I was disturbed to stumble upon an article on March 31 in The Argonaut titled “English is enough.”
The article essentially argued that unless a student planned on committing all four years to a language, including study abroad, it was fairly useless to study it because they would forget it all in a couple of years anyway.
Well, with all due respect, I disagree. I am a senior in International Studies and French and have participated in French classes here and abroad and I have lived abroad in Belgium and France. The author made a fair point that immersion language learning is more efficient, but that does not make classroom learning obsolete.
Learning a second language is one of the most useful pursuits. Even if one does not achieve a level of fluency, the process is incredibly beneficial. It expands thought processes by changing how we think about things. It allows us insight into how other individuals around the world think and improves our communication skills in our own language.
The suggestion that English speakers do not need to learn another language because English is so widely spoken is arrogant. Yes, English is the most utilized language in the international sphere, but that does not excuse Americans and other native English speakers from removing themselves from their comfort zones and studying another language.
It would be expected for us all to learn another language if our mother tongue was something like Swedish. Anglophones should not be exempt from language instruction due to an accident of birth.
As to the claim that students do not take anything from classes, I would like to point out that students are responsible for their own education. If a student chooses to put forth inadequate effort, that is not the fault of a whole discipline. The school system should not conform to the laziness and apathy of a group of students.
Lydia Hanson
UI student
International Studies, French