Should Schools Require Students To Learn Second Languages?

Nope.

Should Schools Require Students To Learn Second Languages? Nope. by Leila Khan


Many schools in the United States and around the world require students to learn a second language. It has long been debated over by students and teachers alike. Some people argue that it benefits Americans’ ability to communicate with others around the world, that it provides an edge in career options, or that it helps people connect to a wide base of classical non-English literature. Very few realize that these points are wrong.

While learning new languages is often key to communicating with others around the world, it is often pointless to learn them in school. Not many adults remember what they learned in school. In fact, students tend to forget 95% of the knowledge they acquire in school. Only one out of four adult Americans can fluently speak a second language. While one in four may seem like a lot, it’s nothing compared to the four of four people that should retain this information. Even though it can be useful to know a second language, school isn’t the best place to learn it.

That said, how much do people really benefit from speaking a second language? A whopping forty-one percent of Americans never even leave the country, and of those that do, not all speak a second language. In fact, it’s surprisingly easy to travel to international countries without speaking the native tongue. Often times, people’s literary knowledge isn’t improved, either. Americans on average only ever read 12 books a year, anyway, and that number is going down. With Americans reading so little, it hardly makes a difference if these books are in English or not.

Contrary to popular belief, learning a language doesn’t benefit people in their job pursuits. In fact, it can do the opposite. Many high-schoolers feel that the material they learn in high-school is not helpful to their future careers. Language studies may be in part to blame. The easiest languages can take 600 hours to learn. Others can take 2 years-- 17,520 hours-- to be learned. This time can be much better deployed in the use of more career-specific subjects, such as math for physicists and basic biology for future doctors. With only 6,000 waking hours a year, and only about a sixth of those spent in school, it makes no sense to waste time learning a language that will soon enough be forgotten.

Overall, it isn’t a great idea to learn a second language in school. It may seem like useful knowledge, but odds are you won’t ever have need of a second language. Even if you do find yourself required to speak a second language, you likely won’t remember it. It’s much better to learn a language in your free time, at your own pace, using free language-learning apps like Duolingo or Drops. School simply shouldn’t be wasted on difficult-to-remember alphabets that you may never need to know. That said, bonne journée!




[Disclaimer: I personally disagree with the points made in this article, go read Lauren’s.]



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