What's so important about foreign language?

     I am amused to find that I have inadvertently branded myself as the face of the French Department. Now this is funny because we don't have a French Department at Columbus State University; we have a Department of Modern and Classical Languages.

     While slightly annoyed that I have to keep correcting the department name, I am proud that I have brought awareness to the department through my constant, almost obnoxious promotion of learning a foreign language. I'm often asked whether I'm French, or if anyone in my family is from a French speaking country. I promise that it's NOT because I speak that well (I'm kind of embarrassed lately that my language skills have dropped again because I've been over committed and haven't had time to practice daily); the reason they ask is because many people don't understand why it's important to learn a language and if you're going to learn one: "why aren't you learning Spanish?"

This blurb from my Converging Media textbook (Pavlick&McIntosh, 2010)   highlights the changing language and culture dynamics on the internet as more nations cross the digital divide and contribute to the development of websites and forums. Le Monde (the largest newspaper in France) recently published an article about how English speaking users in North America have flat lined in enrolling new members to Facebook. What this means is we have reached saturation point for North American users and other countries that see the benefit of interacting of facebook are bringing new languages to what was predominantly an English speaking medium.

     So I'm sure some of my readers are thinking, "Great I don't have to talk to them so I still don't see the point in all this language stuff." Well remember that very American train of thought, "you're in my country so why don't you learn MY language?," very soon the WORLD WIDE WEB isn't going to be 'your country' anymore and you will have to interact with other language speakers. Even if you don't learn the language you will be dealing with people that come from different cultures and value systems.

The world is getting smaller, and yet there is no room for small thinkers. As internet users interact more, and 'minority group' dynamics shift, we need to become MORE open minded so that we can reduce the amount of friction that comes from trying to combine different cultural backgrounds.

Picking up books like Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands is an excellent source for international business men, but if you want to really show your stuff pick up Rosetta Stone, or Berlitz and learn some phrases. A lot of the world is impressed if you at least give their native language a shot. And as for what the 'best' language to learn is: I think anything that suits your interest. Spanish isn't better just because we're close to Mexico (close minded thinking). French is a good language to learn if you want to travel through Africa and many Arabic speakers also speak French. Portugese, German, Italian, Finnish, Japanese, Thai, Mandarin... I could keep coming up with reasons why you should learn, but the point is America needs a second language.

So which one are you going to learn?