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Leon Panetta, who took over as U.S. Secretary of Defense on July 1, thinks the military needs more language training. According to a piece at the Hispanic Studies Forum:
In a memo last week to senior Pentagon officials, he said that “language, regional and cultural skills are enduring warfighting competencies that are critical to mission readiness in today’s dynamic global environment.” He asked relevant military leaders to “establish and execute policies” to “show we value these skills.” He called for more “cross-cultural training,” and new efforts to “increase and sustain the foreign language proficiency” of military professionals.
Well good luck with that one. Despite the fact that everyone seems to have some vague perception that learning foreign languages are important, our schools (elementary, secondary, or tertiary) are just not teaching foreign languages to American students very well.
Even George Washington University, which says that “a global perspective is essential to GW’s academic mission, and the University has long supported international travel to conduct research, study cultures and languages, [and] promote collaboration with peer institutions,” eliminated the school’s foreign language requirement last year, apparently in an effort to save money.
Panetta, the son of immigrants from Calabria, apparently speaks Italian fluently, though Italian is not exactly a language “critical to mission readiness in today’s dynamic global environment.”
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Texas Aggie on August 21, 2011 3:09 PM:
This is emblematic of the typical American attitude that the rest of the world doesn't matter.
A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting. “Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?” he asks.
The two Americans just stare at him.
“Excusez-moi, parlez vous Fracais?” he tries. The two continue to stare.
“Parlare Italiano?” No response.
“Hablan ustedes Espanol?” Still nothing.
The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted.
The first American turns to the second and says, “Y’know, maybe we should learn a foreign language.”
“Why?” says the other. “That guy knew four languages, and it didn’t do him any good.”
Equal Opportunity Cynic on August 22, 2011 8:19 AM:
In fairness, many countries that are used to being somewhat large or important in their own perception (France, Spain, Brasil, Mexico) also have a dreadful record of teaching foreign languages.
Most places, FL tutelage is exactly backwards. We concentrate on the more "important" stuff until high school. This would be perfectly rational except that the capacity for learning a language is much less after age 10. If we taught a FL from grades 1 to 4 and then shelved it until college, we'd get better outcomes.
Texas Aggie on August 23, 2011 12:18 PM:
I can't speak to the records for France, Spain or Brasil, but in Mexico, they really are serious about teaching languages. The Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon requires that all students pass the equivalent of the TOEFL in a foreign language to get a diploma, and some departments such as Foreign Relations require two extra languages. Bilingual elementary, junior and high schools are booked to overflowing, and the public schools are now teaching English in elementary grades. The bilingual high school associated with UANL has six applicants for each position. There is even a program to certify the teachers to make sure they know how to teach second languages.
Parents are very interested in seeing to it that their kids learn foreign languages to be competitive in the international world of business. Chinese and Japanese are two languages that are common at foreign language centers and are supported by their governments. The Aliança Français gives French language courses that are filled. There is an association of German teachers for the whole country that has an annual convention. Mexico is serious about foreign languages and its graduates are going to be taking jobs from American students who have no idea what other cultures are like or how to function in them.