Foreign-language requirements at the University of Wisconsin have garnered criticism from students past and present whose pre-college academic careers they didn't quite cover. But a semester or two of introductory foreign language could very well prove the most valuable in all of a lifelong academic portfolio, and UW's requirements are now more important than ever.
Today's marketplace is going global. The first lecture in introductory International Business says it best: Foreign banks are buying American highways and airports, firms in India handled 16 times as many U.S. tax returns last year as just two years before and the amount of cross-border trade as a factor of global GDP is increasing every day.
Learning other languages and understanding other cultures isn't just a leisure-time activity anymore. It's sink or swim out there, and Americans are going to have to do more than doggy paddle with a pocket dictionary to get out of New York harbor.
English is the most-learned second language in the world. Everyone speaks it, wherever English-speaking natives go. Politicos debate in English. Business transactions are performed in English. The Web appears mostly in English. But betting on English as the only language to know for the next 50 years is a lousy move.
There are literally billions of up-and-comers working hard across the Pacific and south of the Rio Grande to get somewhere. Knowing Spanish drops borders to more than 20 developing countries and hundreds of millions of those people. Knowing Chinese introduces another 1.3 billion. They aren't just sitting idly by as America sits on top of the world: More are moving to the United States every day, controlling more and more of our imports and will someday have a much greater impact our everyday lives.
The benefits of learning a foreign language extend further than the global marketplace and beyond multilingual adeptness.
The study of foreign languages, even at the most basic level, advances the understanding of native English. As any online translator can verify, it's not as easy as simply saying "el baño" for bathroom — even translating something as simple as "I like you" to Spanish requires a delicate understanding of universal language constructs.
Moreover, multicultural awareness on any level fosters a better understanding of humanity and a more accepting, discerning perspective. Having even a glimpse of other cultures, most of which are deeply rooted and reflected in their language, provides a reference point by which to better comprehend ours and still others.
Despite the benefits, however, foreign language education gets the short end across the board in America. For first and second graders, learning another language is as easy as putting together a box of Legos, but elementary schools in the U.S. are just now beginning to include it in early curricula.
Even in high school, when some states like Illinois require regular gym attendance throughout, foreign language is largely optional or sometimes unavailable — much less four years of it required.
So, higher-education institutions are left with students whose educational portfolios are missing foreign-language study. And a lifelong academic career, certified by graduation from a prestigious university, simply isn't complete without it.
University-level introductory language courses aren't exactly ideal, but they exist for a reason: The only way to remedy such a substantially lacking educational foundation at an undergraduate level is to offer everything from start to finish.
A few UW graduation requirements stressing multicultural insight, written and oral communication and worldwide marketability should absolutely remain intact. If anything, requirements for students lacking in prior foreign-language study should be made more stringent, not less — the benefits are far too great for any Wisconsin graduate to be without.
Taylor Hughes is a junior majoring in Information Systems. He spent one year of high school living in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica.
