Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One: Online Version
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CHAPTER 1
Does an English-speaker really Need a Foreign Language?
Volunteers at Oklahoma State University recently conducted a “Language Ambush” project in order to gain some measurement of language skills among students on the OSU campus. Language Ambush volunteers approached OSU students and asked them a simple question (such as the time) in a foreign language like German, Japanese, or Spanish. Only six percent passed the test. Keep in mind: this experiment was conducted in an academic environment. In the general population, it is likely that fewer than one percent of respondents would have been able to pass the test.
Monolingualism has costs. In his 1987 book, The Tongue-Tied American: Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis, Senator Paul Simon reported that 200,000 Americans miss out on job opportunities because they do not know a foreign language. And that was in 1987---before the fall of communism, the rise of China as an economic power, or NAFTA. Given the growth of global business since the late 1980s, it is reasonable to assume that the number would be many times higher today. Moreover, missed job opportunities are only part of the economic cost involved. Monolingualism is a fundamental shortcoming that impedes American professionals who must manage, sell, and negotiate in the global marketplace.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that Britons would have high rates of bilingualism and multilingualism. After all, Great Britain is part of the linguistically diverse European Union. Such hopes are quickly disappointed by the data: The United Kingdom is the most monolingual country in the EU. When dealing with the rest of the world, the average Briton---like the average American---must rely on others to translate and interpret.
A study conducted by the British House of Lords in 2005 found that poor foreign language skills in Britain have begun to affect the nation’s economic performance. A major British newspaper reported a “deeply disturbing” lack of language skills that threatens to leave Britain unable to ‘protect our interests’ abroad and to compete economically in Europe.”
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Why does this situation exist in the English-speaking world? There are a handful of reasons----some obvious, some more arcane:
Copyright 2005 Beechmont Crest Publishing
