Watch Your Language!

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.
- Dave Barry

The above quote by humorist Dave Barry is funny, yes, but would be even funnier if it weren’t so true. Despite foreign language course offerings in U.S. schools, Americans don’t seem to place much of a premium on the ability to speak languages other than English. While English is still the predominate language used in international business, the CIA World Fact Book contends that only 5.6% of the world’s population speaks English as a primary language.

When I was in middle school and high school, there were two foreign language options: French and Spanish. While these still may be two of the most commonly offered foreign languages in American schools, they are far from being the only languages now offered. Mandarin Chinese, Italian, American Sign Language, and German are also popular offerings, while languages such as Japanese and Russian have seen a slight decline in student enrollment over the past few years. The U.S. State Department has issued a list of “critical need” languages, including Arabic, Persian, Korean, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Punjabi, Turkish, Indonesian, and Azerbaijani. Are any of these offered in your school?

Budget cuts have forced many schools to eliminate foreign language courses altogether – worrisome news for a nation that needs multilingual graduates to conduct diplomacy and compete effectively in the global marketplace. My picks this week focus on various types of foreign language resources that are hopefully engaging enough to provoke some students to focus more intently on acquiring another language.

Stroke Order
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-01-22.0305246061
Subjects: Foreign Language, Chinese, Japanese
Grade: 9-12, University, Continuing Education
Stroke Order is an online animation tool that allows students to view the stroke order rules for Chinese characters (a page for Japanese characters is in development). Written directions accompany each type of stroke, and an animated example of each key rule is demonstrated. Developed by Skritter, a company that aims to help students learn and remember Chinese and Japanese characters.

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