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Of all the skills that a person could have in today's globalized world, few serve individuals – and the larger society – as well as knowing how to speak another language.
People who speak another language score higher on tests and think more creatively, have access to a wider variety of jobs, and can more fully enjoy and participate in other cultures or converse with people from diverse backgrounds.
Knowledge of foreign languages is also vital to America's national security and diplomacy. Yet, according to the U.S Government Accountability Office, nearly one in four Foreign Service officers do not meet the language proficiency requirements that they should meet to do their jobs.
Despite all these reasons to learn a foreign language, there has been a steep decline in foreign language instruction in America's colleges and universities. Researchers at the Modern Language Association recently found that colleges lost 651 foreign language programs from 2013 to 2016
The advice to learn foreign languages has been repeated for decades, but how much does it really help native speakers of English, professionally, to learn other languages? Additionally, does the decline of language courses at traditional schools reflect cheaper, better alternatives online?
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday February 07 2019, @02:16AM (3 children)
That explains why the Germans struggle with engineering; they spent too much time learning languages in school. 67% "claim" to be bilingual, and 27% think they know more than two languages. Imagine what they could accomplish if they didn't spend all that time learning languages.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday February 07 2019, @04:57AM (1 child)
You use humour to express sarcasm, but the reverse is actually true. Learning languages, especially but not only at younger ages, increases the number of neural pathways in the brain. So it really does explain why Germans don't struggle with engineering.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:36PM
And a leading theory of autism is that it can result from an under-pruning of neural pathways during early development... the trick is in training them to do something useful. Learning to speak Mongolian may increase neural pathways, but it's not terribly useful around here - even if you do need to translate Mongolian texts, Google Translate has your back on that.
My wife recently discovered a cousin who speaks French and Spanish (wife speaks English only), and they're having tons of fun e-mailing and even WhatsApp chatting via Google Translate - they would both do well to learn a common language (not likely to happen in their mid 50s), but it's pretty impressive how much they can communicate as they are.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday February 07 2019, @04:19PM
In my experience Germans are fucking awesome at not only engineering but any job they do at work.
What they are not awesome at is basic social skills.