Why Americans Should Not Learn Foreign Languages

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I grew up in a small country where learning and speaking foreign languages has been a custom, but since coming to the United States it came apparent that our culture’s values are different. When I first met the soccer team at South Alabama we all had to say facts about ourselves to get to know each other better. I told others that I can speak four languages and the reactions were: “Wow, you can speak 4 languages? Really? I wish I could speak another language!” To be honest, this surprised me because in Estonia over 69% people can speak two or more languages; however, people here consider it as a talent or some sort of a superpower to be able to speak that many languages, perhaps, because only 18% of the population of the United States is at …show more content…

I found an article written by David Skorton and Glenn Altschuler for the Forbes entitled “America’s Foreign Language Deficit”. The authors agree with the U.S. Secretary of Education A. Duncan that Americans need to read, speak and understand other languages in order to grow economically and improve relations with countries all over the world. However, Skorton and Altschuler pointed out some facts about foreign language education in U.S. schools, saying “The percentage of all middle schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 75 to 58 percent. In 2009-2010, only 50.7 percent of higher education institutions required foreign language study for a baccalaureate, compared to 67.5 percent in 1994-1995. Many colleges and universities have reduced or eliminated instructional offerings in “less popular” languages.” Thus, if foreign language learning is less required by schools and not seen as a necessity by the government, the students and youth do not find it important either. This is why people I meet keep telling me that it is a rarity to know more than one

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