The king's English won't rule forever

For most of their history, Americans have not had to bother themselves with learning a language other than English. With a few exceptions, foreigners' encounters with Americans meant that the burden of learning the other's language fell on the non-English speaker. As it turns out, that wasn't necessarily a good thing. In a world of rapidly expanding communications and global markets, Americans might find themselves at a disadvantage as the number of multilingual speakers is accelerating in other large and growing economies.

Yet, recent surveys show that learning a foreign language remains a low priority for American students and at the schools and universities that teach them. According to the U.S. Department of Education, fewer than 8 percent of undergraduates take a foreign language class each year, and only 1 percent of undergraduate degrees conferred in a given year are in a foreign language.

Many of today's college students graduate without a working knowledge of a language other than English. That might be fine for now, but many experts caution that the global usage of English will gradually decline. Speaking English is becoming less of an advantage and more of a "near-universal basic skill," concluded a report released earlier this year by the British Council, an international English educational organization. For this reason, those who speak only English, "face a bleak economic future," the report concluded.

Around the world, people are studying languages such as Spanish and Mandarin. In Portuguese-speaking Brazil, for instance, a 2005 law now requires all high schools to offer Spanish courses as an alternative to learning English. The Chinese government predicts that within a few years, the number of people studying Mandarin will rise to 100 million. And more and more international students are choosing to study at non-English speaking schools over English ones.

Although many people speak English today, it is foolish to assume that English language skills alone will be sufficient to thrive. We need to learn other languages if we want to maintain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The British Council estimates that the number of English speakers in the world will peak at two billion in a decade or so and then decline. American students who choose not to learn a second language will find themselves falling behind multilingual speakers.

But besides economic benefits, learning another's language helps us understand each other better. As a society that celebrates cultural diversity, we should realize the value of learning another language or two to better appreciate and contribute to the colorful world we live in.

From: EDITORIAL BOARD from Statesman (Texas)