This whole situation is ludicrous.
I grew up, for the majority, overseas. I lived in Albania for 8 years, Germany for 3, and I frequently visit my parents who now live in Spain. I speak a decent amount of German, and even more Albanian. I̢۪m working on Spanish. I would consider myself both culturally educated and aware.
With that in mind, I think it is insane that the US government require that anyone learn a second language to keep his or her job. When I lived in Germany, I was at a boarding school. Including faculty, staff, and students, there were well over 600 English-speaking people in a community of maybe 2000. Not once was any effort made by the community to help the foreigners out (linguistically). It was assumed by both them and us that being the guests in their nation, the burden of communicating was on us.
The same applied in Albania. Although more people did speak English, all of the dealings my father had with the government during our stay were conducted in Albanian. Not English.
Certainly, it is true that there is a general lack of multi-lingual Americans. Certainly, I think that as a whole, the US could do better emphasizing the importance of having more than one language in your head. But, there are no good, logical reasons to threaten the jobs of decent, hardworking Americans over this.
|
