Americans. Aren't we the greatest? We do come from the greatest country in the world, don't we?
We have everything: freedom, diversity, opportunity, etc. and our national language is the world's most sought out language, English. Many of us do not find the need to learn a new language, or to learn about another country's culture. We think we are fine with what we already know because perhaps our schools and our culture do not promote the learning of foreign languages. Across the United States, many students will not be able to learn a foreign language, not because they lack the motivation but because they simply will not be able to.
According to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan only 18 percent of Americans speak another language other than English while 53 percent of Europeans can speak in a second language. How come this is the case? Schools across the country suffer from budget cuts that ultimately make schools have to decide what programs have to go away and most of the time, those programs include: the arts, foreign language, etc. while math and English are the programs that usually get more funding. Frankly, I believe this a grave mistake being made by thousands of schools across the country. I'm not trying to say that math and English are not important, they are, they are the basic subjects, but why are we forgetting about foreign languages?
Math is seen as the only subject that increases critical thinking, intelligence, etc. but in reality, recent studies performed by Drs. Bialystok and Martin of York University in Canada, in which they tested two students, one who was monolingual and the other being bilingual, showed that the bilingual student performed better in all cognitive tasks. Another study conducted by Drs. Anne Keysar, and Hayakawa of the University of Chicago found that students who master another language other than their native language make more rational decisions, in other words, learning a new language makes you smarter.
Americans must learn new languages for this country to prosper socially, economically, globally etc. It seems quite ironic to me how we are training American students to become scientists, doctors, lawyers, nurses, etc. but in the end, the only tongue they could speak is English.
The solution can be very simple with the help of the government, who is slowly becoming more desperate for Americans who know Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, etc. The only way to master a language is immersion. The European Union set up a program called Erasmus where it funds university students to leave their home country and study abroad in other member states. It was a highly successful program with 10 percent of students taking part in this program while only 1 percent of American students study abroad, according to NAFSA (Association of International Educators). In my honest opinion, our government must set up a program similar to Erasmus to help American students study abroad and learn different cultures, helping America to enrich itself more in this slowly shrinking world and grow more connections throughout the globe.
It is crucial that state and local governments set up language/culture immersion programs in elementary schools where young students begin their language from an early age; it is done in Europe why can it not be done here in America? One of the biggest problems with foreign language education is that students usually begin learning a foreign language in high school, the majority taking Spanish. The problem is not only do many students lack the motivation, it becomes harder to master a language making many students quit after their first or second year of language class. Thankfully, Governor Markell from Delaware introduced a new immersion program in elementary schools throughout the state which would offer children the chance to commence their studies in Mandarin or Spanish. It sounds like a very promising program that we should keep track of and that all 50 states should implement.
America is falling behind many countries in foreign language education. We must begin to immerse our children in different cultures because the benefits are plentiful to the individual, the economy, and the country. The United States must diversify, immerse and expand itself. Faisons-le! (Let's do it!)
