The case against foreign language study

Wed, 07/09/2008 - 9:11am

Barack Obama is talking about foreign languages again:

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they're 5, or 6, or 7 than when they're 46, like me.

The cosmopolitan in me says, "Right on." Americans are notoriously poor with language, and it reflects badly on us.

But my inner behavioral economist tells me that Obama has identified a solution in search of a problem. After all, Americans are just behaving rationally. Europeans need to learn foreign languages because they live much closer to one another, are more integrated economically, and come from smaller countries. If you're a young Swede, for instance, you need to learn English to be employable. As for romance languages, once you're fluent in French, it's relatively easy to pick up Spanish and Italian.

Most Americans, in contrast, don't really need to learn a foreign language: Many foreigners speak English, and the amount of bilingual jobs available is relatively small. It's a nice skill to have, but acquiring working-level fluency in a second or third language is expensive and time consuming, and often the potential payoff isn't worth it. My seven years of French has never been very useful, frankly, and I might have been better served learning more about microbiology or fluid dynamics.

In short, Obama shouldn't worry: Americans will start picking up foreign languages in larger numbers (think: Mandarin) when they really need to.

UPDATE: Blogger Dave Schuler comments.

Blake Hounshell | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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Utility?

by markwbaur on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 8:33am
It's these kinds of seemingly rational apologetics for ignorance that throw me off. The trap of tying knowledge to superficial notions of utility is becoming quite stale.

Foreign language and new world realities

by Drake on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 8:44am
Your argument lack an important fact: what about when you travel abroad?

I speak 3 languages fluently and I need all of them when working with customers around the globe. No everyone know english and the US is under 10% of the world population. (btw you have a french neighbor in the north). Having a "they will adapt to us so we don't have to to them " leads to some majors problems. The USA is no longer the only cultural pole in the world. (I watch more europan show than american ones, and I know I'm not alone at doing this) and the country need to realise this and adapt to it.

Creating a decent learning program takes a few years and way economic power is swifting around the globe, it won’t be long before american will have to learn other countries culture. By looking aht the problem today, Obama is trying to get is country ready for the future.

Preparation is key

by teodoro on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 9:16am
Blake you said "Americans will start picking up foreign languages ... when they really need to." But there is one important factor about language learning that you've over looked. It's not only easier to learn languages pre-13yrs old, based upon the cognitive science of the brain, It's easier at ANY age to learn a third language once you've mastered bilingualism. I agree with Drake his last point especially: Preparation and emphasis now will ease the pain later.

It may not be so immediately

by KAA on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 11:03am
It may not be so immediately apparent that learning Spanish (or Mandarin) will land you a job in the upper echelon of the global economy. But the global economy brings Spanish- and Mandarin-speakers to the U.S. Obama is pandering when he says that "of course" immigrants will learn English. The second and third generations, yes. Even so, most Americans want to believe "they don't really have to learn a foreign language" because they still believe that Spanish is not a language of the Americas.

But we already do need to

by amerikalainen on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 11:07am
But we already do need to know another language. Obama pointed it out himself. We need to know Spanish. It is our second language, and just about everyone else on our continent and its environs speaks it. Of course, in metropolitan areas (particularly coastal ones), the need for language is even greater. Here in Seattle, for instance, things would go a bit more smoothly if people spoke Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Korean, Tagalog, or Amharic. In New York, it'd be pretty handy to speak Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, etc. And so forth. But all this neglects the real point: we need to start teaching Esperanto.

For what it's worth I agree

by departuregate on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 6:02pm
I used to subscribe to this notion, until I heard Obama say it. I never realized how arrogant some of my ideas were until I heard them voiced by a presidential candidate. Why should we look down our nose at people who can barely afford to travel two states over, much less go to a foreign country just because they do not speak another language? I think the thing that made me realize this was finding out just how few Americans have passports. If people are lucky, they will get to an Mexican resort once or twice in their lives. I have a damn good job and I am scraping the barrel to afford a plane ticket overseas. I agree that we should improve language study in schools and get it moved down to at least the upper levels of elementary school instead of introducing it in high school. I am all for people learning Spanish to welcome immigrants. Many people in the Southwest already do. Even that idiot President Bush is a good example. That said, it is rather rich to insist that people learn languages so that they do not look stupid to the rest of the world, who does not have the same economic stimuli as Midwestern Americans.

As someone who speaks both

by rmaguir on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 12:21am
As someone who speaks both French and (approaching) Chinese and who has spent several years abroad in both Asia and Europe, I'd like to highlight just how much more difficult it is for Anglophones to learn foreign languages. Take learning Chinese as an example. What I've seen in my Chinese classes is that my Korean and Vietnamese classmates pick up Chinese much quicker than I because they don't speak English. This is due to the fact that any explanation on difficult concepts is done in English, which they don't understand. When they're outside of class, buying food or paying bills, and they falter when trying to speak Chinese, people don't respond to them in Vietnamese or Korean, they just stare blankly, forcing my classmates to find a way to express what it is they need. Anglophones (or people who speak English very well) on the other hand are not often presented with these external forces. More often than not, the moment you falter, someone will begin to respond to you in English, and if you are in a rush, you'll oblige. It takes a lot more determination for English speakers to learn because of this. I can't tell you how many times I've had to ask people I'm talking to not to speak to me in English. I doubt most people have that problem when they want to learn another language. All that being said, I wholeheartedly support programs that will strive to get American kids to learn foreign languages. Doing so has had a huge effect on my life, in ways that I never thought possible as a high school student who HATED foreign language classes. Robert http://www.onlyredheadintaiwan.com/

Aspirations for Greater Communication

by jpickell on Wed, 07/16/2008 - 6:21pm
As one of your readers pointed out, "[a]s of 2004, 85 percent of America's 17 million high school students were graduating with two or more years of foreign language instruction and a third had three or more years. Both figures are records." This isn't a success story but more of an indication as to how we are failing to understand how people learn languages the most effectively. They do so as children when they can learn as many as 10 words an hour for periods of years (Language Instinct by Steven Pinker). Two years does little, especially when, upon entering college, language classes (5 days a week at 8am at many schools) are not easily accessible. Language is like most tools, to master it starting early helps. And it is an effective tool, the value of which will only appreciate in the global economy. While I would not oppose "a" language as a requirement, "the" 2nd language should be the choice of the individual as this is a very emotional decision (especially for a family that wants to hold onto or reconnect to some heritage). I trust Obama would agree although admit he wasn't so clear in his statements. -jim pickell, COO Open English

Worldview

by doug alder on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 9:11pm
What I don't see mentioned here is the benefit of learning a second (or more) language as a child. Each language comes (especially if you subscribe to B L Whorf's theories) comes with it's own way of viewing reality. Being able to view the world through many different lenses is something that is to be greatly desired of our children, unless of course you want them to be automatons that will unthinkingly believe what the ruling class (MSM/Corporations) tell them is the case. Regards Doug Alder http://www.thealders.net/blogs