Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
Unlike europe and Asia whose people speak other languages to compete in the world markets, Americans are multilingual illiterates
Monolingualism (the ability to speak only one language) may sound to some like a disease, and it's certainly a condition that's spreading throughout American higher education. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a forthcoming report by the Modern Language Association -- based on information from over 2,000 institutions -- found that 651 foreign language offerings had been terminated between 2013 and 2016. That's a 5.2% drop in just three years. While we won't have all the details until the report is released in about a month, the trend is unfortunately clear. It's imperative that we reverse it -- for the good of America's long-term economic and national security interests and the health of democratic civil society.
In justifying their decisions to reduce or eliminate foreign language instruction, university administrators and trustees can cite the effects of the 2008 recession on tightening educational budgets, the need to allocate resources to STEM fields, and decreased demand: according to the Chronicle, enrollments are down 9.2% during that 2013-2016 period, with only Biblical Hebrew, American Sign Language, and especially Korean on an uptick. A 2014 report from the Academy of American Arts and Sciences showed that the recession hit foreign-language degree programs harder than the rest of the humanities. In the immediate years following, colleges cut 12% of foreign-language degree programs, double that of all degree programs.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/opin...ign-language-departments-ben-ghiat/index.html
Monolingualism (the ability to speak only one language) may sound to some like a disease, and it's certainly a condition that's spreading throughout American higher education. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a forthcoming report by the Modern Language Association -- based on information from over 2,000 institutions -- found that 651 foreign language offerings had been terminated between 2013 and 2016. That's a 5.2% drop in just three years. While we won't have all the details until the report is released in about a month, the trend is unfortunately clear. It's imperative that we reverse it -- for the good of America's long-term economic and national security interests and the health of democratic civil society.
In justifying their decisions to reduce or eliminate foreign language instruction, university administrators and trustees can cite the effects of the 2008 recession on tightening educational budgets, the need to allocate resources to STEM fields, and decreased demand: according to the Chronicle, enrollments are down 9.2% during that 2013-2016 period, with only Biblical Hebrew, American Sign Language, and especially Korean on an uptick. A 2014 report from the Academy of American Arts and Sciences showed that the recession hit foreign-language degree programs harder than the rest of the humanities. In the immediate years following, colleges cut 12% of foreign-language degree programs, double that of all degree programs.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/opin...ign-language-departments-ben-ghiat/index.html