As a teacher of French I have to agree with the remarks about learning the language. The British and French are the two worst countries in Europe when it comes to learning foreign languages. I would say that basic military French should form a part of the training programme at officer level at least, and personnel should be actively encouraged to continue to improve their proficiency throughout their service.
When my own son was at Brunssum (in Holland) he studied for, and passed, GCSE Dutch, but was given no encouragement at all by his superiors who thought it peculiar that an NCO should want to learn a foreign language. Of course if he'd wanted to go on a sailing course it would have been a different matter - sailing being far more important to a REME NCO than language skills
