<p>English is the lingua franca now. Americans do not need to learn another language as our European counterparts need to. European countries are essentially the sizes of our states. Imagine an America where in a state right beside you, the people spoke French, German, Czech, Russian, et cetera. Then you would have to learn another language. It is simply not necessary in America to learn another language. Sure, someone could make the argument that we should all learn Spanish to accommodate all of the Hispanic immigrants, but they are realizing that they need to learn English to succeed in this country. In other industrialized countries, their children are learning English along side of their native tongue to succeed. Americans don't need to learn another language. That is just the cold, hard facts of it all. The most hilarious thing about this is that it is coming from a student of German and a prospective linguistics major. ;-)</p>
<p>SillBill, I thought that you asked a reasonable question and am sorry you had to be subjected to rudeness, hostility and questions about your judgment. </p>
<p>I hope you were able to get some good info: Amherst, Brown, Grinnell and Rochester, Wesleyan.</p>
<p>"Pretty much NO university has a foreign language requirement for graduating"</p>
<p>Wha? -- hundreds of them do, including many of the best.</p>
<p>The UC's require two years of foreign language for admissions. Only UCLA Arts & Sciences (not engineering) requires foreign language to graduate.</p>
<p>I do not believe that USC has a foreign language requirement.</p>
<p>::Americans don't need to learn another language:: </p>
<p>They don't need to, but it would be extremely beneficial - not only would it open up new horizons and opportunities and help America shed its somewhat xenophobic reputation (which is reinforced by people like you who insist that Americans shouldn't waste time learning other languages), but on a cognitive level it also helps to sharpen your mind.</p>
<p>Rice has loose distribution requirements, and you can graduate with no foreign language. Plus, they only require 2 years in high school (although 3 are recommended).</p>
<p>Foreign language was an issue for my son, too, when he was looking and I believe Bucknell and American also don't require that you take any to graduate.</p>
<p>@ lilybbloom</p>
<p>I am not insisting that Americans shouldn't learn another language. I am simply stating that it is simply not a necessity like it is in other countries. That's my whole point. I, for one, enjoy learning foreign languages. It is in fact a hobby of mine. ;-) </p>
<p>Exploring other cultures and picking up foreign tongues is fascinating, I believe; however, the majority of your everyday Americans have no use for a second language. CollegeConfidential is not representative of the other 99.99% of Americans.</p>
<p>~Sligh</p>
<p>"however, the majority of your everyday Americans have no use for a second language."</p>
<p>An overwhelming majority of your everyday Americans have no use for algebra, either. That includes most of us with graduate degrees. Do you think a person can be considered well educated if their mathematical education ended with fractions?</p>
<p>Large numbers of Americans don't have English as their first language. Being proficient in both Spanish and English will markedly increase your employment opportunities in many fields in this country.</p>
<p>
[quote]
An overwhelming majority of your everyday Americans have no use for algebra, either. That includes most of us with graduate degrees. Do you think a person can be considered well educated if their mathematical education ended with fractions?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, I don't think that analogy flies. I know quite a few people who I would consider to be extremely well educated - with some even being full professors at top universities - who freely admit that they have no proficiency in foreign languages whatsoever. It's not that they don't want to learn or that they're somehow xenophobic. It's just that they never needed to learn it to advance in their career. Heck one of them, who is a full professor, is trying to learn a foreign language (Chinese) for the first time in his life, and he's at least in his 40's if not older. He also has said it's just something he wants to do in his spare time in his hobby, but he doesn't really need to know it for his job. </p>
<p>I think the major issue with foreign language education in the US is that it is just not particularly effective. I am becoming increasingly convinced that the only way to truly learn a foreign language is to completely immerse yourself in it - meaning to put yourself in an environment where you are forced to use it all the time and where you do not have the crutch to revert back to English. If you're an American, then that usually means that you have to actually pick up and live in a foreign country for awhile, although perhaps if you chose to live in an ethnic enclave in the US, that might work (although I doubt it). Just using a foreign language for a few hours a week is just not going to cut it. You have to be using that language all the time because so much of language fluency is derived from sheer practice and repetition. </p>
<p>As a case in point, I know a woman who took numerous advanced Japanese courses. But then when she went to live in Tokyo, she found the people there largely incomprehensible, because they were talking to her in "real" vernacular Japanese as opposed to the "baby Japanese" (as she called it) that she had learned. She said it took her about a year of living in Tokyo before she finally felt that she could hold her end of a reasonable conversation with a native Japanese person.</p>