Foreign language inadequacies in America

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

04/27/2009

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Linguistics

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Summary :

Introduction
Modern Language Association's study into the languages spoken in American homes
The United States' need for accomplished speakers of languages such as Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, and Korean
A lack of translators with security clearence
The situation in the United States military
Learning Arabic
1. The first problem encountered by those attempting to learn Arabic
2. An entire semester for complex alphabets
3. Woring for government agiencies
4. The lack of dialectical training
5. A final barrier in Arabic acquisition
A shortage of faculty members
The fundamental difference between current university Arabic professors
Conclusion
Bibliography

Abstract

What do you call a person who speaks more than two languages?
Multilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
Bilingual.
And what do you call a person who only speaks one language?
An american.
So goes the oft-told joke, particularly loved by my European friends (all of whom speak at least three languages). americans are often looked down upon for their inability to communicate in anything other than their mother tongue. Though English is the most popular choice as a second language all over the world, americans would be well served to pick up second-language fluency themselves. According to an MLA (Modern language Association) study, 82% of people over the age of five speak English at home in the United States. Of the 18% who don't, 60% speak Spanish. In order to survive in the modern world, americans must learn not to become too comfortable in the warm blanket of English but, rather, must strive to take part in the world around them, which includes developing fluency in a foreign language. Our nation's security may well depend on it.