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It said there was "real fear among English monoglot teachers on possible pressures which may be placed on them or on threats to their livelihood and job retention".

But, Keegan noted, the fact that Testard reads fiction in French and Spanish, as well as in English, made him able to spot authors whom other editors in Britain’s “monoglot, insular” publishing world might miss.

Well, Spanish-language readers might know this book, but it’s never been translated into English, so no monoglot English readers will know it: “Imagen de John Keats,” by the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar.

If one person knows only English and a second person knows Yoruba, Swahili, French and English, the second person is forced to speak the monoglot’s language.

Right now, space travel is largely a monoglot enterprise: Russian is the official language aboard the Soyuz rockets that deliver astronauts to the International Space Station, but once they arrive, English is used in most situations.