Back in the day, the United States of America was at its best with being the top country in the world. Today, the U.S. might be falling behind in the competetive race to be the best. Right now we are falling behind in the category of foreign languages. There are very few Americans who can proudly pronounce their knowledge in other langauges. In many other countries, children, from the ages 6 months to 1 year old, have already started learning their second language while most children in this country don't start till the age of 14. It has been studied that children who learn at an early age have been known to do better in school, score higher on standarized tests and are even more open to diversity. There have always been times when learning languages has been a fad in the school system in the U.S. While in countries, such as China or France, it is a part of the cirriculum to learn English. But how does this affect us economically, politically or even socially? From an economic point of view, we have issues in the trade gap. International business are not able to meet the cultural or speak the langauge of their clients or partners from different countries. This causes those big companies to lose big accounts and economic support. For example, Chevrolet has marketed a car in Puerto Rico and Latin America called the Nova. But to people who speak Spanish, Nova means "no go." So as the need for trade in our economy relies a lot on other countries, we need people who are fluent in the langauges and have an understanding of our buyers. Politically, not knowing other langauges can pose a threat to our nations security. Another example would be of the Berlin discotheque. U.S. intelligence was intercepting messages from Tripoli but no one could find an American employee to translate the message. If we had been able to, we might have been able to stop the danger. Having better knowledge of other languages may come to stop many tragedies. Socially, U.S. students are deprived of a well rounded world education. This includes areas about fine arts, literature, and history. The ability to speak other languages is a key factor in being able to communicate internationally and having a good knowledge of thier culture will help our economy stay up. -Dragonfly |
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The United States affected by the lack of foreign language
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11 comments:
Why would we make people learn another language if all the other countries are learning English? They obviously want to speak to us and approach the US if they are teaching their country our language at very young ages. I don't see the point in being forced to learn another language if all the other countries are learning to speak English.
At this time, the U.S. is the superpower in the world. This might be a reason as to why other countries are teaching English at a young age because they recgonize the importance of being able to communicate with us. But what happens when another country rises to power? What happens if China finally utilizes its population and becomes more powerful than us? Without knowing other languages were making ourselves look mighty foolish.
For the United States to stay a world power, we can not isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. To stay competive, students should be fluent in at least one other language.
I think this is a good point. Although, I think that people who come to live in our country should have to learn English. If you live in China, France, or any other foreign country you are expected to speak that language. Why should America be any different? Basically, know the language of the country you are living in.
The situations of the US and the rest of the world (specifically Europe) are completely different. In Europe, countries and people that speak different languages are right next to each other. That would be like Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota all speaking different languages. If that were the case, I have full confidence that students in those states would learn two or three additional languages from the states around them. But that isn't the situation; America has one country (and one province) on its border that speaks a different language. Even then, most of the contry isn't even close to the border. It isn't vitally important for the average American to be fluent in Spanish or French. Only when taking a trip or working with immigrants does someone need to be fluent; besides that, one only needs to know functional Spanish or French.
I am a fan of the status quo where students are required to take two years of a foreign language and can take further instruction if they so desire. Those two years are enough to be "functional" without wasting valuable time where other classes would be more useful to a particular student.
I think it is never wrong to learn something more. And speaking a foreign language can be very useful to you, in many aspects:
- Career: Companies always rather employ people who speak more languages, and can communicate with other counties.
-Culture: It is good to get to know a new culture. Not only to understand your own, but also to widen your horizon.
Anyway you never know what happens in life and where you will find yourself in the world. Knowing something more about other counties and languages is always helpful.
Saying that just others should learn our language is wrong. English might be the world language, but everthing you learn is good for you, and might help you in your life.
I find it highly disappointing that Americans think themselves to be above learning the languages of the rest of the world. People are questioning why Americans should have to learn another language, when the article itself clearly mentions several reasons to at least have a basic understanding of other languages(Like, say...educational reasons?).
To say that Americans only maybe need to learn Spanish and French because those are the languages on our borders is ridiculous; does America, as a world power, trade, compete or otherwise interact only with Mexico and Canada? Of course not. Yes, most of the world is learning English. Not everyone will, though, and it is unfair to expect them to do so. To be citizens of the great world power that America is does not mean that we should automatically assume everyone in the world should learn our language while we refuse to take the time to learn theirs.
It couldn't do any harm to learn another language (or two). I'm not talking about being COMPLETELY fluent or anything, but being able to plainly communicate with those who don't speak English.
If we expect other non English-speaking countries to learn English, why shouldn't they expect us to learn theirs?
Dragonfly has made a very good point of how we should learn different languages to become more "well-rounded". But i don't understand why schools are putting such a strain on having two or more years of foriegn language in order to graduate.
Because of this, many students are taking spanish due to the fact that the hispanic population is increasing. As a result, the spanish language becomes more commonly spoken.
But how does it make sense to learn the spanish language, or any other language, when we aren't the ones moving to a new country? We speak english, hispanics speak spanish, and so on.
If you would like to learn to speak another language, then i believe that foreign languages should be optional and not considered a requirement to graduate.
I think we really should start to learn a foreign language early on, heres why.
One, just because the U.S. is the superpower of today doesn't mean it will be the superpower of tommorrow.
Two, is it EXREMELY arrogant of us to say that the other countries should learn english just because we are the superpower of today, I mean our arrogance has gotten us as humans in a lot of trouble before.
Three, if learning foreign language early on helps raise test scores then why dont we? I have seen some concern on the fact that SAT scores have actually declined in the last couple years, so if it helps test scores than why aren't we doing it?
I'd also like to touch base on the Hispanic immigrants in our country. I believe that if they want to come to our country so badly than they should learn to speak English. However we cant deprive them entirely of their culture, that would just be demeaning and insulting so it would not be a bad idea to at least get a basic grasp on their own language.
I personally hate being called the "lazy American." I really think we need to step up and prove that we can do what every other country is doing. It's not difficult to learn the basics of another language. I am taking 4 years of a foreign language in high school and hopefully i can continue on in college because I think it will help me in my future, considering America will be 30% hispanics by the time we are in our early 40's, whether we like it or not.
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