Blog 9 - Foreign Languages in the United States: A Sad Story

The federal government of the United States recently put $333,333 behind a pilot program in Ohio, called the “Ohio Language Roadmap for the 21st Century,” which plans, among several other things, to teach Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish to children who are still in pre-school or kindergarten. The government is hoping that this program will help the state compete globally in the business world and that it will help strengthen state and national security by improving foreign relations and benefiting new immigrants. Beyond these pragmatic reasons for the program given by the government, it will also help foster an understanding of cultures around the world and a more global, something which the Americans seem to lack as a society.

Given all the reasons why people ought to learn foreign languages, I’m surprised that these sorts of programs have not been emphasized more in the United States. According to the US Census Bureau, a measly 18% of Americans spoke a language other than English, up from 13% in 1990. In EU however, 45% of the population can carry conversations in more than 1 language. So while the trend is going in the right direction in the US for foreign language speakers, their numbers are still miserably low.

Why does the United States’ population lag so far behind in its knowledge of foreign languages? Some may argue that from a geographical perspective, the United States is relatively isolated from the rest of the world, and therefore is separated from foreign languages. This argument fails to hold water however, because we are bordered immediately on the north by Canada, in which almost a quarter of the population speaks French natively, and on the south by Mexico, in which nearly all of the population speaks Spanish natively. Also, because of the tremendous flow of immigrants into the United States, foreign languages are always being introduced into the population. Rather, I think that reason behind Americans’ not knowing foreign language has to do with a cultural unawareness or apathy and a faulty system of language education in public schools.

Given that the United States acts as a dominant force of cultural hegemony, Americans often don’t see the necessity to learn about other cultures, because they come to reflect that of Americans. Because of this belief, Americans think that other people will learn English, and so because of their perception of English’s universality, they don’t have to learn any foreign languages themselves.

The system of language education in public school has significant flaws as well, which I think the “Ohio Language Roadmap for the 21st Century” may begin to fix. Most of foreign language study happens in Grades 9-12. However, students’ minds are not nearly as open to languages at this age as they are at younger ages. In the primary level, far fewer than 10% of Americans study a foreign language. If foreign languages were taught more broadly to younger students, I’m certain that the number of foreign language speakers in the United States would quickly grow. These reasons, among many others, contribute to the dearth of foreign language speakers in the US. Hopefully we’re on the right track and the percentage of people who speak languages other than English will continue to rise.

Pnanda

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071023/NEWS01/710230374
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/22/america/NA-GEN-US-Foreign-Languages.php
http://www.promotics.net/ticktack/survey/eustats.htm
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/resource/foreign.htm
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/AmSpks.html