Foreign language(s) and the global economy genie
I’m watching the arguments unfurl around Barack Obama’s comments on foreign language study, and I’m amazed. (Memeorandum has several lead articles with commentary. Here and here should get you started.)
People are fixating on various aspects of the statement, and totally missing the point.
Foreign language study by Americans has nothing to do with illegal immigration. It’s unrelated to tourism. And while there’s an argument to be made about cultural knowledge gained from the study of other languages, that’s still not the main reason why studying a foreign language (or two or three) is a good idea for Americans.
It’s a good idea because we no longer live in a world where the customer base for goods and services is limited to our own backyard. As the folks in the Rustbelt have noticed, this global economy has radically impacted our employment prospects. The genie’s out of the bottle all the way, and there’s no chance he’s going to be stuffed back in.
From my own post this morning on the subject:
[...] Obama is absolutely right — particularly for Americans competing for jobs in our own market, let alone against global competition.
Because it’s a relatively rare skill, an American who has full mastery of English, and brings a second (or third) language into the equation, is an obvious asset. Unfortunately, the mastery of English is also a relatively rare skill — and that’s an absolute must before one can add other languages with proficiency.
This is much bigger than “but English is the international business language”. That may be true, but it’s an astoundingly superficial analysis — in large part because the global economy does more than bring goods to (and from) faraway places. It provides job opportunities with the companies that do business there (and here).
For instance: Which job candidate do you think is more likely to be hired by a company who wants to expand its market base to…say… South America? Candidate A, who speaks English and Spanish? Or Candidate B, who speaks only English?
And what about corporations doing business in Europe? It’s true that most Europeans have multiple languages (including at least some English), so does that mean Americans needn’t bother with any European languages? Does anyone seriously think a monolingual American job applicant will be seen as an equally valuable potential asset as someone who speaks English and a couple other languages?
Or consider the largest potential consumer base on the planet. Do you think Mandarin (or Cantonese) might be a useful language in the foreseeable future? You’ll have trouble mastering it if you’ve never studied a foreign language before.
This isn’t about Spanish, or bilingualism, or multiculturalism, or illegal immigration, or elitism. It’s about flexibility and marketability. It’s about competition and jobs.
It’s about reality and the future, and it frankly amazes me that people are taking issue with Obama over this.
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6 Responses to “Foreign language(s) and the global economy genie”
[...] (Related post at The Moderate Voice, here.) [...]
“Unfortunately, the mastery of English is also a relatively rare skill — and that’s an absolute must before one can add other languages with proficiency.”
Polimom I've known several people (and there are studies that hint at the possibility) that claim multilingualism facilitates general language development. Studying languages with different sounds and grammar structure seems to make it easier to understand the underlying principles of your native language as well.
Mikkel — that may very well be true. Formal instruction, though, is currently based on grammar and syntax, and the terminology is useless (past participles??) if one doesn't understand it in at least one language. (This isn't to say there aren't much better ways to teach. Just talking about the standard methods in schools)
For much younger children, though, familiarity with pronunciation, phrases, and general structure are the very best possible baseline for later study and ability to absorb.
There are so many advantages to knowing more than one language, it would take a separate treatise to describe them all. Translations can't compare with understanding another language for the insights that can be derived about other cultures..
Insights into different cultures not only build bridges, they broaden all thinking,and understanding of the wrold we live in. We can't but live in a global inter-connected world, and we are at a disadvantage if we don't understand the people we have to deal with in it.
Obama gets it.
Well, I understand to some degree why Obama's getting knocked because of the way he lead in to the topic. Quoting the quote from this Salon article:
“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.”
This is the exact fear of people who worry about immigration. That instead of “them” learning English, “we” are all going to be forced to learn Spanish. This will set many Americans off immediately and they may not hear anything else. Now, as he keeps talking it becomes clear that Obama's just saying that having many language skills is a great asset to an individual and to the nation. That's entirely reasonable and true.
(It's also entirely reasonable to learn a skill so that one can talk immediately to immigrants and travelers whose native language isn't English. Millions of Japanese tourists for instance come to Hawaii every year, where I live, and my job prospects would be much better if I could speak Japanese. Similar things are true in other parts of the nation with Spanish or Hmong or Arabic. But, for better or for worse, there are many millions of Americans who view language as a sort of battle in which speaking to others is not a great skill but an unfortunate and unjustified accommodation or even defeat.)
“But, for better or for worse, there are many millions of Americans who view language as a sort of battle in which speaking to others is not a great skill but an unfortunate and unjustified accommodation or even defeat.
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There are also a substantial number of racists and bigots. I would hope that leaders advocate for an attitude substantially more enlightened than the lowest common denominator.