GUEST COLUMN
BY ANTON KAISER
Why should we worry about immigrants learning to speak English, Barack Obama tells us. Instead, “You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual.”
What is it about learning to contort and twist the tongue, in harmony with guttural and melodic sounds, that supposedly would make American children better? By fact, shouldn’t we all learn to speak our own native language first, before attempting to acquire any elementary skills in one or more other languages?
“We should have every child speaking more than one language. It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beacoup, right?” says Obama.
Ignoring the terrible construct of Obama’s own extemporaneous English (a man so praised for his eloquence when reading from a teleprompter), we are now told that every American child should learn to speak Spanish. (Personally, I would prefer if they learned to speak proficient English first.) Like most liberals, Obama believes that to be multilingual is to be worldly, educated, sophisticated, inclusive, progressive, futuristic, admired, and respected in the world. Really?
Why learn Spanish? Why not the most common language in the world, Mandarin Chinese. Why not Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu), the third most common language after English? Better yet, why learn another language at all?
During two tours in Germany, I was frequently asked if I spoke German because of my last name. When I said “no,” the always somewhat haughty and abrupt Aryan reply was, “Too bad.” I invariably responded with, “Maybe. But I was born during the Nuremberg trials.” This response, which is perfectly true, invariably produced a richly ironic pregnant pause, which I enjoyed to no end. But to ease the social discomfort, I would usually follow up by mentioning that I actually spoke more than fifty languages, at least by European standards. Here is what I mean.
From the center of Germany, within a radius of just a few hundred miles, one can easily encounter French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, and multiple dialects in various languages (such as high versus low German - Prussian versus Bavarian - etc.). Therefore to speak different languages is natural to the geographical culture of the continent. For instance, Switzerland borders France, Germany, and Italy, so the Swiss naturally speak all three languages. That fact doesn’t make them more worldly, just less amalgamated and more tribal.
On the other hand, this kind of compressed cultural density is abnormal to our own continent. Trust me, Europeans simply can’t imagine the geographical vastness of the land mass of Canada and the US all speaking the same language (recognizing that Quebec prefers French). A European has absolutely no chance of traveling three to 5,000 miles without encountering multiple languages like we can in America and Canada.
Imagine if each of our fifty states spoke a different language. Would we, by natural association, learn to speak Wyoming, North Dakotan, Minnesotan, Montanan and Nebraskan? As South Dakotans, of course we would. Do more Americans on our southern border know how to speak Spanish than those who live in our more northern states? Of course they do. Using these analogies, I suggested to my German friends that I spoke more than fifty languages, by European standards.
So Europeans aren’t smarter, or more useful, or more educated because they speak multiple languages, they are simply more culturally challenged within their own limited geography.
The three most common languages in North and South America are English, Spanish, and Portuguese. So why aren't we told to also learn Portuguese? Could it be because the Portuguese language doesn’t border any of our states? Of course it is.
Finally, why do most Europeans still learn the English language in school, even though there is no border association requiring it? The answer is because they either lost to us in WW II or because they relied on us economically during the Marshall plan after the war. Through military and economic necessity, European schools made learning the English language mandatory and that reality persists to this day. I suppose we would also readily learn Spanish given those same conditions.
Europeans shouldn’t be praised for their European language skills anymore than Americans and Canadians should be chastised for the commonality of their continental language. Such statements by Obama only serve to frame the true nature of his relative inexperience and his lack of exposure to the rest of the world.
Anton Kaiser was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and retired in Rapid City after serving twenty-seven years as a U.S. Army infantry officer. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, and holds Masters Degrees in Business and in Public Administration from Webster College, St. Louis, MO. He is also a veteran of Vietnam, Berlin, Operation Just Cause (Panama) and an honor graduate of the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS.
Featured Article
Friday, July 11, 2008
Does Barack Obama Speak 50 Languages?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I definitely think that Americans should learn more than one language. If we want to become number one again in the world economy then we must be able to speak at least two languages. Communication is the key to building relationships and making business deals. We will continue to lose out if we don't understand that!
While Obama's "Its embarressing" comment is hardly an argument for learning a second language, there is a clear benefit to aquiring this skill. Learning a second language often occurs much later in life than the aquisition of one's first language and you must go through quite a mental trial to become proficient. This benefits
your cognitive ability in general.
Some benefits are more specific. Scientific inquiry for example; upwards of 25% of scientific literature(in some disciplines) to this day is published in Russian.
"So Europeans aren’t smarter, or more useful, or more educated because they speak multiple languages, they are simply more culturally challenged within their own limited geography."
I disagree with this. I'd argue that being able to speak multiple languages would make one MORE useful, such as in the job market and scientific inquiry, as the person above me mentioned. I don't understand how someone could think that attaining another skill -- be it in language or any other field -- would fail to make you more useful. Also, I would switch the author's statement to "Europeans speak multiple languages because they are smarter/more educated," not the other way around.
>Why learn Spanish? Why not the most common language in the world, Mandarin Chinese.
Because Mandarin takes much more time than the former and is unrelated to other languages. Mandarin is overrated (and yes, I can get by in Mandarin both speaking and writing).
>So why aren't we told to also learn Portuguese?
Spanish and Portuguese are so related that there is even a possibility of a single language called Portunhol becoming firmly established in the future. It exists already but is not official anywhere. So learning Spanish basically is learning Portuguese, minus about 10% of the vocabulary and the big differences in pronunciation.
>Finally, why do most Europeans still learn the English language in school, even though there is no border association requiring it? The answer is because they either lost to us in WW II or because they relied on us economically during the Marshall plan after the war.
Uh, no. English is only spoken by 9% of the population as an L1, which means that 91% of the time it's used for talking with people from Singapore, Korea, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, and so on. War has ceased to be a rationale for the popularity of English for quite some time now.
How many languages does Barry speak? Besides being able to recite muslim prayers in perfect arabic it is reported by those who went to the madrassa with him.
Attitude like Anton Kaiser's is preventing our country to progress. I am wondering whether he can speak Native American tribal language since he lives in the continent. Stop making yourself an excuse !
Over 200 languages are spoken in New York City. This is what makes America great so many different cultures sharing their Art, Songs and their Stories in English as well as their own languages. Gunalch�esh �y� x�axwdataan� (Tlingit) translates to �Thank you for allowing me to speak�
Qen Annu Yecholim!
Podemos Con Obama!
Barack Obama '08
While spending time in Germany some years ago I was eager to learn some of the language. However, when I tried to speak German, the first time I stumbled on a word or phrase the person to whom I was speaking would instantly change the conversation to English. I would have prefered some help with German, but they were eager to show off their English.
Your kids should become bilingual because by the year 2050, English will be America's second language. You're probably old enough that it doesn't matter so much for you if you know another language. You can safely die stupid, and it probably won't change your life too much.
Post a Comment