Re: Why Americans feel no compulsion to learn foreign languages

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 8:17 PM 3/27/96, Michael Helm wrote:
>On Mar 27,  3:13am, Timothy C. May wrote:
>> Americans are typically thousands of miles away from those speaking
>> Japanese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Hindi,
>> Talegu, and the hundreds of other languages. It is not at all clear what
>> language Americans should pick as a "second language" to study.
>
>I don't really disagree with the conclusions drawn by this poster, or
>with the quasi-economics argument he makes.  However, I must say that
>the above is completely wrong.  MOST Americans live in large urban
>areas, & as such are within seconds/footsteps of people whose native
>languages are not English (or who don't have a single "native language",
>but several!).  There are probably _hundreds_ of languages spoken in the
>San Francisco Bay Area.  The school districts here routinely report double
>digit languages in the school age population.

And? Your point being?

"All learning is economics," to paraphrase our noted saying about security.

Because there are diverse groups within 100 miles away speaking a babel of
languages, including a per cent or so each of Thai, Talegu, Mandarin,
Vietnamese, and so on, do I understand your point that I should pick one of
these languages and spend a year or so learning it well enough to say to
one of these groups, "Hello, can you tell me which way to the train
station?"

My point is not against the learning of a foreign language, just that
economic considerations _must_ play a role. (Of course, people are free to
ignore economics and "follow their bliss." A friend of mine studied
Sanskrit for several years, and I even spent some time studying some Old
Icelandic a few decades ago.)

My European friends usually study the language of their direct neighbors
and important trading/scientific partners. English, German, French,
typically.

>There are 3 Spanish language channels (& another 2 ... "multiple
>choice") on my tv cable system.  That anglophones choose to tune them
>out, or to not even notice the Noah's ark around them, says something
>about this culture.

"Says something about this culture." Insults aside, you are right. I will
sign up with the local JC for a study of Vietnamese, just so I won't be
ignoring this cornucopia of polyglotism.

(One person communicated with me in private about this, saying that the
international nature of the Internet is an ironic counterpoint to my point.
So I promised this guy I would learn Hindi and Polish to better be able to
use the Internet. Of course, this'll take me a few years, and then I'll no
doubt find that I don't have any interest in talking to the people on the
Net who speak in Hindi or Polish, but, what the hell, I will have reduced
my "anglophone chauvinism quotient.")

--Tim

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