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There is a paradox at the heart of international youth exchange: it is an inherently multilingual activity that often operates as if everyone speaks English. Most Erasmus+ exchanges use English as the working language — which means that the participants with the weakest English spend the whole event struggling, while the ones with the strongest English dominate discussions. This is not intercultural learning. It is linguistic inequality reproduced in a new setting.
Why Language Matters More Than We Acknowledge
Language is not just a communication tool. It is a structure of thought, a container of culture, and a mechanism of power. When you force all participants to operate in a language that is native to some and foreign to others, you create systematic disadvantage that no amount of good facilitation can fully neutralise.
Young people who are comfortable in English have access to the full richness of their thinking. Young people who are not are reduced to simpler versions of themselves — communicating at the level of their second or third language, not at the level of their actual intellectual and emotional complexity.
What Multilingual Youth Work Looks Like
Leading practitioners in intercultural youth work have developed a range of approaches that go beyond the English-as-default model. Simultaneous use of multiple languages with peer translation. Visual and non-verbal communication methods that work across language differences. Structured activities that explicitly value participants' home languages. Deliberate mixing of language groups to create genuine interdependence.
When you design an activity that requires participants to communicate without a shared language — using gesture, image, movement, sound — you discover what intercultural communication actually is: not the fluent exchange of words, but the creative negotiation of meaning.
The Case for Language Learning as a Programme Outcome
Rather than treating language differences as a problem to be managed, the most forward-thinking programmes treat language learning as a programme outcome. Participants leave with a few phrases in each other's languages. Intercultural nights include language workshops. Buddy systems pair participants across language groups for mutual learning.
This approach changes the dynamic of the exchange: rather than English speakers being advantaged and non-English speakers disadvantaged, everyone becomes a learner. Everyone has something to teach. The linguistic dimension becomes an asset rather than a source of inequality.
Multilingualism and Employability
Beyond the ethical and pedagogical dimensions, multilingualism is an increasingly valuable labour market asset. Young people who can communicate meaningfully in multiple languages — not just recite textbook phrases but navigate real cross-cultural interactions — are sought after by employers across all sectors. Youth programmes that develop this capacity are developing genuine professional competence.