Perhaps you remember the dust-up several weeks ago when Barack Obama, speaking at a town hall meeting in suburban Atlanta, suggested that parents should urge their children to learn foreign languages. Xenophobic commentators and GOP activists immediately took to the stump to denounce Obama for elitism, insufficient nationalism and a tendency to coddle foreigners.
Wow. Advocating learning foreign languages is that bad, huh? As a French teacher and lover of language learning, I disagree quite strongly. But don't worry - so does the author of the article. So go read what she has to say.
6 comments:
I don't usually use this phrase, but I can't help myself: Only in America ... could learning other languages be considered elitist. I believe in the rest of the world it is called "common courtesy" or "taking care of business."
My brother used to work with a refugee resettlement agency. He would come home with stories about farmers from the African interior who spoke four languages with fluency, not to show up their neighbors, but because that's how many were required to sell vegetables at the regional markets.
I've never heard anyone object to learning a foreign language before... It's hard to imagine the commentators referred to here represents the norm! Are there any names given?
My daughter is going to start Latin in 3rd grade. I'm thinking she should do that first, then French or Spanish. But do you think it would do any harm to go the other way around? Also, do you have any thoughts on Rosetta Stone? I know they have some foreign language programs for younger children.
Of course I think of 'Cheaper by the Dozen,' where the children learned other languages by listening to records in the bathroom...
Hi Janet,
Sorry I didn't answer your questions right away. No, no names given - just "right wing bloggers," the usual suspects. :-)
I started with a living language, French, and then added Latin, I think, the following year. I don't know that it matters that much except that a living language is much easier to practice in real situations. I loved both. I have heard good things about Rosetta Stone but don't have first-hand experience with it.
I am SO excited for my daughter...she LOVES languages. She is on her 2nd year of Spanish, and wants to cover at least one other language in High School, and something like 3 or 4 more in college. She definitely inherited my mother's language abilities...I sure didn't get them....
I wish more here were interested in speaking more languages...I think for those of use who were not introduced to other languages at an early age, the though of learning another language is scary.
Actually, the objectors were labeled as "GOP activists" and "smart-mouth pundits" not "right wing bloggers" :^) But hey, maybe those are synonyms in a political thesaurus that I don't own!
Anyway, we were in Arkansas about 10 days ago, and I was surprised when an ATM offered the choice of 3 languages: English, Spanish, and French! I guess the French was for Cajuns visiting from Louisiana?
Tricia [who will willingly "press 1", because she understands the interface design issues underlying it]
Tricia, I guess I made a leap there. I Googled around a little looking for reaction to that meeting in Atlanta and most of the comments I found were on what I would characterize as right-wing blogs. I shouldn't have put those words in quotes since the only person I was quoting was myself. Ahem.
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