Math, science, history, English are ubiquitous subjects that every student must take in school. But there is another subject that should be considered a core class for any college-bound high schooler, foreign languages. Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, Russian, and even Arabic, these classes should be considered core classes, as they are basically a de facto requirement for entrance into college. We have accepted this fact, but we should ask, why is this the case? As a student who has taken Spanish, I have asked this very question while I am supposed to be doing my Spanish homework. The main arguments for it, such as communication and wages, simply don’t hold up. Foreign language education is a waste of time and the requirements should be
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English is the most commonly spoken second language in the world and everyone in business, science, and politics speaks it, basically every person who is targeted by the education system for learning foreign languages to communicate with better. According to Inside Higher Ed “in the Netherlands and elsewhere, there has emerged a trend to move from teaching the local language to English” (De Wit). Education systems around the world are becoming more supportive of English education, which means that the adults produced by those systems speak English. The world uses English as the language to communicate with each other. If a Norwegian wants to talk to a Korean, they use the common language between them, English. English got to this level of dominance from the Anglo-American dominance of the global economy during the 19th and 20th century. Some might say English will probably be displaced by another language as other countries becomes more dominant in the global economy, such as Mandarin or Hindi. Unfortunately this does not work, since English benefits from the ‘network effect.’ Consider it like this, if everyone in a company uses Skype as its internal communication system, if you try using Hangouts you won’t be able to talk to anybody in the company, since they all use Skype. No matter your resolve, no one in the company will use Hangouts. This is a well documented concept and is applied to languages. Consider how Latin was the dominant language in the former Roman empire long after the Empire's collapse. And, since most languages in the area today are derived from Latin, you could make the argument Latin is still dominant in the areas where the Romans ruled 2,000 years ago. Even though the people who actually used the language had long since been taken from power, their language remain dominant because of
English is the most commonly spoken second language in the world and everyone in business, science, and politics speaks it, basically every person who is targeted by the education system for learning foreign languages to communicate with better. According to Inside Higher Ed “in the Netherlands and elsewhere, there has emerged a trend to move from teaching the local language to English” (De Wit). Education systems around the world are becoming more supportive of English education, which means that the adults produced by those systems speak English. The world uses English as the language to communicate with each other. If a Norwegian wants to talk to a Korean, they use the common language between them, English. English got to this level of dominance from the Anglo-American dominance of the global economy during the 19th and 20th century. Some might say English will probably be displaced by another language as other countries becomes more dominant in the global economy, such as Mandarin or Hindi. Unfortunately this does not work, since English benefits from the ‘network effect.’ Consider it like this, if everyone in a company uses Skype as its internal communication system, if you try using Hangouts you won’t be able to talk to anybody in the company, since they all use Skype. No matter your resolve, no one in the company will use Hangouts. This is a well documented concept and is applied to languages. Consider how Latin was the dominant language in the former Roman empire long after the Empire's collapse. And, since most languages in the area today are derived from Latin, you could make the argument Latin is still dominant in the areas where the Romans ruled 2,000 years ago. Even though the people who actually used the language had long since been taken from power, their language remain dominant because of