Learning a culture, culture of learning

Thanks to Jenny’s blog, I have read an excitingly polemical article on the current decline of foreign language education in British secondary schools. I thought the article deserves to be read widely, since it’s not just about British educational problem. The article by a French woman at its best offers a strong argument for what the acquisition of a new language amounts to: the discovery of a new world in which people see things and thinks differently. If you are using some foreign language frequently (like me), you will find the article quite encouraging. If you learned some foreign language and have almost forgotten (as I have my German and Chinese), then the article gives you a healthy reminder as to what you may be able to get from brushing up your language skill. After the article follows a few personal thoughts.

この記事はとても面白いので、英語が苦手だけど読んでみようという方は、改行された引用箇所の"The majority of British ..."　という段落から読み始めてみて下さい。言葉の壁を越えようとする時に学べるものの素晴らしさを高らかに謳いあげています。（知らない単語や表現にへこまずに、分かる単語を拠り所に終りまで通して読んでみるのがポイントだと思います）

The whole article is available at the Guardian website , but I have borrowed Jenny's edited version, which gives the main points succinctly.

Why can't languages be taught as compulsory subjects from nursery to A-level, as they are in almost every country in Europe? I didn't have much say in what languages I learnt back in France. It was obligatoire, no bargaining possible. I had to learn two new langues vivantes (though I could choose which two among a poor choice of five) and one or two langues mortes, Latin and Greek. If I had been given the choice, I probably wouldn't have chosen any, and right now I would be writing in French and living in Paris. What does a child know?

The majority of British youth are deprived of one of life's greatest joys: access to whole new worlds in which others see things differently, express their feelings and lead their lives in unexpected ways.

There is no secret: to really get to see things as others do, and thus to understand them, one must master their language and, in the process, endure hardship and ridicule. Not a job for the faint-hearted. Try it and you'll be mocked for your accent; you'll struggle to make yourself heard, let alone be understood; you will stumble on words, fall silent, unable to keep up the pace of the conversation; you'll suffer a thousand deaths, that of continual misunderstandings, the kind newly arrived immigrants face every day, everywhere in the world.

But once the many hurdles are passed, you are guaranteed heavenly surprises and otherworldly gifts. You lived your life in black and white; it is now in colour. A whole new horizon has opened up. This is precisely why there is so much clamour for tests to ensure that new immigrants to the UK speak good English.

And for those sceptical about the usefulness of languages, let's remember that having studied foreign languages can help you get a job, and a better one. One survey showed the percentage of graduates in single honours languages who were still looking for work five months after their graduation was 5%, and 11% for media studies.

When somebody refuses to learn someone else's language on the grounds that it is not useful, they implicitly reject the other's culture and their way of seeing the world - not a very good start for universal peace and understanding. Not a helpful way to make the world a more complex and richer place to live in either. Rather a recipe for unilateral, over-simplistic dogmas, such as the war on terror.

Now, let's get back to basics. What schools need to teach children is simple: mathematics, plumbing and three languages. Au travail!

Ok, I totally agree with what acquiring a language could possibly offers. But I am not sure if secondary language education can let you achieve that impressible opening up of a new holizon. Good language training would be the necessary condition for that, but it's not sufficient. A kind of language education I received in schools was useful way in, but they never pushed me to wonder about another world. Nor is living abroad sufficient. Unless you try hard to resist temptation, you will find yourself sealing off yourself and keeping your cultural "integrity" with your fellow compatriots. If this is true, learning a new language doesn't automatically mean learning about a new world. If you hope to open up a new perspective by learning a new language, then, we should probably think carefully about our culture of learning (eg. how a culture embodied in a foreign language is brought into fresh comparisons and contrast with our native culture etc). Learning a foreign language in order simply to expand career/business chance may only result in affluence and arrogance. So, what should be our culture of learning if we are to learn from a new culture?