I recently returned from Brazil, and I was initially very surprised, and glad that most of the Brazilians I met who were also college students, spoke English. Some used broken English but others spoke the language very well.
As I began talking to them and learning what they wanted from life, I noticed that most of them spoke at least three languages. It came as a surprise because they were born in Brazil, from Brazilian parents, yet they knew Portuguese, English, Spanish and some even knew Japanese.
At that point, I wasn’t so glad that they spoke English, but was a bit bothered that I didn’t speak Portuguese, or at least broken Portuguese. I asked them why they knew so many languages, and they said because their school mandated them to learn another language fluently. They also said because they planned to travel and wanted to be able to communicate properly.
My friends and I speak English and Spanish but that’s mainly because our parents only speak Spanish. Yet, other people that I know, who were born in the United States and whose parents were also born here, speak only English. I began to wonder why our school systems don’t encourage children to learn another language as well.
Yes, of course, in high school students must take a foreign language for at least two years, yet most students graduate high school without really absorbing the language fluently.
Here in the U.S., you’re not encouraged to keep your native language, partially due to the advent of Proposition 227, which is a mandate to teach English-only. Because of this proposition, those who are learning to speak English, also known as English Learners (ELS), are placed in a structured English class for less than a year, then they are transferred to a predominantly English-speaking classroom.
Yes, this is good because every U.S. citizen should be able to speak his or her (national) language properly, but it’s also problematic, when it causes children to forget their native tongue and makes them comfortable with only speak one language.
There is even a joke that pokes fun at the issue, “Someone who speaks two languages is called bilingual, but someone who speaks one language, is called an American.”
Lucas Goes, a very good friend I met in Brazil, told me about his experience in France and speaking English. When he arrived in France, he got into a cab and started speaking English to the cab driver. The cab driver, for some reason, grew angry and started yelling in French and asked Goes why Americans think English is a universal language?
As bothered as the taxi driver was, it bothered me even more that I speak Spanish because of my parents and not because of any school system. I was a bit jealous of the fact that in many other countries speaking their native language along with English and even learning another language is highly encouraged and at times even mandatory.
According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, in Glendale, the school board and superintendent advocate that all students learn at least one language other than English. A variety of languages are offered starting in kindergarten. The goal is proficiency and literacy in two languages upon graduation from high school.
This is the best gift an educator can give to his or her students.
Even President Barack Obama reportedly said in a townhall meeting on the issue, “I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing, when Europeans come over here and they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say is ‘merci beaucoup,’ right?”
Some people reacted negatively to this statement scared that the president would enforce people to learn a foreign language.
Why would people be so afraid to learn another language? It’s not an incurable disease or a weakness; it’s a skill, and it’s necessary.
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