Marshall McLuhan said it best when he wrote that modern society has increasingly become a “global village”. With the world connected by instantaneous electronic communication, the perceived distances between people of different cultures and languages seems almost non-existent. Business transactions and long distance learning across multiple countries can now be done with ease in near real-time. It is surprising to me, therefore, that the importance of foreign language study has been neglected for so long in American universities. How can a 21st century American graduate expect to compete in an increasingly competitive international market without understanding the language (and to some extent the culture) of major economic powers such as China or India? It would behoove us to re-examine the academic standards that our colleges and universities have established for the next generation of graduates.
Foreign language study should be a requirement for graduation from all American colleges and universities. Such study should include at least 1 year of elective language courses with an emphasis on learning conversational language rather than purely academic learning. By doing so, graduate will be much more prepared to enter the work force and pack a greater competitive edge because ever increasing foreign collaboration in the global workplace necessitates it. Consider an electrical engineering student, for example. In today’s global village, much of the integrated circuit manufacturing and development process involves multi-disciplinary efforts by engineers across multiple countries. Even simply apparel design and manufacturing often requires the coordination of workers, businessmen and sales people from places such as India, Mexico and China. Only those American workers with the skill to integrate and communicate effectively with their foreign counterparts will have the ability to compete and thrive; those unable or unwilling to adapt to a multi-lingual world will falter, or worse, be left behind.
Mandated foreign language study for college-level students should in no way be confused with efforts to enforce a single-language system in the United States. English is and should remain the primary language that all Americans must be able to read and speak with some level of proficiency. A German student would be expected to speak German proficiently, and so should an American student be able to read, write and speak English. The foreign language study requirement should also not be confused with bilingual efforts currently employed in Spanish-English speaking areas of the United States. The foreign language college graduation requirement only addresses the need to prepare American graduates, whether already bilingual or not, with the essential skills needed to compete. And more importantly, the second language curriculum should be focused on the job markets in which the graduates are expected to compete.
Although English is still the dominant language of science and business, it is by no means the most spoken language. More importantly, as China’s economic power gradually increases, so to will the predominance of business transactions being done in Chinese. Other markets, such as the rapidly growing services markets in India and manufacturing markets in Eastern Europe will all add to the highly competitive marketplace for English-only speaking graduates of American colleges and universities. Establishing a strong foreign language study requirement for all college and university students in American will help to narrow the competitive gap and help keep America’s economy strong.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow! You’re my new hero! I agree with practically everything you said, especially when you state: "The foreign language study requirement should not be confused with bilingual efforts currently employed in Spanish-English speaking areas of the United States. The foreign language college graduation requirement only addresses the need to prepare American graduates". When this issue comes up I always hear at least one person who assumes that they would have to study Spanish to be bilingual, but like you said, Spanish is not the only language, there are other languages, like Chinese, that will become a basic necessity for so many of us once we get into the workforce. So many people assume that by learning another language they will be replacing English, or somehow reducing its importance, but that’s just not true. Learning another language will only provide them with the ability to effectively communicate with a wider range of people—it will help them survive in the world as it is today. For some reason, so many of us believe that only English is necessary to be successful, and I just don’t agree with that. Like you said, other countries are making themselves a more powerful and integral part of our lives and our future. It is irresponsible to ignore the roles of other countries in our lives today simply because we feel unreasonable threatened by another language. We need to start thinking like so many others in the rest of the world—they understand the value of learning English because of our role in politics, technology and other fields, and we need to do the same and realize and accept the importance of other countries in those same fields. Maybe once we do this, we’ll be able to become a more competitive entity on the world stage. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteI am also surprised that my opinion is much alike yours as Laura mentioned. I strongly believe that Americans should learn foreign language to be more competitive in the future; otherwise Americans may be left behind. First, you really got my view by “With the world connected by instantaneous electronic communication, the perceived distances between people of different cultures and languages seems almost non-existent.” I really appreciate the technology now which enables me to talk with my friends all over the world via online; I talk with my Japanese friend and Ecuadorian friend at same time by internet chat with Japanese and Spanish in real time. The technology increased chance to take advantage of our language skill through real time transaction globally. I would say that increased transactional speed add comparative advantage through using own language skill rather than going through translation or interpretation through specialist; in order to do so, we need to acquire foreign language skill individually. Therefore your idea of, “Foreign language study should be a requirement for graduation from all American colleges and universities,” is an excellent idea to increase Americans language skill to survive global economy. Some people may say that Americans do not need to learn foreign language because English dominates as global language, however, the U.S. economy is not guaranteed to be number one; monolingual American workers may lose contract little by little and replaced by other groups which manage more languages; since many foreign coworkers would choose the their international associates who speak their language or at least strive to learn their language than one who just demands them to talk in other language. Consequence is more likely one you argue as “those unable or unwilling to adapt to a multi-lingual world will falter, or worse, be left behind.” This result will trigger diminish in global English language domination. It will cause bad cycle for American people. Another reason why learning foreign language should be encourage is that, learning language will open the social door; it will lead to understand better the culture of the people through learning vocabularies which reflect cultural values and morals. It also provides idea to Americans that how communicating with foreign language is difficult that we imagine. This experience may provide better attitude toward foreign associates through understanding their culture and struggle. Therefore learning foreign language is crucial fact to nurture high level global people. I totally agree with you! And thanks for the nice blog!
It is interesting to me to read you blog; mainly because I chose the same topic but took a different stand on it. I opposed that foreign language be required only because after 3 years have gone by I could not tell you a single thing I remember from my foreign language class. I totally get what you are saying about our world being so diverse now a days and it is almost as if we need to know the other languages to be successful with certain things. This though is where my concern comes in, not everyone’s career is on the path to where they must know a total new language or bits and pieces of one. There are plenty of people in this world who all have different hopes and desires and quite frankly although it would be cool to be fluent in another language I fell I have no need to be. It is unfortunate though here in California and particularly Lancaster because all we had was a Spanish course for our alternate language learning’s. Something else that I pointed out in my blog was another reading we were required of this week were it touched on English becoming the adopted language, if this is such a concern they are contradicting themselves by requiring these foreign language courses, but yet discourage any other forms to be used besides English in America. Over all your essay is really detailed and very interesting I respect all that you have to say and must admit you opened my eyes to a couple of different things =).
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog. I especially enjoy your cultural stories. They really add to communicating your point. It somewhat reminds me of the essay in our English book about writing titled "Getting Started" by Anne Lamott. In the essay the author tells her students to write down everything about their life starting with childhood. She goes on further to say "Remember that you own what happened to you." I really believe a sense of self and culture comes through in your writing. You offer a unique perspective becuase of your background and experiences. I am also very curious to see how language will change over time. It's interesting that you use the phrase "By the way that English is progressing in." Do you feel the language is "progressing", in the sense that it is getting better? Or would you say it is merely changing, and there is neither degradation or progress in the quality of of the language? (That sentence may have been a bit loaded, I apologize). I was a little bit confused about your ending metaphors. I didn't quite get the speed bump metaphor. Other than that though, this was a great blog and I look forward to reading your next.
ReplyDelete- Ben Andrews : )