Posted on Jul 18, 2018
Why There's A Language Learning Gap In The United States
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"We need increasingly to be able to interact with the rest of the world, to engage with them, to be able to compete economically and diplomatically. And if you don't have the language skills, you truly do not understand other cultures, and you're not able to fully engage with the rest of the world. We think naively sometimes that business gets done at the business table, but it often gets done away from the business table — it gets done in social interactions, it gets done even in the hallways. And if you don't speak the language, you can't fully engage in those interactions."
Why There's A Language Learning Gap In The United States
Posted from wbur.orgPosted in these groups: 
Foreign Language
Language Student
CTI: Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive)
Foreign Language Language Student CTI: Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive)
Posted >1 y ago
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That is so true Chinese and other countries that have much more difficult languages than us learn our English language. I am lucky to speak fluent Spanish but I'm still learning.
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We put time and effort in what we believe to be important. Every American has a different point of view from I'd like to learn, It is exciting, i can't do it, I don't care.... and so on.
When I lived in Italy there was a sign for a language school that reads "The limits of my language are the limits to my world". The banner is right.
I began teaching Spanish to my children since birth. They attend a Spanish immersion school since preschool. My wife speaks to them in Hungarian. We made language and culture part of the home, social, & academic part of our lives.
What I do not agree with is forcing a random language to someone. There needs to be a motivation, a stimulation or a need that makes it important to the learner.
I was 6 years old when I asked my mother in Spanish "Why am I learning English since I live in Puerto Rico?" She said, "You never know if you want to end up in the US, you want to keep that door open" Mom was right again.
When I lived in Italy there was a sign for a language school that reads "The limits of my language are the limits to my world". The banner is right.
I began teaching Spanish to my children since birth. They attend a Spanish immersion school since preschool. My wife speaks to them in Hungarian. We made language and culture part of the home, social, & academic part of our lives.
What I do not agree with is forcing a random language to someone. There needs to be a motivation, a stimulation or a need that makes it important to the learner.
I was 6 years old when I asked my mother in Spanish "Why am I learning English since I live in Puerto Rico?" She said, "You never know if you want to end up in the US, you want to keep that door open" Mom was right again.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel I think the other issue in any native english speaking country, not just the U.S., is what language should you learn? I speak fairly decent Japanese, but that only helps me in one country, everywhere else I'm just another American that can't speak the language. In countries whose native language is not english, it's a no brainer, you learn english, because it's the defacto international language. Because of this non-english speaking countries have a large market to teach people english. I lived in Japan for 10 years and there is a huge amount of resources to learn english. There are companies whose only business is to teach people to speak english from kids to adults. Book stores have entire sections dedicated to books for learning english, but if you want to learn something other than english, well your options are much more limited.
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