Professional organisations
CILT, The National Centre for Languages
Eric Hawkins' sad death is nonetheless a time to celebrate his contribution to language learning and the inspiration he provided to generations of language teachers and learners over more than half a century.
As a schoolboy in 1920s Liverpool, he first came into contact with a foreign language and described it as 'a strange, alluring song' which was to inspire a lifetime's fascination with language learning as a source of wisdom and enrichment.
At CILT we had a special connection with him and were honoured to publish his autobiography, Listening to Lorca (1999). In the book he describes his 'journey into language' through a series of key personal - and very moving - episodes drawn from the sweep of 20th century European history, encompassing the Spanish Civil War, the rise of Nazism, World War in Europe and North Africa, and the bridge-building that followed.
In the first of these episodes, Hawkins describes how he finds himself in republican Spain listening to the poet Federico García Lorca perform with his travelling theatre company at the newly-formed International University. He develops not only a love of language learning, but of language itself as a defining characteristic of our humanity. Later, as Spain collapses into Civil War, Hawkins' golden early experiences are clouded by Nazism and international conflict. Language learning becomes a moral imperative as a way of breaking down barriers and building understanding between peoples.
Eric Hawkins was a modest, self-deprecating man but one of the foremost figures in language teaching. At a time when policy on language learning is in such flux, his messages about the importance of cherishing languages and cultures remain hugely relevant.