Sharing news and commentary about education, careers, investing, and life.

Sharing news and commentary about education, careers, investing, and life.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

What language(s) do you speak?

This is an interesting bit of info, that I found out about via Marginal Revolution, on the languages that the 2008 presidential candidates speak (in short, very few). After perusing the list, it got me thinking - if these "top dogs" in the United States can be so (relatively) successful by basically speaking only 1 language... what does this mean for younger generations?

Namely, I started thinking about my own language capabilities. I am fluent in English (or so I would like to think) and Spanish; I speak very limited French; I'm learning Mandarin (so far I can only count, so progress is slow). I grew up in a family where learning (and learning languages and cultures) was considered very important - what about you? And do you think it's important now? Personally I think learning at least Spanish is important if you're going to live in the United States for most of your life; if you're planning on doing business around the world, it doesn't hurt that over 20% of the world's population speaks Mandarin.

Another thought - maybe so few people in the US learn a second language because English is such a global language. But what if English loses its prominence (hard to fathom, but nothing is unlikely)?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I assume your company teaches languages - do you guys teach Mandarin? If not, you should consider finding a tutor who could teach it!