\u201cPri\u0161la som, videla som, nech\u00e1pem, odch\u00e1dzam.\u201d (I came, I saw, I don\u2019t understand, I\u2019m leaving . . .)<\/p>\n
Recently, I found out that the university is considering adding a foreign language requirement for all UW-W students seeking a Bachelor of Arts degree: regardless of high school experience, at least two years of foreign language courses at the university. Though there are many institutional-internal reasons behind this movement, on a broader \u00a0dimension of what it takes to be a good global citizen, \u00a0there is the perception that American university students lack for foreign language skills.<\/p>\n
As the world\u2019s only superpower, the United States has its hands in every economy and culture around the globe.\u00a0 In Europe, though only the United Kingdom and Ireland are English speaking countries, close to 50% of all business deals are brokered in English (Bryson 182).<\/p>\n
When my brother, who lives in Dallas and works for the All-American\u00a0 corporation \u00a0JCPenny, nevertheless must go to China, or India or Germany, to work on marketing products, his interpreters are native Chinese, Indian, and German.\u00a0 The lynchpin of international communication, the person who makes the connection between nations, is more than likely to not be a native speaker of English, not an American.\u00a0 And if language begets understanding, what does it say when so many foreigners know our language while we remain ignorant of theirs?<\/p>\n
Rivaling America\u2019s superpower status is the low regard so many other countries have for our nation.\u00a0 A November 2006 opinion poll conducted by the British newspaper\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0found that President Bush was regarded as nearly the most dangerous person in the world, more dangerous than everyone except Bin-Laden, this coming from our closest ally in the world (Glover).<\/p>\n So that leaves me wondering if you, the professional class in training, \u00a0think there is a fundamental responsibility for US professionals trained in the humanities and arts-the communicators, the cultural vanguard\u2013to have some foreign language skills.\u00a0 Here we are in the middle of a presidential campaign where candidates from both parties are expounding on American values and goals, yet I haven\u2019t heard anyone talking about the importance of being a good neighbor in the community of nations.\u00a0 Is not the essential, core ingredient in moving down that road to be able to talk to at least one of our \u201cneighbors\u201d in their own language?\u00a0 I just finished spending a year in Slovakia, in central Europe. Of\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0the people I met that had native-like fluency in both English and Slovak,\u00a0none<\/em>\u00a0were native born Americans . . . . including all the embassy personnel I met . . . . . including the US Ambassador. Can any of these people fully appreciate the limitations (and appearance of arrogance) of\u00a0 having to conduct all international business in (on?) our terms?<\/p>\n As it stands, the BS at UW-W requires additional math and lab sciences, the BA has a foreign language requirement that can be entirely discharged by retro credits from high school work on the college prep track.\u00a0 There is also an acknowledged (extreme) deficiency in international experience among our students (last time I checked, UW-Eau Claire had something like 17% of its students having some international education; whereas our percentage was less than 1%).\u00a0\u00a0More foreign language classes would in all probably increase interest in study abroad programs.<\/p>\n Bryson, Bill.\u00a0The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way<\/strong>. New York:\u00a0 Avon. 1990.<\/p>\n Glover, Julian. \u201cBritish Believe Bush is more dangerous than Kim Jong-il.\u201d\u00a0The Guardian Limited<\/strong>. 3 Nov 2006. <http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/usa\/story\/0,,1938434,00.htmlhttp:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/usa\/story\/0,,1938434,00.html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cPri\u0161la som, videla som, nech\u00e1pem, odch\u00e1dzam.\u201d (I came, I saw, I don\u2019t understand, I\u2019m leaving . . .) Recently, I found out that the university is considering adding a foreign language requirement for all UW-W students seeking a Bachelor of … Continue reading