Life Without Subtitles
America, the Land of the Monolingual
At the age of ten, I moved to South Africa for about a year, attended a local school, and made friends with children from various cultures and countries. Living in a nation with eleven official languages, many South Africans are, at least, trilingual. Even preschoolers know their local tongue, some English, and some Afrikaans and what they don’t know, they have supplemented daily. English and Afrikaans are taught traditionally in schools, though primarily to cement semantics, grammar, and finer points in their minds. By the age of ten, many South African children know, with some level of proficiency, at least three languages. Minimum.
Recently, I endeavored to learn Japanese on my own. A bold feat, yes, but if I succeed, it will be the third language that I have learned (following English and French, in that order). I have also studied Latin, Italian, Swedish and even Toki Pona and Quenya. I chose Japanese not because it is the most practical or easiest, but because I find the language and culture fascinating. I love learning new words, grammatical structures, and discovering new ways to think. I’m captivated reading books, listening to songs, or even watching movies in a language foreign to me. There’s something about the discovery of it all that is invigorating. It infatuates me, and I have no intention of stopping at just three. There is no reason to not know a second language, and, in fact, I think it is foolish not to. I am not the only one who feels this way, yet, sadly, I stand in the minority — at least in America.
I read on Forbes that, according to surveys by the Department of Education, there is an eighteen percent chance that an American knows a second language — an eighty-two percent chance that they do not. Compared to the fifty-six percent of Europeans who consider themselves bilingual, we, as a society, are pathetic. There have been some positive developments, as the article says, but they are not enough; we need to do more. The United States is one of the few developed countries that has yet to embrace the importance of knowing, with at least some proficiency, another language.
That upsets me. As our world becomes more connected, sensitivity to the languages of others is increasingly important. When it comes to the pervasiveness of English, I saw the strange sense of entitlement Americans possess (dare I say boast?) when I visited South Africa and France. Yes, English is common, but if you are abroad, it is not required for the locals to know. Those who do, however, are often delighted at the chance to practice a language they learned, in a real scenario. Americans should take note.
Recently, Coca-Cola ran an advertisement during the Super Bowl which featured a number of people singing, in various languages, the popular American patriot song “America the Beautiful.” For whatever reason, this ad sparked huge controversy. Viewers trumpeted in with cracks like:
“Still confused as to why they were singing about America in all those foreign languages in the Coke commercial. We speak English…”
“Coke having a commercial with an American song in other languages… not cool. Coke. GTFO with that.”
“Well.. I won’t be drinking #coke anymore. We speak English in the #USA. Get over it.”
(Shockingly, those are actual quotes.) I, personally, thought the ad was beautiful, and I felt it did well to capture how diverse America is. But what really struck me was the ignorance that surfaced in the light of a major corporation trying to include a variety of groups. I chuckled to myself while reading tweets surrounding this campaign; not because some incorrectly referred to the song as our National Anthem, but rather because people were outraged that a company would dare to run an advert in any language other than good ol’ English. Hate to break it to everyone, but there is no official language in the United States. Rather, English is merely the de facto official language by virtue of being the most common.
Yet, for some reason, the prevalence of English in America has led to an unsettling trend of people unwilling to learn the tongues of others. With the increased prevalence of the internet, it is easier than ever to learn another language, but many scoff at the idea and waste their chances. I see the disinterest arise from bad ideals bread by poor school habits. Most schools offer foreign languages, but it is not in the way it should be. Language starts in high school, but often, due largely in part to America’s awful education system, is rarely emphasized. The trio of European languages — Spanish, German, and French — are the most common choices, with an emphasis on Spanish. If a student is lucky, he or she might have the chance to try Italian or Russian, or maybe even Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic. This is all, of course, for the fortunate. Some schools do not offer foreign languages at all!
When class is over the language is, for the most part, forgotten until the same hour the next day. There is no push on an institutional level to heavily implement language learning, and it makes it harder for students to truly get anything out of their studies. Personally, I had to supplement my learning with hours of music, radio shows, podcasts, and talking to myself and my peers to finally get to the level where I felt fluent, or at least proficient, in French. I had to try hard for three years, all while the school made no effort to really help me, or anyone else for that matter, learn more easily or efficiently.
Studies have shown that Spanish and French take about twenty-three or twenty-four weeks — about 575 to 600 classroom hours — for a native English speaker to learn. German, a little more difficult, takes thirty weeks, or 720 classroom hours. Most students spend much longer than that in a language class throughout high school and yet have very little to show for it at the end. Simply depressing. America is one of the few countries where people brag about their stupidity or how little they know on a subject (this makes me laugh, as on the university level we are very accomplished). This needs to be different.
Learning a language is really not that difficult. For some, yes, sadly you may be past your prime to become a polyglot, but it is never too late to learn at least a little and commit it to your heart. There are countless resources for every language on smartphones, the web, and the library, for those interested in learning. You do not need to buy expensive software or enroll in a class to start. Books can be checked out, free resources are everywhere, and other like-minded people are looking for pen pals. So far, I am completely self-taught in Japanese and while, yes, it is difficult, it is an exhilarating challenge, and I am coming along well. I challenge you, as a reader, if you do not know another language, and even if you do, to learn at least one more. I challenge you to broaden your horizons. As a citizen of our increasingly interconnected global community, you should want to interact with those from other nations. You should want to understand other cultures. A new language is a powerful thing. You should want that power. It is not out of reach. 頑張って (Good luck)!
Here are some resources to help you choose a new language to learn.
Here is an infographic on time necessary for various languages.
