Earlier this month, President George W. Bush announced an initiative to promote foreign-language study in the United States.

The president framed the estimated $114 million initiative as a necessary step in ensuring national security. He proceeded to say that it was also a "kind gesture" to learn someone else's language. This latter justification stems from the all-too-common multiculturalist notion that Americans should feel guilty about English becoming increasingly common around the world. However, this fact is nothing to feel guilty about, as it stems from little more than economic necessity.

Here at the University of Wisconsin, students are often required to take three or four semesters of foreign language to receive a degree in a subject that does not require proficiency in a second language. Proponents of the requirements claim that learning a foreign language advances the general liberal-studies goals of a four-year university. They also argue that students can reap substantial rewards from branching out beyond their native language.

However, students are unlikely to receive such rewards after instruction is limited to just a few semesters. Instead, students are more likely to land in a limbo where they retain just enough knowledge to inquire about the location of el baño.

Research suggests young children are much more capable than adults in achieving foreign-language proficiency. Accordingly, by the time students reach college age, most have missed the crucial window where learning a foreign language comes at little cost. Instead, the quest to learn another language becomes quite expensive in terms of time, energy and missed opportunities. If educators for some reason insist that students learn other languages in addition to English, elementary and middle school curricula should incorporate these measures. College is simply not the place.

Today, English is the uncontested lingua franca. It is the third-most-spoken language and the most widely learned second language in the world. English dominance has expanded even more in the Internet age. As more and more individuals learn English, the practical value of American students learning other languages decreases. The practice truly amounts to little more than a "kind gesture."

To his credit, President Bush's foreign language initiative does ascribe more value to certain languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Obviously, speakers proficient in any of these languages are valuable assets in terms of national security. Here at the UW, however, multicultural subjectivism reigns supreme, as no distinction exists between languages of more or less practical importance.

It is easy to dismiss criticisms of foreign-language requirements as ethnocentric and xenophobic. However, this is not at all the case. Legitimate criticism of the requirement simply stems from an assessment of the world as it is.

Evidenced by the economically fueled explosion of English around the world, learning English is obviously of great importance to non-native speakers. They do not learn English as a "kind gesture" or out of some deference to the American way of life. Instead, it is understood as a prerequisite to success.

Besides, at the end of the day, any language — English or otherwise — is simply a means of communicating ideas. It is the ideas, not the language, that truly count.

What's more, many of today's students have, at best, a mediocre grasp of the English language. American students also continue to lag behind their foreign counterparts in the universal languages of math and science.

With this in mind, the UW's foreign-language requirements seem even more misguided. Whether these requirements stem from an effort to appease the multiculturalist racket or from some other less pernicious pedagogical motivation, across the board, foreign-language requirements misdirect resources that could certainly be invested in more valuable endeavors.

Mark Murphy ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in economics and finance.