Can you understand this headline written in French? That’s what the headline says. Maybe you can speak another language, maybe you can’t. For majority of America, it’s the latter.
There are more than 6,500 languages spoken in the world today, but despite the vast number of languages, the growing diversification of America and the number of different languages spoken here, only 20% of Americans can speak more than one language, according to the US Census Bureau. America is sorely lacking in the language department.
Other countries place much more importance on learning another language than America does. Countries like France, Norway and Austria require students to be enrolled in a language course, according to bigthink.com. While only 20% of Americans can speak more than one language, 60% of the entire world can speak two or more, according to ilanguages.org.
Learning another language should be a requirement in schools, and not just the “2 years of a language to graduate” high schools requirement. Schools should require it from the time they’re in kindergarten until at least they graduate from middle school. Knowing more than one language can help you communicate better with others also.
Learning sign language for example, could help you communicate with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. One in eight Americans 12 years or older has hearing loss in both of their ears (13% of the US population), according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, yet only .3% of the US population knows sign language.
Not only could learning another language help a child or even an adult communicate better with someone, but it can also help your child’s cognitive brain development, improve their memory and concentration and help boost their creativity, according to leadwithlanguages.org. Being bilingual has also shown to be a valuable asset in the workforce, with bilingual people being paid 5-20% more every hour than someone who is monolingual.
Research has also been done that suggests learning another language can help delay the onset of dementia. According to a study done by Iowa State University, researchers found that people who are bilingual use the posterior and subcortical regions of the brain for processing information; the subcortical region is one of the regions responsible for memory. Monolinguals on the other hand use the frontal circuits more, which can increase the risk of developing dementia symptoms sooner.
In schools and cities like ours, who have a large population that speak the same language, schools should assign each elementary school a language based on the most spoken language besides English in that area. Parents can then choose what school they want their child to attend.