I doubt I’m alone when I say that the American cannon of high school foreign language education is outdated, and a bit useless. Spanish, French, and German are most high schools’ holy trinity of foreign language options -- a phenomenon which is not only super Eurocentric, but also very limiting to students.

Sure, the field of international business demands the knowledge of these tongues, and much of our Western culture was penned and planned in these languages. But it doesn’t take an in-depth study of any newspaper in order to realize that these languages aren’t really the ones being spoken by journalists, political scientists, diplomats, politicians, or lawyers. Spanish is barely useful outside of the American continents, both North and South. Almost all speakers of French and German are raised in atmospheres where they acquire a rather good understanding of English, making it difficult to practice these languages, or impress native speakers. As a linguist, I believe that any kind of language education should be valued. As an anthropologist, however, I think it’s time to introduce languages that open students up to the cultures and conflicts that exist outside of the Euro-American world. Here are five language trios I want to see introduced in American high schools, and why I think they should be replacing our older cannon of Spanish, French, and German.

Egyptian or Levantine Arabic, Farsi and modern Hebrew.

This article isn’t about explaining the Middle Eastern crises, but it’s almost impossible to ignore their significance. With the recent ISIS-related attacks in Paris, and with the issue of nuclear proliferation in Iran (which promises to resurface in the next 14 years), I’m pretty sure this area of the world will provide American individuals with jobs for years to come.

There is, however, another reason I want to see more Middle Eastern languages being offered in American schools. Personally, I feel that Islamophobia is a really bright thread in the American national fabric -- too bright. Learning about the rich culture of the Middle East (including the innovations which the Muslim world has provided us) would allow for a much more accepting society.

Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

I’m just going to say it, because we know we’re all thinking it. This is one of the classic examples of Americans not learning really important languages because they’re “too difficult.” What would the parents say? I could just picture their complaints now: “Our kids are working on their Chinese homework past dinner time. This is too much for them.” There is a huge fear of learning and academics amongst American parents, especially the ones in the South who care more about getting their kid to football or cheerleading, rather than getting him or her to learn something valuable.

Besides Japanese accounting for almost two-thirds of the Internet world, Japan also has one of the world’s biggest economies -- and it’s growing. China produces more of our household items than we are even aware of, and the struggles between North Korea and the rest of the world don’t seem as if they are screeching to a halt anytime soon. To me, these languages are rather marketable at the current moment.

Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi.

The Indian subcontinent is home to some of the largest language-speaking pools on earth. The non-urban constituents of such pools have little to no education in English. Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi take the cake in terms of numbers of speakers, and range of their diaspora across the world. Since the subcontinent was claimed -- in the BBC documentary, "The Story of India" -- to be a “growing superpower,” it might make sense to start learning some of its languages. Trade in nickel, steel, and textiles centralize India’s position on the map. From Bombay to Kashmir, Americans are conducting trade in a land that is rich in resources, and even richer in language variation.

Russian, Kazakh or Uzbek, Polish or Ukrainian.

I should start this section by explaining my proclivity for the cultures in this part of the world. As an Eastern European Studies major, I feel like these places are home to really interesting cultures, and truly make me question every day where Europe truly “ends” and Asia “begins.”

We, in the West, don’t understand how diverse these cultures truly are. Walk through any large city in Poland, and you’ll see an Uzbek restaurant. Walk through any large city in Kazakhstan, and you will probably hear Polish! The Soviet Union jumbled masses of people into different territories, and forced dozens of tongues and cultures to exist alongside one another.

But the languages of the former Soviet Union are important for another reason. The emergence of far-right politics in Eastern Europe will eventually limit the freedoms of plenty of minorities in these lands, and not for the first time. I assume, with hope, that the Western world will respond to this, and I hope that we have willing and intelligent individuals ready to combat it.

Turkic, modern Greek, Armenian.

Is this a hodgepodge that could go well together? I think not! This part of the Mediterranean has long been neglected by most of the Anglo-American world, even after a few waves of genocide and cultural relocations.

So why these languages? Well, Turkey has one of the fastest growing tourism industries in the Mediterranean. Almost every cruise, boat, and plane is landing there. Greece’s economy is in the toilet bowl, and has been for quite a while now. And Armenian is a nice language that works well with the other two.

In my high school, we were required to take four years of a language, and then senior year, we could begin learning a second. In a perfect world, I would advocate for a required four years of one secondary language, and a required two of a tertiary. All these language trios work well together: most provide students with the ability to closely understand a region’s intercultural dialogue and linguistic issues. This geographic proximity in each of the trios usually means common linguistic backgrounds or similar linguistic families, but not always -- and not in the ones that I’ve offered here. These language trios would require a student to truly operate with a few different vocabularies, and to grasp a few different syntaxes, hopefully making it easier to learn a variety of languages in the collegiate level.