I've spent the last 20 years teaching journalism and writing classes at a selective public university, and the majority of my (bright) students put me in mind of Jack Nicholson's line to Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men": "You can't handle the truth!"

WSJ: Word Craft: Ben Yagoda on Not Writing Badly

That is why it took Switzerland more than 20 years to introduce teaching in a second national language (German or French) at the age of 11-plus instead of 14.

ECONOMIST: Do you speak English? Jaa, es bitzli

So are we doomed to have to wait another ten or 20 years before another inquiry will consider starting language teaching earlier?

BBC: Parlez-vous francais?

So the city's education department is struggling to persuade the government that it still, 20 years after the main wave of immigration, needs extra money to pay for teaching children who speak little English.

ECONOMIST: Asian immigrants: After Powell | The