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Britons are likely to avoid foreign holidays because they are embarrassed about their poor language skills
A survey found that only 2% of the 3,000 adults questioned for the survey could ask the way to the toilet in the foreign language they learned at school.
And nine out of 10 said they would be less likely to take a holiday in a country where they have to worry about their limited vocabulary.
The main reason was not that they were too lazy but just too embarrassed to try to speak a foreign language.
Learning at school
The survey found that most adults could only remember about seven words of the language they learned at school.
French was by far the most often studied language, followed by German and Spanish.
But only just over a quarter (27%) of those questioned said they could remember more than 10 basic words - such as "hello'', "goodbye'', "please'' and "thank you''.
The poll from BBC One show School's Out, found 40% of Scots had never travelled to the country whose language they learned at school. Of those that did, most would shy away from attempting to speak the language for fear of looking stupid.
Adults in the Midlands were more confident about their abilities, with 63% trying to make themselves understood in the local tongue.
While 40% of Londoners could remember foreign words for "beer'', only 3% knew the word for "sorry''.
