French language schools around the world are feeling the effects of France's decline as a colonial power. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, France was the leading power of Europe. Because of this, together with the influence of the Enlightenment, French was the lingua franca of educated Europe, especially with regards to literature, the arts and diplomacy. Monarchs like Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia could both speak and write in French. During this time everyone wanted to learn French. Since then, the language schools France has have had to focus more on teaching English to French students. English language schools, naturally, have felt the benefit of America's post-1939 campaign of rampant cultural imperialism. In international language schools English is now by far the most commonly studied language, as learners feel compelled to study the international language of business.

The dominance of English as the international language looks set to change in years to come as China becomes the great global power. Demand for Mandarin courses is on the up around the world, and some schools in th UK have gone as far as to make the Chinese language a compulsory subject.

When considering Italian language schools, it is important to consider which language schools Italian is taught in. This sounds blindingly obvious, but there could be nothing more embarrassing than turning up to learn a language, only to find that the school doesn't offer that course. If you were a wedding photographer preparing to shoot a wedding in Bavaria, for example, a German language school would be a sensible port of call. You could quite easily learn German in Germany and avoid any potential Fawlty Towers style cultural misunderstandings. For a couple of years in the 1930s, it appeared that German could become the international language for up to a thousand years, but that situation never materialised, for one reason or another. Russian language schools were set up within British and American diplomatic institutions during the cold war years to train a generation of spies to speak the language of the enemy. Looking around for language schools Russian was taught in, Western governments considered those on offer something of a security risk and, in some cases, decided to train their own agents.

Language learning is usually done best in an appropriate language school. Spies were often trained privately for security reasons, but many people benefit from learning in a traditional environment, with a number of other pupils to share ideas with. This is often easier for language teachers, as students can correct each others' work, learning the new language in the process. Of course, classroom traditions and techniques vary from country to country, and from language to language. You would have a very different experience learning Japanese in Japan to that you would have learning Spanish in Spain!