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apple_pathwaysAfter scouring the internet for days looking for a US-based company that imported a particular tea blend I wanted to buy, I started looking at European websites. Most of them I dismissed out of hand, as they charged between 20 and 30 Euros for shipping; 27-40 USDs. Definitely not worth it for a few boxes of tea!
I decided to try one more website: that of a company based in Poland. Like many websites, they didn't specify upfront how much shipping cost. I started going through the process of filling in my details for the order, waiting to get to the point where you're asked to confirm your order and they finally tell you how much it's going to cost to ship. One of the options I was offered was designated "personal acceptance", and didn't involve any additional cost. They way I figured it, "personal acceptance" meant that I would "personally accept" the shipping charges; meaning, I would be asked to pay on delivery. Like a fool, I selected that option and confirmed my order without knowing exactly what shipping would cost. I started to panic over it in the next couple days, but figured: well, at least I'd get my tea out of it!
Yesterday I received a call from Poland about the order. Turns out "personal acceptance" meant that I would pick up the order myself. From Poland!
The proprietor wisely figured this was going to be unlikely, seeing that I lived on another continent. Despite the poor translation on the website, he spoke English very well, and I was able to explain to him that I am not, in fact, an idiot (well--most days), and that "personal acceptance" was probably not the best translation for the concept he was trying to convey. (I suggested "personal pick-up" as an alternative phrase, but I'm still not sure that's the best way to put it. English: s'hard, right? :P) He offered to cancel the order and refund my money.
Talking with this nice Polish man got me thinking, though, about how so many people from other countries speak multiple languages, and how most Americans: don't.
Which is not to lump all Americans together: we continue to be a nation of immigrants, many of whom continue to speak whatever language they were raised speaking, and pass that language on their children. It's more common than ever to be raised bilingual. Unlike the days when my grandparents and great grandparents immigrated here, holding on to your language and culture of birth is beginning to be considered natural and desirable. When my ancestors came here, being "American" meant assimilating: changing the spelling of our last name and removing the umlaut; teaching the children only English (and saving the German or Polish for "adults only" conversations the kids weren't meant to understand); and, in the case of my grandmother, allowing the school to change your child's name to a more acceptable, American-sounding alternative. (My grandmother was born Ladislawa, named for saint Ladislaus. The nuns at her school decided to call her Charlotte, and that's what she was known as for the rest of her life. My mother didn't even know that Charlotte wasn't her mother's original name until a few years before my grandmother died.)
So, Americans with immediate ties to other non-English speaking cultures/countries are likely to be bi/multilingual, and I know plenty of people who became fluent in another language through study. But why not more? Why is it so (relatively) uncommon?
It isn't as if we don't recognize the value of speaking other languages. Though the stereotypical, "Everyone else should just speak English" Americans still exist, they're far from the norm! It's standard for schools to offer foreign language courses, even at the elementary level, and all major universities (as far as I know) have a foreign language requirement. (For liberal arts programs, at least; which is ridiculous! Engineers are just as likely to need to know a foreign language as anyone else!) The Rosetta Stone software, that promises to work magic, is incredibly popular. (And incredibly expensive!)
So what gives? Do we not start early enough? {Though I was exposed to foreign languages in the fifth grade (age 10ish) we weren't asked to choose and seriously study a particular language until the eight grade (age 14).} Is it not intense enough? Or is there just not enough motivation?
I don't doubt that cultural imperialism plays a significant part. I was amazed to read, on a fandom anon meme, how big of a part reading and writing fanfiction played in many foreign fans acquisition of language skills! For English speakers, media consumption provides no big push to learn a new language: even Japanese anime and manga, possibly the biggest source of non-English-based canon fodder for fandom, is widely available in translation. (Not to mention, the fandoms themselves operate, to a large degree, in English.) If anyone can think of a non-English-language fandom big enough to rival the English juggernauts, I'd be interested to hear of it!
I think I'm going to come up with a poll to explore these ideas further. (Watch out for that! :P) In the meantime: any thoughts?
I decided to try one more website: that of a company based in Poland. Like many websites, they didn't specify upfront how much shipping cost. I started going through the process of filling in my details for the order, waiting to get to the point where you're asked to confirm your order and they finally tell you how much it's going to cost to ship. One of the options I was offered was designated "personal acceptance", and didn't involve any additional cost. They way I figured it, "personal acceptance" meant that I would "personally accept" the shipping charges; meaning, I would be asked to pay on delivery. Like a fool, I selected that option and confirmed my order without knowing exactly what shipping would cost. I started to panic over it in the next couple days, but figured: well, at least I'd get my tea out of it!
Yesterday I received a call from Poland about the order. Turns out "personal acceptance" meant that I would pick up the order myself. From Poland!
The proprietor wisely figured this was going to be unlikely, seeing that I lived on another continent. Despite the poor translation on the website, he spoke English very well, and I was able to explain to him that I am not, in fact, an idiot (well--most days), and that "personal acceptance" was probably not the best translation for the concept he was trying to convey. (I suggested "personal pick-up" as an alternative phrase, but I'm still not sure that's the best way to put it. English: s'hard, right? :P) He offered to cancel the order and refund my money.
Talking with this nice Polish man got me thinking, though, about how so many people from other countries speak multiple languages, and how most Americans: don't.
Which is not to lump all Americans together: we continue to be a nation of immigrants, many of whom continue to speak whatever language they were raised speaking, and pass that language on their children. It's more common than ever to be raised bilingual. Unlike the days when my grandparents and great grandparents immigrated here, holding on to your language and culture of birth is beginning to be considered natural and desirable. When my ancestors came here, being "American" meant assimilating: changing the spelling of our last name and removing the umlaut; teaching the children only English (and saving the German or Polish for "adults only" conversations the kids weren't meant to understand); and, in the case of my grandmother, allowing the school to change your child's name to a more acceptable, American-sounding alternative. (My grandmother was born Ladislawa, named for saint Ladislaus. The nuns at her school decided to call her Charlotte, and that's what she was known as for the rest of her life. My mother didn't even know that Charlotte wasn't her mother's original name until a few years before my grandmother died.)
So, Americans with immediate ties to other non-English speaking cultures/countries are likely to be bi/multilingual, and I know plenty of people who became fluent in another language through study. But why not more? Why is it so (relatively) uncommon?
It isn't as if we don't recognize the value of speaking other languages. Though the stereotypical, "Everyone else should just speak English" Americans still exist, they're far from the norm! It's standard for schools to offer foreign language courses, even at the elementary level, and all major universities (as far as I know) have a foreign language requirement. (For liberal arts programs, at least; which is ridiculous! Engineers are just as likely to need to know a foreign language as anyone else!) The Rosetta Stone software, that promises to work magic, is incredibly popular. (And incredibly expensive!)
So what gives? Do we not start early enough? {Though I was exposed to foreign languages in the fifth grade (age 10ish) we weren't asked to choose and seriously study a particular language until the eight grade (age 14).} Is it not intense enough? Or is there just not enough motivation?
I don't doubt that cultural imperialism plays a significant part. I was amazed to read, on a fandom anon meme, how big of a part reading and writing fanfiction played in many foreign fans acquisition of language skills! For English speakers, media consumption provides no big push to learn a new language: even Japanese anime and manga, possibly the biggest source of non-English-based canon fodder for fandom, is widely available in translation. (Not to mention, the fandoms themselves operate, to a large degree, in English.) If anyone can think of a non-English-language fandom big enough to rival the English juggernauts, I'd be interested to hear of it!
I think I'm going to come up with a poll to explore these ideas further. (Watch out for that! :P) In the meantime: any thoughts?
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:22 pm (UTC)1. Most first-world countries are smaller than America. There is only so much land to work in, only so many people to trade with. Historically and still today, trade with the outside world is an absolute must, and if you only speak your country's language then that isn't as easy to accomplish. The U.S., on the other hand, is huge, and could in the past be largely self-sufficient. Having been born from another country that already spoke our language and had more colonies around the world that also were learning it, we had all we needed (or so we thought) and didn't much want to bother with anyone else. Although this has become an invalid worldview since WWII, we largely have yet to reform our ways of thinking from being so Amerocentric.
2. Culturally we teach our children to be selfish. Some magical parents manage to avoid this, but by and large there are quite a lot of self-absorbed people in our country. This comes in tons of forms: materialism, ambition, politics, etc. But it boils down to most everyone wanting what they want, and being willing to screw someone else out of it. A culture that is so much about personal gratification cannot also support the idea of learning about and communicating with others.
Until we have a basic education system that begins to teach children a variety of languages as early as elementary school, I don't imagine that we will ever have many multilingual Americans. I can speak German nearly fluently and French stiffly but intelligibly, but I know that I'm among the minority.
I feel like Winnie the Pooh... "Think, think, think."
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:40 pm (UTC)It's ironic, because I hate hate hate the idea that just because we're AMERICAN WOOOOT and just because so many other countries/cultures are willing to learn English as a second language in order to come here or to do business with America, that means that we can just sit around being lazy world-ruling Americans. Or whatever. Even my parents, who are very much about respecting everyone's diverse cultures and understanding rather than assimilating, didn't even begin to introduce my brothers and I to other languages until school required it. And then, you know, we do our little bit of Spanish and voila, you passed high school so you're good to go. My dad had this whole dream of me double majoring in Spanish and say, journalism and going on to do something with that, which is a cool idea, if not what I want to do - but his reasoning is that I'm "so good at languages." And, well, I'm not. I studied hard throughout middle and high school, so I passed Spanish classes well, and yes, I got pretty fluent for someone who is not at all fluent. But that's one language, learned wholly academically, that I never ever have to use in order to get on in life.
I guess what I'm saying (lol, I had thoughts after all, of course) is that I'm a really big fan of starting kids on a second, non-English language early in life, because the way I see it is that just because we've somehow gotten to the position where if you speak English as your native language, the rest of the world's cultures will come to you, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't go to them either.
Unfortunately, as the comment above noted, that's not a top priority at all in the American education system or even in the majority American value system (though I don't really know, I might be overgeneralizing there; as you said, we do continue to be a nation of many different cultures), so I don't see us becoming majority bilingual anytime soon. Which is too bad, because I really really regret, all the time, that I know so little of non-English languages and now I'm supposed to be heading off into the "real world" and I don't have enough time (or, it seems like I don't) to fix that.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 09:05 pm (UTC)Read
And I'm not talking about a push from schools, or the government, or commerce, or whatever: but a social push! Exposure to people and media in different languages.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:59 pm (UTC)As to your second point, I'm not sure. I do see lots of children being raised to be self-absorbed (excuse me: "self-confidant" :P), but I don't think their parents are necessarily passing on the notion that they needn't bother learning other languages as part of that.
I work as a math tutor in an extremely affluent area. (Fortunately, half of my students come from the more normal, economically-average surrounding cities.) These kids are ridiculously privileged! And one of the privileges many of them have are private language tutors.
Last summer, I tutored two little boys whose parents brought over a student from Ecuador to live with them and teach the boys Spanish. I have a student now with a live-in nanny from China who's teaching him Mandarin. (There was a rather hilarious conversation where my boss asked: "Was that your babysitter?" and the boy replied, after staring at him for a moment: "No, au pair!")
(ETA: I don't think this is a bag thing they're doing for their children; it's just the socialist part of me is incredibly grumpy that this option is only available to them because of their wealth!)
A lot of the students go to private schools, where they're already studying a foreign language at the elementary level.
When I was in college, all of my friends from families with more money spent a semester abroad learning a foreign language.
If anything, speaking a foreign language has become a sign of privilege; a status symbol, for many.
I do think you're spot-on about the school system, though: languages need to be taught earlier, and on a higher level. By the time most schools start offering foreign languages, kids brains have passed the prime stage for language acquisition.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 04:09 am (UTC)And I don't think parents deliberately teach children that foreign languages are useless. I simply think that as long as our culture promotes the concepts of "USA #1" and "do what makes you feel good, don't worry about anything else" to the current extreme, most people will hardly bother looking outside their own bubble of experience.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 06:47 am (UTC)(And that's all I got out before my brain melted. I need to get to bed! Until tomorrow...)