The Bible tells the story of the Tower of Babel where God confounded those people who were trying to build a tower as high as heaven to prove that they were equal to God himself.

His way of confounding them was to create babble – different languages so nobody could understand the other and co-operation evaporated along with the tower.

I guess having to learn to communicate with others will soon be a moot point when we leave the EU.

We are going to be an isolated little island building our own tower to show our supremacy over all!

Mind you, that is supposing we ever leave because who knows what on earth is happening.

Actually, who knows what is happening anywhere. I never imagined the day when the impeachment of a US president would only be second or third item on the news!

Anyway, back to Babel. I guess I am a bit biased. My daughter has been able to travel the world because of her interest in language. She has not only spread the English language across the globe but has picked up so much on her way.

Not that she doesn’t get confused at times, especially when exactly the same word is used in two languages which mean totally different things. I might be wrong but I think Siku means “elbow” in Indonesian and day in Swahili. Similar too: Minguu in Indonesia is week. Miguu in Swahili is foot.

God did a good job at Babel.

Nowadays, of course, being multi-lingual is seen as a huge boost.

I still get mad at the parents of my adopted grandchildren. She speaks fluent Lithuanian and Russian. She did speak a little bit of Russian but acting on advice given a decade ago, she felt it was easier if everyone spoke English in the house so as not to confuse the children.

It was advice she was given. But it was stupid advice.

A company called top Language Jobs says this is changing, however, and young people are learning different languages and blossoming culturally and professionally as a result. The company also sent me a list of sayings which I loved. Here they are:

The French say I have other cats to whip where we have other fish to fry.

When the Swedes reassure themselves that there is no reason to worry they will say there is no cow on the ice.

Not all doughnuts have a hole, the Italians will say when things don’t go as well as hoped.

The Poles will ask: Did you fall from a Christmas tree? when faced with someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about.

No matter how you try to cover something up it remains what it is – or, as the Spanish say, a monkey dressed in silk is still a monkey. And as we do what it takes to achieve our goals, we must remember the Turks who will tell us that those who want yoghurt in winter must carry a cow in their pockets.

EU or not – learn another language.