Is Learning Another Language A Waste Of Time

Is Learning a Strange Language a Waste product of Fourth dimension?

Jun 3, 2014 by

In an op-ed piece entitled "What You (Actually) Demand to Know," published in the New York Times in January 2012, Lawrence Summers, erstwhile president of Harvard University and one-time secretary of the Treasury, calls on universities to reduce the substantial investments made to teach students foreign languages. Though he understands that "it is essential that the educational experience breed cosmopolitanism", he thinks that the efforts made to master a strange tongue are no longer "universally worthwhile". In his utopian worldview, English is perfectly sufficient for such utilitarian purposes as "doing business in Asia, treating patients in Africa, or helping resolve conflicts in the Middle East". In his first-class rejoinder, Paul Cohen, an associate professor of history at the University of Toronto, highlights the "heavy political and social valence" carried by "this particular dream of a linguistically unified world". In his view, the spread of English "is at once a consequence and an musical instrument of …royal ability", showtime British and now American, just as other languages promoted, and were promoted by, other empires in the past (for an fantabulous overview, run into Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World). As Cohen argues, instead of being a footstep towards global harmony, "to end instruction languages is quite simply a recipe for cultivating anti-American resentment effectually the world".

Beyond such potential international ramifications, limiting college education to English language may have significant repercussions on the dwelling soil. Contempo research shows that learning a foreign language is beneficial for a person's cerebral evolution (although most of these benefits arise from linguistic communication learning in i'south preteen years); the New York Times, which published Summers's piece, recently reported on precisely this phenomenon. Learning a foreign language—at any age—may even help delay Alzheimer's; one time over again the New York Times did not miss that story. But besides its possible socio-political and cerebral/medical implications, the revamping of American college curriculum, proposed past Summers, betrays his warped agreement of some basic linguistic bug. According to Summers, our dauntless new world is characterized by "English's emergence equally the global linguistic communication, along with the rapid progress in automobile translation and the fragmentation of languages spoken around the earth". None of these claims, nevertheless, proves valid on a closer inspection.

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Showtime, let'south consider whether English has emerged as the bodily global language, while other languages become ever more "fragmented". Hither are some facts. Many of the world's nearly 7,000 languages are spoken by small communities; the median linguistic communication size is estimated at betwixt half-dozen,000 and 10,000 speakers (the continuous disappearance of smaller languages means that this number is gradually growing). Many of the smaller languages are endangered; some 200 languages have already disappeared in the final three generations, and many more volition likely vanish in the next few decades.* Estimates of the rate of linguistic communication endangerment vary from source to source, but the more radical predictions foresee one-half of the extant languages disappearing in the next half century. Still, English language is non the merely winner in this linguistic war, as other languages, including Spanish (in Key and Due south America), Portuguese (chiefly in Brazil), Arabic (in North Africa), Russian (chiefly in Siberia), and several of the languages of India, gain speakers when communities abandon their indigenous tongues. Thus, instead of the "fragmentation of languages", mentioned by Summers, we see a growth of non only English but of other languages as well. Many tongues too English language count every bit "mega-languages"; thirteen languages are spoken by more than 75 one thousand thousand people each, which is x times the size of the largest linguistic communication listed every bit vulnerable by UNESCO's online Atlas of the Globe'southward Languages in Danger. Such mega-languages includes Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English language, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Hindi, Russian, Japanese, German language, Punjabi, Javanese, and Wu Chinese (a slightly different list of the top eleven languages, based on unlike population counts, is given in the epitome on the left). Even if not-native speakers are taken into account, English speakers worldwide are withal only half as numerous as those of Mandarin Chinese, undoubtedly the earth'southward largest language. The next ten nearly populous languages are Telugu, Vietnamese, Korean, French, Marathi, Tamil, Yue Chinese (Cantonese), Turkish, Western farsi, and Italian, spoken by at least l million speakers each. In fact, nearly 4 billion people speak i of these 23 languages natively.

These mega-languages are non just widely spoken, but they share certain other backdrop that brand them highly unlikely to fall off the global stage any time shortly. With the exception of Wu Chinese, they all have an official status, either on the sovereign country or statoid level, which is often formalized by the state'south constitution (as is the case of French and Russian, for case). They have all been standardized (though many not-standard dialects survive alongside the standard forms). They all have written forms, and quite a few of them utilise a class of writing distinct from the Latin alphabet used by English. They all have literary traditions. They all accept major cultural significance for their speakers and for other peoples every bit well. For example, Persian and especially Arabic have traditionally played an of import office in Islamic societies; today, Turkish is gaining basis in this regard besides, as is Indonesian, though it is spoken by a "mere" 23 million native speakers. Italian is vital for lovers of opera, while many philosophers swear by German or French. The political condition of Russian is important enough to cause a brawl in Ukraine's Parliament; more recently, a publication of a dictionary of the Pomor dialect, predicated on the notion that information technology is distinct from Russian, led to criminal charges for high treason against the dictionary's creator. Linguistic purity matters likewise, with many of these mega-languages associated with some formal establishment in charge of preserving the integrity of the tongue (examples include Académie française in France and the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences). This list can be continued. It is hardly likely that the speakers of such institutionally supported languages volition exist prepared to requite up on them any fourth dimension soon.

Information technology must be noted that the world's vulnerable languages, though they may be spoken by relatively large communities, typically practice non share those properties of mega-languages. The meridian x tongues in the UNESCO list of endangered languages are such widely spoken languages as Southward Italian (vii.v 1000000 speakers), Sicilian (v million), Low Saxon (4.8 million), Belarusian (4 million), Lombard (3.5 million), Romani (3.v million), Yiddish (three 1000000), Gondi (2.vii million), Limburgian-Ripuarian (ii.6 one thousand thousand), and Quechua of Southern Bolivia (ii.3 million). Starting time, note that speakers of many of these languages are switching to a language other than English language: speakers of South Italian, Sicilian, and Lombard switch to Italian, those of Low Saxon to German, those of Limburgish-Ripuarian mostly to Dutch or German, and Quechua speakers are most probable to shift to Castilian. Second, of these top ten vulnerable languages but two—Belorussian and Quechua—have an official status anywhere, but three—Belarusian, Romani, and Yiddish—accept had standardized forms, and only three—Sicilian, Belarusian, and Yiddish—have literary traditions. These issues contribute to the increasingly precarious status of these languages.

The global accomplish of English is indeed cracking; to cite from Cohen's rejoinder,

"Estimates put the number of English-speakers (both equally a native and a second natural language) at near five hundred million. Anglophone tourists traveling in many parts of the world are generally relieved to discover that they can get by with English. Universities across Europe have switched their language of instruction in certain degree programs entirely to English. Anglophones curiosity at the impressive mastery of English displayed by well-educated interlocutors from the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Federal republic of germany. The working language for the cosmopolitan customs of engineers and managers employed by the European aerospace giant that manufactures Airbus shipping is English. In ports and on the high seas, ships' captains communicate in a standardized class of English known every bit Seaspeak. Pilots and air traffic controllers acquire a similar course known as Aviation English. World leaders today generally chat in English when they assemble at summits. During Jacques Chirac'southward presidency, even France—the modern nation-country that has invested perhaps the most energy and resources in promoting its national vernacular within and without its borders—ceased insisting on the systematic use of French in international organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations."

And nevertheless, the domination of English is not quite what Summers conceives information technology to be. Chinese and Russian, amongst other languages, have a vast presence online. Wikipedia boasts 285 language editions, of which the German, French, and Dutch ones have over 1 million articles each, while Italian, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and Portuguese have over 700,000 manufactures each. India'southward Bollywood moving-picture show industry produces movies in a big number of languages: according to Cohen, "in 2010 alone, ane,274 films were produced in a total of twenty-3 languages—of these, 215 were shot in Hindi, 202 in Tamil, 181 in Telugu, 143 in Kannada, 116 in Marathi, 110 in Bengali, and 105 in Malayalam (and 117 films were dubbed from 1 regional language to another). Only vii were produced in English". Egypt's huge film industry produces films in the local linguistic communication (in this case, Egyptian Arabic), non English language, every bit do film industries in most other countries. Beyond the vast Castilian-speaking world, telenovelas enjoy corking popularity. Again, the list can be continued.

Even in the U.Southward. itself English has been competing—to some people's dismay—with other languages. Every bit anthropologist and linguist Edward Sapir then aptly put it in 1929:

"Few people realize that inside the confines of the U.s.a. there is spoken today a far greater diverseness of languages … than in the whole of Europe. We may go further. We may say, quite literally and safely, that in the state of California lone there are greater and more numerous linguistic extremes than can exist illustrated in all the length and breadth of Europe."

Heritage_language_states_2007

The same phenomenon is fifty-fifty more pronounced today: although many indigenous Native American languages are either extinct or on the verge of disappearance, numerous tongues accept been brought to this state by immigrant groups. Equally reported in an earlier post, 181 immigrant languages are spoken in the U.S. today, with an alphabetical list running from Adamawa Fulfulde, a Niger-Congo language from Cameroon, to Zoogocho Zapotec, an Oto-Manguean indigenous to Mexico. In California—the largest "heritage language" state—43% of the population report speaking a language other than English at dwelling. New Mexico and Texas trail with 36% and 34%, respectively. Other states with high proportions of non-English-speakers include New York and Arizona (29% in both), New Jersey (28%), Nevada (27%), Florida and Hawaii (26% in both). In absolute numbers, Texas, New York, and New Jersey together have about equally many heritage language speakers equally California alone.

Heritage_languages_CA_chart

Among the languages spoken by immigrants, Spanish is the most common by far. In California, for example, 67% of the 10 million residents who use a language other than English at home speak Castilian. Other languages spoken by significant immigrant communities in California include Tagalog (4.8% of non-English speakers), Chinese (3.vii%), Vietnamese (3.3%) and Korean (2.4%). The Santa Clara County, the abode of this blog, is i of the most multilingual areas in the country. In this canton, 74% of non‑English speakers speak Spanish, just Vietnamese, Chinese, and Tagalog are common too. In San Francisco Canton to the north, only 27% of "heritage linguistic communication" speakers speak Spanish, while 40% speak Chinese; other tongues one is likely to hear in San Francisco include Tagalog, Russian, Vietnamese, and French (the distribution of various languages in California is discussed in more particular in an earlier post). Nor are these "heritage languages" restricted purely to the abode use. When I telephone call my bank, I have to choose whether I want prompts in English or Castilian. At least half-dozen local TV channels here broadcast only in languages other than English (mostly, Castilian and Chinese). Voting materials arrive in Castilian, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, in addition to English. Hospitals, courts and local administration offices provide interpreters—free of accuse.

And what of the tertiary cornerstone of Summers's linguistic utopia, "the rapid progress in machine translation"? In my Languages of the World blog, I take written extensively about the shortcomings of the currently bachelor machine translation tools, including Google Interpret. As a professional person translator in the life sciences field, I refuse to accept on translation jobs if the customer or the mediating company insists I utilise the so-called "translation retention" tools. I have on occasion used Google Translate, merely only to translate private words or very short phrases, or as a "first-pass" translation for languages that I know well. As I have pointed out elsewhere, Google all too ofttimes fails to translate both words in context and grammatical concepts, such equally gender. In fact, it fails nigh in piecing together the grammatical structure of a sentence, something than even a child tin can practice for his of her native linguistic communication. Though it offers translation in 65 languages (and is set to round the number to 100 earlier too long), for most language pairs Google Interpret uses so‑called "intermediary languages", usually English. Going across the most easily translatable forms of language into something equally complex as poetry or humour, Google Translate performs even more than poorly. I will leave the readers—and Mr. Summers, whose former home of Harvard has one of the best Slavic departments in the land—with a Google Translate-produced rendition of my favorite Russian poem, Alexander Pushkin'southward "I loved you once", aslope a couple of man-produced translations: even the worst of them, in my opinion, beats the Google Translate "masterpiece" by a long shot, which is not even an acceptable word-for-discussion gloss or a set of grammatical English sentences. Enjoy!

Translated past Google Translate:

I loved you more than, perhaps
In my eye is not extinguished;
Simply now you do not worry;
I exercise not want to sadden you lot.
I loved you silently, hopelessly,
The timid jealousy was stressed;
I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly,
As God grant you another honey.

Translated by Mikhail Kneller:

I loved you and this honey by chance,
Inside my soul has never fully vanished;
No longer shall it e'er make yous tense;
I wouldn't desire to sadden yous with anguish.
I loved y'all speechlessly and wildly,
By modesty and jealousy was stressed;
I loved you and so sincerely and so mildly,
Every bit, God permit, may love you someone else.

Translated by Dr. Daniel Feeback:

I loved yous in one case; mayhap I should exclaim,
My love withal lingers deep within my core.
Only I practice not want to cause you any hurting,
So grieve thee not for me a moment more.
Silently and hopelessly I loved y'all,
Tormented, I was too jealous and too shy.
May God provide another who volition dear you,
Only as gently and as fervently as I.

Translated past Genia Gurarie:

I loved y'all, and I probably still do,

And for a while the feeling may remain…

But permit my love no longer problem you,

I exercise non wish to cause you lot whatsoever pain.

I loved you; and the hopelessness I knew,

The jealousy, the shyness – though in vain –

Made up a dear so tender and and then true

As may God grant you to be loved again.

And finally a humorous "modernized" translation past Dina Belyaeva:

I dug y'all, baby, and reckon that sick feeling
Has non dissolved, still lingers in my gut.
And that's none of your business concern. I'm spooky.
Non that I wanna bug you, my sweetheart.

I dug yous to a point of existence useless,
Like frigging dummy steeped in jealousy.
I dug you, just you lot're plain clueless.
I trust some other dude volition get at information technology.

_____________

* The size of a language (by number of speakers) is a predicting cistron, although not all endangered languages are small, equally I discuss in more detail in an earlier post.

Sources:

Ostler, Nicholas (2006) Empires of the Give-and-take: A Language History of the Globe. Harper Perennial.

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