Foreign language is key to success

This is an interesting opinion piece showing how important it is for everyone, including Americans, to know another language. - - Donna Poisl

by Meina Kaleyah

I would like to blame geographic isolation for the fact that most U.S. citizens that are not of immigrant households do not speak any languages other than English. Fine, you can't hone your German or your French, we get it - it's all an ocean away. Regardless, just to the south of us Spanish, and not English is what is spoken.

According to a report conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics, Foreign Language Teaching: "What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries," the U.S. lags in foreign language proficiency because linguistic education is introduced too late, and our teaching force is not properly equipped. These conclusions should not come as a surprise. We can all recollect the nightmare and confusion of foreign language classes, so it's no wonder why few bother to pursue the languages in which they once held interest. So, what do we lose from avoiding learning a foreign language?

In most careers, fluency in another language is highly valued, not only for what such knowledge indicates about the employee but also for business ventures, creating a scenario where expanding into a global market becomes viable. A study published April 2006 in the "Journal of International Business Studies" concludes that introducing employees that speak another language into the workplace actually cuts transaction costs that involve international clients. Previously, if an employee was multilingual, they were utilized merely for the translation of bureaucratic documents (e.g. questionnaires). Language and the associated ethnic conventions were segregated from the skill itself. Language is now an integrated strategy within corporations.
Click on the headline to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.