As citizens of the US, I often feel that we are never really encouraged to get out and learn a foreign language. I think that this comes from the expectations for our citizens to conform and learn English as a sort of way to be American.
I am currently taking a speech class and one of the students in this class did one of their speeches on the importance of learning a foreign language and it got me thinking and on the same page as him... I was required to take 2 years of foreign language in High School and chose to take French. I liked France and liked the idea of taking the language, but never took it very seriously. I think this is because even though I thought I would go to France, I wouldn't need to really know it.
How naive!
In that mindset, what I was really thinking was that I expected the French to know English, thus expected them to bear the brunt of my shortcomings in order to accommodate me! I think this is exactly what the rest of our country thinks when it comes to learning a foreign language. Because it is such a widely known language, we are sitting back and expecting people to learn our language even though we are visiting a place that doesn't normaly speak our language.
After listening to his arguments, I full heartedly agree that we should promote the speaking of foreign language in this country. I think that with so many spanish speakers in the US right now, it is only right to shift our way of thinking to be a bit less self centered on the global scale and a bit more enlightened by another language.
Just a thought.
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