communicate with us".
Both of these sentences imply we should not demean ourselves by learning other languages.
It was interesting to read the headline above the lead letter in The Independent of Monday, March 26: "Jobs in Europe: Those who only speak English need not apply."
Dr Michael BJ Johnson
Kevin Gardens, Brighton
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