ronin - 2:19 pm on May 17, 2008 (gmt 0)

This is fantastic news. Vincevincevince and mikedee make a thoughtful, albeit slightly idealistic, point. I think we can usefully draw an analogy with language learning here.

One very useful language for a Colombian schoolchild to learn over the next few years as Latin America's economy rises might be Brazilian Portuguese.

Those Spanish-speaking Latin Americans who can additionally speak both Portuguese and English are going to be, by virtue of being able to operate all over their own continent and most of the one upstairs, be even more in demand than those who can just speak English.

But I doubt that anyone will be persuaded to learn Portuguese first and then English.

In the real world, the chances are you're going to want to learn English first before progressing to other languages - because it has the most immediate relevance in the world of work.

Same with Microsoft Office.