You’ve probably already read the doom-mongering headlines: formal uptake of language learning is in sharp retreat in the UK. It’s an alarming trend, and it couldn’t come at a worse time for a UK (and world) that needs bridges building. As flag-fliers for languages, it’s something that should give all of us in the language community pause for thought.

A report published in 2025 by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) pulls no punches – modern and classical languages now account for under 3% of all A-level entries, while teacher recruitment for languages remains at just 43% of target. Undergraduate enrolments in modern languages have fallen by around 20% in five years, and many university language departments have quietly closed or contracted. Bear in mind that these trends were already being felt over 20 years ago when I did my teacher training, and you realise that it’s been a slow drip wreaking havoc in plain sight.

The narrative is sobering. Languages were once a staple of post-14 education – a language GCSE was still compulsory when I was taking mine in the early 90s. But thanks to multiple linguaphobic policy shifts, accountability pressures, and chronic underinvestment, they find themselves more and more on the back foot. The hammer blow came early, back in 2004, with the decision in England to make languages optional after age 14. That was a key structural turning point, and the long-term effects (surprise, surprise) are now clearly visible.

The institutional decline is real

There are obvious consequences to this trend. It raises serious questions about equity (access to language learning increasingly correlates with socio-economic background), national linguistic capacity, and the future of research and teacher supply. Organisations such as HEPI, the Russell Group and the Chartered Institute of Linguists have all warned that the decline represents not just a cultural loss, but a strategic one.

On paper, then, language learning appears to be in retreat.

But something else is happening alongside it

And yet, that story doesn’t quite match our lived experience. Spend any time online and you’ll see something different entirely: language-learning YouTube channels with millions of followers; Discord servers full of learners practising Korean at midnight; thriving subreddits, podcasts, apps, blogs, meetups, challenges, and communities devoted to the sheer pleasure of learning languages.

If formal pathways are shrinking, informal ones are flourishing.

More and more people seem to be learning languages not because they are required to for a qualification, but because they want to. Out of curiosity. Cultural interest. Identity. Joy. In other words, language learning is increasingly becoming a hobbyist, self-directed, or even lifestyle pursuit rather than an institutional one.

The rise of hobby learning and polyglot culture

The growth of the so-called “polyglot community” is part of this shift. This isn’t a formally organised movement, but rather a loose ecosystem of learners who share strategies, resources, encouragement, and enthusiasm. Some are very advanced, others are beginners; some focus deeply on one language, others enjoy exploring several. What they tend to share is intrinsic motivation, and a love of signposting cheap (and frequently free!) resources for learners.

This aligns closely with what we already know from decades of research on learner autonomy and motivation: sustained engagement is far more likely when learners feel ownership, agency, and personal meaning in what they are doing. Many hobbyist learners aren’t working towards a certificate; they’re simply working towards connection, enjoyment, identity, or intellectual stimulation.

There isn’t yet a large academic literature specifically on “polyglot culture”, but there is plenty of research on self-directed learning, intrinsic motivation, multi-competence, and identity in language learning that helps explain why these communities can be so powerful.

Loss and possibility, side by side

None of this negates the seriousness of the institutional decline. Formal education provides structure, support, progression, and access. And when those pathways disappear, it is disproportionately students from less advantaged backgrounds who lose out. That matters.

But it also seems clear that the desire to learn languages hasn’t gone away. It has simply shifted location. People are still learning – just not always through schools, universities, or qualifications. They’re learning on buses, in lunch breaks, late at night, through friendships, fandoms, travel, heritage, curiosity.

So perhaps the better question isn’t “Why is language learning dying?”, but rather: why has it migrated?

Because language learners are still very much here. They’re just not always where the education system expects them to be.