“What do you call someone who speaks three languages? (Trilingual.) What do you call someone who speaks two languages? (Bilingual.) What do you call someone who speaks one language? (American.)”
– An old joke, with an alternative punch line saying “British”
If we were to rank the world’s languages by the total number of speakers (native and non-native), the English language would be the most spoken language in the world. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage to native speakers of English. On the one hand, it makes it easier for us to find people that speak our language when we travel abroad, and this confers many advantages upon us when we travel. On the other hand, it means that we are seldom forced to learn a foreign language, the way that our counterparts elsewhere often seem to do (hence the joke above). Knowing a foreign language confers many benefits, and not just of the economic variety. Our brains benefit from this kind of education, and it allows us to see the world differently than monolinguals do. The benefits of knowing a foreign language are often advertised by professors of languages, at least when their languages are foreign to the places where they live and teach. But which languages should we teach in our school system? In my view, we should endeavor to teach something like all of them, whether they are ancient or modern or anything in between.
Practical languages – which are useful in business, international relations, and the military
But why should we do this? I will start off with the most practical reasons. For some languages, the necessity of teaching them is obvious – such as Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. These two languages each have more native speakers than English does (the only two languages to do so, at the time that I write this). If we want to interact with the outside world, we need some basic knowledge of their languages, cultures, and customs. If we are in the business world, we will thus be able to sell to our international customers better. If we’re in international relations, we will be much better able to accomplish our foreign policy goals, than we would without knowing the languages of the focused-on country. Some countries are openly hostile to both the United States and its interests – such as various parts of the Muslim world. For these reasons, it would be to our advantage to have at least some portion of our military that can understand and speak their languages. Our national security will be much better off, if we have people who understand these strategic military languages, and can protect us from hostile groups that speak them. This includes countries that are engaged in actual “hot wars” with us, and those that are merely engaging us in some sort of “cold war” – such as the Russians, the Chinese, and the North Koreans. We will better be able to keep the peace with these countries, if we are fully aware of both their designs, and the resources that are available to them for their promotion – all of which requires knowledge of their languages and their cultures.
Chinese characters that translate to “Mandarin Chinese”
Less frequently spoken languages, including endangered languages that should be recorded soon
But what about languages that are less frequently spoken? I actually believe that we should endeavor to teach these as well. Some languages are endangered, and their writing and speech should both be recorded while we have the opportunity to do so. Some of them may still be around for a while, but some of them may be lost to history if they are not recorded soon, while their last generations still remain. Even when such a language is not endangered, it still helps to have someone who speaks their language when we want to sell to them, or have diplomatic relations with them at the governmental level. Our interests are not exclusively found in those parts of the world where the commonly-spoken languages are dominant, and where world superpowers “rule the roost.” Our interests are also found in areas with tiny tribes, whose languages are virtually unheard of here, and who are almost forgotten in our country. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be aware of every language, of course, but we should still have portions of our society (at least among scholars) that understand them. World peace will also be more safely guarded, when we are able to communicate effectively with both our friends and our enemies.
Navajo Code Talkers, who spoke an endangered language native to my home state of Arizona
Dead and extinct languages, and the historical value of having people around who know them
But what about languages that are already gone, and which are known only to historians? It may be helpful to make a distinction here between the “dead languages” and the “extinct languages.” Extinct languages have no modern descendants, while the dead languages may have changed over time to something that still survives (for example, Latin being replaced by the Romance languages). For languages with modern descendants, the historical importance is particularly prominent, since we can learn something about those cultures associated with their descendants. But even with languages that did not survive by “changing with the times,” we can still learn much about human history by knowing about them. I realize that it is not possible to know every language that has gone extinct, or even to know every language that still survives. But we will still be better off for attempting to do this, and for being collectively aware of the diverse cultures associated with both the past and the present. Our collective knowledge will be improved, and our world will be better able to learn about its past. (I should clarify that sign languages count as “natural languages.” It helps to have people who know the modern forms, but the history of sign language is no less compelling than the history of spoken languages. Unfortunately, it is not as well-recorded as the history of spoken languages, since sign languages are often cumbersome to write down on paper. But we have new technologies for recording the uses of sign language (such as video-recording), and these should be used to record contemporary sign languages. Even if we can only preserve the contemporary forms of these languages, it will be best not to lose our awareness of them, and to have them remain part of our collective consciousness on the subject.
Signs for American Sign Language (or “ASL”)
Should foreign languages be required of college students? (Depends on what their major is … )
I don’t know if a foreign language should be required for general education in the United States. But our schools should include departments that specialize in the languages that are still known, and which can offer them to those who major in the subject. These departments should teach the known literatures of these languages, the linguistics of them (see this page for what linguistics is), and (of course) the basics of using and speaking them. For other majors, I firmly believe that all humanities majors should be required to study some kind of foreign language (with sign language counting for this purpose). I also believe that some social science majors should be required to do so. A foreign language should be optional for people studying other subjects – such as math, art, music, natural sciences, engineering, and even business. The ones who learn a foreign language are likely to be rewarded for doing so – at least, if it's a useful language – and the ones who find these endeavors “prohibitively difficult” should not be required to study them, at least when they are studying subjects other than the humanities. For them, other kinds of education will be sufficient to compensate for these deficiencies, and to prepare them for the “real world” of everyday life.
Miguel de Cervantes, the author of “Don Quixote” (a classic of Spanish literature)
The value of teaching common phrases to children, even in countries like the United States
I recognize that languages are always easier to learn as children, and that adults are at something of a disadvantage when learning a foreign language. Nonetheless, I’m not sure that the United States should endeavor to impart fluency in any foreign language to its children. The reason is that whenever we decide to focus on some kind of curriculum, it necessitates reducing our focus on something else; and there are many other things that are competing for the priority. But teaching our children some basic Spanish (or other locally useful languages) would be a worthy goal, even if they don’t learn much more than “¿Cómo estás?” and “Buenos días.” It’s very difficult to avoid encountering these kinds of phrases (even when you are only speaking to fellow Gringos), since many of them are fairly well-known, even to speakers of American English. Many of them have even been borrowed wholesale, and are used even by those who have no fluency whatsoever in Spanish. Thus, some passing familiarity with them would not be harmful to people living in the United States, who would benefit from having learned a few common phrases in their childhood. (And the same goes for other locally spoken languages, in other parts of the world – for example, French in English Canada.) Again, I’m not saying that we should endeavor to impart complete and total fluency to our children, but nor should we leave them ignorant of basic things about local subcultures. They are bound to encounter these things if they stick around here, and other languages should be locally available wherever possible (particularly when there is demand for them at the college and university levels).
Our school system as a whole should endeavor to teach all of the world’s languages
And in closing, let me reiterate the basic point that I started off with: Our school system as a whole should try to teach something like all of the world’s languages – both ancient and modern, and everything in between. We will be better off for doing so, and we will have a better knowledge of our past and our present.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
What is “linguistics,” and why is it important?
My passion for linguistics
Reflections on studying the history of languages
A review of Melvyn Bragg’s “The Adventure of English”
A review of Robert McCrum’s “The Story of English”
Reflections on learning about Spanish linguistics
A review of Rafael Lapesa’s “Historia de la lengua española”
A review of PBS’s “Breaking the Maya Code”
Why I am learning Biblical Hebrew
Part of a series about
Education
General education
Civics education
History education
Classical education
Biblical education
Philosophy education
Linguistics education
Foreign language education
Business education
Economics education
Math education
Finance education
Marketing research education
Foreign language education
Business education
Economics education
Math education
Finance education
Marketing research education
See also this series about
Modern languages
Note: These posts do not have to be read in any particular order. Since time periods overlap, there isn’t much chronological order to observe here.
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