Why US Foreign Language Education is so Bad

The US is one of the most diverse countries in the world, with so many different ethnicities and sexualities. Some might even refer to the US as "the freest country in the world." However, how free is it when those who speak a language other than English are forced to assimilate?

The US is a large country in terms of geography and population. With a vast country with predominantly English-speaking people, mixed with biased news articles enforcing racism and xenophobia: it is natural that people will become aggressive towards the "others." The "others" who don't speak English and "aren't true Americans." The US is the US because of its immigrants. The beauty of "The United States of America" is that immigrants come from every part of the world. In return, immigrants are faced with systemic and individual discrimination. Many are told to speak English and to stop speaking another language because "this is America." This ignorant mindset of "everyone must assimilate and speak English" is dangerous and leads to people not believing that foreign language learning is essential.

In addition, English has become the global language. If you take a trip anywhere, whether, in Tokyo, Japan, or Paris, France, you will find English speakers wherever you are.

Technological innovation has helped English become the global language too.

Technology is constantly evolving, with the US at the forefront, with cities such as San Francisco, New York City, Austin, and Washington DC being all the world's biggest tech hubs. Every single coding language is in English!

EXAMPLE

var = variable print = print num = number if/else

Many Americans hold this sentiment that those who are bilingual are geniuses and on other levels of intelligence. Many Americans believe that learning another language is only for "smart people" and that they can't do it either. Their underwhelming high school classes "traumatized" them from ever wanting to hear Spanish or French spoken.

For all these reasons, it is easy for the average American not to feel the need to learn another language. But language learning is so important in terms of mentally challenging yourself.

Getting to the root of the problem, let’s talk about why US language classes aren’t the best.

It is not a national government requirement to learn another language in elementary, middle, or high school. It is only universities that have foreign language requirements. For example, the University of California (UC) system requires high schoolers to have two years of foreign language experience in high school.

Even those high school classes are boring! With these “high school foreign language classes” that I’m talking about, I’m talking about public school education. I’m talking about the schools that a majority of the country attends. The schools that depend on the government for funding, not private school classes that can afford to take trips to another country to experience total immersion.

Many people see foreign language classes as a chore, as something to check off the checklist. Foreign language learning is often introduced to people for the first time in a dreadful, unfun, and monotonous way.

Learn this grammar, these vocab words, and how to count to a hundred.

With this ineffective way of teaching, people often don’t feel motivated to learn after high school. Discouraging high school language classes are not cultivating an environment that will encourage lifelong passions. With this, a proposed solution to improve the classes is to find better teachers, write a better curriculum, and increase the national language learning budget.

However, some argue that foreign language learning isn’t “worth it” and shouldn’t be funded more with tax-payer dollars. With that mindset, more and more schools are cutting their salary budgets.

Each year as national budget priorities are determined, language education is losing out—cuts have been made to funding for such instruction, including Title VI grants and the Foreign Language Assistance Program... Even if schools embrace the various benefits of foreign-language instruction, finding qualified, experienced, and engaging, bilingual teachers in a crunch is tough (Friedman).

This trend of “defunding” foreign language departments has been happening since the 2008 recession. It is getting harder to find good bilingual teachers because, of course, if there is no practical way to educate, how will we find educated teachers? It is like the chicken or the egg situation. There are insufficient bilingual, qualified, and educated teachers without a good education.

Children do not have access to foreign language learning at an early age. Many articles and studies show that the younger years of a person’s life are when they are best at absorbing languages.

Brain scientists say that in order to speak a language as well as a native speaker, children must begin to study the language by age 10. A 2018 study found that this ability to more easily learn a language lasts until about age 17 or 18 – which is longer than previously thought – but then begins to decline (Stein-Smith).

To create change and encourage US citizens to become global thinkers with broader perspectives, we as a whole, need to change the entire “American” mindset that language learning is too hard or boring.

Creating a culture and school environment where kids want to learn Spanish or French or Chinese because they see it as something cool and normal would significantly change the mindset American children, and eventually adults, have towards being bilingual (or multilingual). (Shalligan)

We need to encourage inclusivity, not assimilation. The US doesn’t have an official language; English is not the official language! Learning another language changes how a person thinks; it changes how they view the world and intake different cultures.

Since America is such a large country, we should encourage arts and language learning and learning more about places outside of America. We should encourage more people to experience and observe different cultures. Not necessarily by traveling, since traveling is not an option for many, but even consuming content from another country in another language is incredibly important.

We should do more than try to change the culture and mindset. We should increase funding for language programs.

If Americans want the next generation to be active participants in a multilingual world, dual-language and multicultural education is crucial. Government spending on foreign-language education and the education of qualified foreign-language teachers needs to increase (Montlaur).

Many universities acknowledge the importance of bilingualism and offer dual language programs that encourage students to learn a language while simultaneously focusing on other studies, such as engineering or computer science.

If you couldn’t learn a language when you were younger or were traumatized by your high school teacher, you can always still learn!

You’re never too old to start learning a language. We have a number of senior citizens interested in learning a language, because we know from the research that it wards off the degeneration of the brain, some of the Alzheimer’s diseases (WBUR).

There are free programs like Duolingo and HelloTalk. The Internet has so many resources to learn practically any language. If you have a Netflix subscription, you can watch TV shows and movies in other languages.

We need to stop relying on others to speak English, look outside our monolinguistic society, and challenge ourselves.

We think the rest of the world speaks English, which isn’t true: 75 percent of people outside the United States don’t speak English, and if they do, it’s not at a very high level of proficiency (WBUR).