Anglo-reality

SALAMANCA, Spain – Never before in my life have I been as jealous of a 6-year-old as I am now of my Spanish host family’s daughter. Sometimes at dinner, when “Rosita” is whining about not wanting to eat her peas, I will hear her throw in a Spanish word conjugated perfectly in the subjunctive mood without even pausing to think about it. I do realize she’s spoken Spanish all her life, but I can’t help envying her, after having spent the last few years of my life loathing the subjunctive, as Americans typically do.\nBut what is even more incredible about this girl is that at school she is being taught English, too. Actually, it’s typical for Spaniards to have at least a basic grasp of English. As the world becomes smaller and American culture permeates the globe (I’ve actually seen a 3-story Kentucky Fried Chicken a few blocks away from a Gaudi church), it’s become somewhat of a necessity. Some Spaniards need to speak English for their jobs, while others simply use it to listen to American pop music.\nBut Spaniards aren’t the only ones who are taught foreign languages from an early age. It is not uncommon for the international students at my university to speak multiple languages. One girl in my grammar class speaks French, English, German, Mandarin, Spanish and Italian. Others have attended international schools and are fluent in three or four languages, while the Americans among us struggle to learn one.\nAs ubiquitous as American culture has become, it is unfortunate that we are not truly exposed to other languages and cultures until high school. It’s simply a case of complacency; we know we can voyage to the opposite side of the world with the assurance that we will be able to find Starbucks shops there.\nBut now the world faces demographic changes of the sort no one has ever seen. The skyrocketing population is not unique to any single country, but the majority of the growth is not expected to take place in the United States. Instead, developing countries, along with rural areas in major global players such as China, will encounter unprecedented growth.\nAs for the States, we can expect an influx of immigrants, and no, not all of them will speak English.\nThe rest of the world’s population has adjusted to accommodate the trappings of American society, so why are we not doing the same for them? It is to our advantage on the global front to facilitate communication with other international players. Yet in American elementary schools, there has been no great push to teach Mandarin or Arabic. Instead, we let students reach high school with a total reliance on English and an apathetic mind-set before exposing them to other languages.\nBut as history teaches us, empires do not last forever, and neither will our cultural monopoly. While it may be easier to let the rest of the world adjust to us, if we don’t return the favor soon, we will only be hurting ourselves.