I graduated from college with two degrees. One was in political science, which led me to graduate school and eventually into the workforce, and one was in French. Some might argue that political science was the more practical, and it certainly has given me more tangible returns. But my French classes gave me something equally valuable, though more ineffable: the ability to communicate.
Scholars argue that there are several reasons to study foreign language. First, in a world of increasing globalization, students are more likely to need a second language for future use. Second, foreign language can be used as a means to “overcome ethnocentrism” or promote interest in other cultures.
Not everyone agrees, however. Former Harvard President Derek Bok debunks the idea of taking foreign languages at all in today’s university. In his book Our Underachieving Colleges he says that in most schools foreign language requirements are so minimal as to be pointless—students “will rarely have gained enough fluency as undergraduates to allow them to function easily in a foreign culture.” Moreover, he says, no research substantiates proponents’ claims about the cultural benefits of languages.
Maybe so. But there is another reason for taking a foreign language: it can bring about a deeper understanding of one’s own language. Language is the tool we use to communicate—to our friends, family, fellow students, and colleagues. It is arguably the most important tool for students seeking employment or further study.
In many universities, English language and literature requirements have been gutted—to the point where students are no longer required to take classes in grammar or American literature. In some cases, all that remains is one paltry course in freshman composition, usually taught by a graduate teaching assistant. In those cases, students can learn more about grammar, linguistics, reading, and vocabulary through a foreign language course than they do in the rest of their college classes.
As a French major at N. C. State, I took many more foreign language courses than an average college student would. In fact, in most North Carolina universities, only two courses at the intermediate level are required. (Students who enter at the beginner level must take four courses.) But even a few courses, provided they concentrate on the right ideas, can be very helpful.
Here are a few of the things I learned in French that my English courses never taught me:
- Grammar: I learned grammar informally at home, through reading and listening to my family, never through school. But if I hadn’t picked it up earlier, I would have learned it formally through French grammar lessons. In some of my high school French courses, and in my first few college courses, my teachers emphasized grammar staples like subject-verb agreement, speaking and writing in the correct tense (including more obscure tenses like subjunctive and past-imperfect), and always using the right prepositions. For students who don’t learn valuable grammar lessons at home, foreign language courses can fill the gap.
- Reading: Reading a foreign language teaches students cognitive skills that improve reading—skills that many students neglect, since they can get by with skimming for their assignments in English. Reading my French assignments taught me how to deduce the meaning of a word from context. I also re-learned how to sound words out in order to pronounce them properly, a forgotten skill from kindergarten. In fact, I learned phonetics [the science of speech sounds] for the first time in a French course, and have found it invaluable since. Reading in a foreign language also demands intense concentration, something that many students fail to apply in their other courses.
- Vocabulary: Not all languages improve students’ English vocabularies, but many foreign languages can contribute. Latin and Greek are most often touted for this property, but all romance and Germanic languages can add to a student’s knowledge of English. After all, due to a common linguistic ancestry, English shares many similarities in vocabulary with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, Afrikaans, and (obviously) German. Most of our more academic words share Latin and Greek roots with the same words in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian. Moreover, words from other languages have seeped into English usage: from the German schadenfreude and zeitgeist to the French savoir-faire, sang froid or je ne sais quoi.
As a bonus, language contributes to one’s understanding of culture. For example, taking Italian can help students read music or listen to opera. I can indulge my favorite hobby, cooking, by reading Escoffier’s recipes in the original French. A working knowledge of church Latin can enhance the personal experience of anyone who sings choral works or attends a Latin Mass.
Perhaps my enthusiasm for foreign languages would be less if universities these days had genuine core requirements, including a requirement to understand and properly use the English language. But in the current university atmosphere, where core requirements are often replaced with political pablum, foreign language can be a refuge for real learning. Without it, my own understanding of grammar, linguistics and literature would be severely incomplete.