Get Over English!

In the United States the general populous tends that they are intelligent and sophisticated, but in reality they are not. One aspect of society that is extremely lacking is Americans’ ability to communicate. I can’t even remember how many times I have been talking to American students and they’ve told me (thinking that it’s funny), “…dude, I can’t even speak English right and I’ve been speaking it since like forever!). This is a problem that can be fixed with a little dedication and new collective efforts on the part of the people and the government. Studies show that children who learn multiple languages while they are young have better communication skills in all of the languages they speak and have better test scores in other academic disciplines. The mandatory learning of at least one other language than English should be required in the United Sates.

Having met numerous individuals from European countries, I know the benefits of speaking multiple languages. One French woman I met explained to me that to graduate from the equivalent of high school she had to take her exams in French (her native language) and another (she chose Italian). She was a very intelligent woman and was in fact a professor at one of the state universities. Other multilingual individuals that I’ve met have been extremely intelligent, so we can see that the system works.

There may be people who say that in America we don’t need to learn other languages because everyone should just learn English. Such individuals need to come down from their pedestal in “la la land” and get back into reality. This attitude is something one would expect from a racist who wants to continue the push of globalization until all other cultures are eradicated from the face of the earth!

English is such a mundane language anyway. There is more to literature than materials written in England or the United States. Besides, anything sounds better in French, Italian, or even Arabic. Other languages are more vibrant than English. Take Spanish for example, doesn’t it make you want to dance salsa get your lady-killer appearance on?

If American society continues to persists in being a one language country, we are going to find ourselves in a negative situation. Firstly, with continued immigration from South and Central America, Spanish will become more important. People in southwestern states are going to need to learn it anyway to go shopping, out to eat, or to read road signs. When China becomes the new super power and the global business language is Mandarin, where will the Americans be? They will be most likely trying to master the ridiculous rules of English grammar and complaining about something.

There is a trend starting of students learning second or third languages. We all know that these are the coolest people on campus. They have a special ability it seems to win people over and they seem to just have an aura of greatness about them. You should try to get in the “in crowd”…and they aren’t speaking in English.