The most common excuse for the poor performance of English school children at learning foreign languages is the fact that English is so widely spoken in the world. Thus, when the English travel to another country, they feel little need to become proficient in the local language. But that cannot explain why, amongst children who have never travelled outside their own country, the English are still out-performed by their overseas counterparts in foreign language acquisition. One is led to the inevitable conclusion that English schools are deficient in the teaching of languages.