Unpopular Opinion

The fact most Americans are monolingual is a factor of geography more than education. I live in New England the closest area to me that predominantly speaks a foreign language is Quebec, but most of the Quebecoise speak English conversationally. Next to that the Mexican border is 32 hours away by car.

I studied French for 5 years, the closest I've come to having a French conversation outside of class is speaking three sentences with a friend I met in college who also spoke French. It just never comes up. It's much easier to learn a language when you have actual people to speak to in it.

So, here is my response to that.

Why? Where I am from in the US, at least 2 years of language classes were required.

I took Spanish as most people did and years later I had a long term relationship with a Mexican, so over time I learned Spanish.

I’m now, not living in the US and learning a third language.

But I’m very much the exception. Most US citizen, never interact with people who don’t speak English as most Americans never leave the US.

No matter how much you study another language, you are not really going to learn it and be competent with it unless you regularly use it.

Most people in the US will not have any exposure to the language they learned or studied. So what’s the point?

It just seems like a wasted effort for most people.

Which language?

Once I learn that language, how do I maintain it?

I've "learned" three languages aside from English over the years, and even when I've traveled to areas in the world that predominantly speak that language, English is so ubiquitous that it really didn't matter if I knew it or not.

I'm essentially monolingual again, even though I can understand bits and pieces if necessary.

Why bother? I would have to drive 22 hours straight to get to a location where English wasn't the primary language. This isn't Europe where the language changes faster than the timezones.

I live in the US and speak three languages. I almost never have an opportunity to speak anything other than English, and it's not for lack of desire.

That said, I think the word pathetic is way too harsh. People just have different needs and priorities.

OP: You haven't given any positive rationale- this sounds like idealism

My counterpoints:

I live in the UK. I can get to several other European countries in time to have lunch there and be back home for supper. I have visited several of these countries. In each case I have attempted to speak the local language (I studied French at (high) school for 5 years). In each case, as soon as I open my mouth, locals respond in English with apologies that their English isn't perfect (it's usually fine anyway). As a result it is almost impossible to improve in that language since there is little opportunity.

You are forgetting the 'common language' problem: Let's say you have parties from 2 different countries or states that speak completely different languages. What language do you choose for communications between them? one-on-one you might take turns but what happens when you have 3? 4? or maybe 20-50 like India? What language do you suppose Poland and China communicate in? What language do you use to cover news in science and technology? The other trade languages have largely lost out to English on the world stage.

There's really no pressure for most Americans to learn another language. English is the lingua franca across the Western world, American culture has been disseminated globally, and besides that, most Americans spend their whole lives without ever leaving the country. I'm making no comment on whether or not these things are good or right, but there's almost no social, personal, or economic pressure for an average American to learn a separate language. Anecdotally, the only times I've ever felt like learning another language it was as a hobby or challenge to myself.

What language do you propose? Take a pick: Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or ASL. And then make your arguments as to why it's necessary.

If you propose any other language, you're definitely wasting our time here. There are far too many things to learn, and education organizers have to make decisions somehow.

The U.S. education system sucks in some ways, but it's likely that your state or school district sucked in many more ways. A lot of educational regulations are state-specific, and a lot of the funding is county-specific.

Upvoting because I actually disagree. Learning a language is a personal journey and the only way to really do well is to be surrounded by it.

It's not pathetic at all. The US is nearly three times the size of Europe and speaks the same language...why mandate learning another? It makes sense in Europe because of how many languages are spoken there.

If the US was like Europe with each state speaking a different language, it would probably be mandated. There is very little value for Joe Schmoe in the middle of Iowa to learn French or whatever.

You're gonna get (rightfully, imo) downvoted not because people agree with you but because your post is condescending as fuck

As a bi-lingual person I disagree. It makes sense for me to learn english as it's practically an universal language but if you already speak that natively then I don't see a need to learn some other language just for the sake of it. Yeah it's not a bad thing but also not necessary. I spent 6 years studying swedish aswell but I never bothered to actually learn it because Swedes can talk english better than I can talk swedish. Every single hour sitting in the swedish class could've been spent better doing literally anything else.

Huh, people here are really hostile to learning another language, with an undercurrent of 'Murica fuck yeah!

Us speaks de facto on international language of communication. Other countries have much better second language programs because it is needed if you go outside of your (relatively small) country and or consume information on internet the vast majority of which is in English. The same story is for any English speaking country. Do you think that UK is different?

Well, this IS an unpopular opinion, so.. thanks for that?

It was mandatory in my midwestern HS?

We had 3 students enrolled in Latin, maybe 30 in Japanese, the the rest in Spanish and mandarin.

Barely anyone kept it up. I blame a few factors. I think there should have been more encouraging elements.

Counterpoint the USA has 350,000,000 people and landscapes from Arctic tundra to tropical islands and most everything in between. Learning another language may be fulfiling for many, but rhere is plenty to do and see without leaving US territory.

Least embarassing thing about the US.

...you say in English.

Also for the record if you learn 3 romance languages that's the equivalent of like 2 normal ones because they're so similar. Fight me.

Isn't it the case with western Europe. Like don't most British people who don't have mixed origins speak only English. Or nearly hold onto what they have been taught at school

It is mandatory. Just not a whole lot of mandatory happening. 2 years required in high-school. And 2-4 semesters required in college depending in your major.

It's a good start, but I think it needs to happen very early on. I took 2 years of Spanish in highschool, and it was a good start. I've been practicing for 20 years since. I'd say I'm close to fluent, but 2 decades is long time to get to fluency.

In my area you're required to take at least 4 or 5 years (can't remember which one) of classes involving another language throughout middle and high school. But we never have a need outside of those classes to use the language we learned, so most people forget it.

When there isn't really a need to use another language, it's mostly a waste of time learning one.

When I was in school ~20 years ago you needed at least 2 years of a foreign language to graduate. Pretty sure that's still the case.

I'm 28 years old and have never needed to know another language.

The only time not knowing another language has impacted me was when I was working with someone who couldn't speak English but we worked out non verbal communication and actually got a long pretty well.

With all that said I would love to learn multiple languages. The problem is there's few teachers/services to teach languages and even fewer people to help practice conversational speaking.

It is mandatory. A very little. By state

When I was in high school, New York required three years of a language for college track degree, but an Engineering Major in college had no farther requirements

In Massachusetts, my older son went to a private high school that also required 3 years but my youngest son in public high school I think needed only two. The older is an Education major and requires an additional semester of a language in college

Even if these requirements are universal, they’ll never be more than an intro to most kids, unless they start much earlier and there is some form of immersion

Edit: worse than I thought:

• https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/foreign-language-requirements

Presently, 23 U.S. states do not require the two years of foreign language study that is required for admittance into many colleges.

I'm an English-speaking Canadian, so the de facto 2nd language here is French. It was mandatory at school. I'd say I have a passable reading knowledge of it, though my oral comprehension sucks. That's still good though. I can read signs and menus in Québec and maybe even say a few words if people are patient with me.

What I find a tad amusing is that while English class was also mandatory, I don't remember learning much about the English language itself. Like I learned more English grammar and language structure from French class, plus those couple of semesters of Latin I took.

I also speak a bit of Japanese as it's my literal mother tongue, but there, the situation is sort of reversed from French. Speaking comes naturally but reading is hopeless. So I guess I am bilingual in 1 + .5 + .5 sort of way?