So, here is my response to that.

Why? Where I am from in the US, at least 2 years of language classes were required.

I took Spanish as most people did and years later I had a long term relationship with a Mexican, so over time I learned Spanish.

I’m now, not living in the US and learning a third language.

But I’m very much the exception. Most US citizen, never interact with people who don’t speak English as most Americans never leave the US.

No matter how much you study another language, you are not really going to learn it and be competent with it unless you regularly use it.

Most people in the US will not have any exposure to the language they learned or studied. So what’s the point?

It just seems like a wasted effort for most people.

The fact most Americans are monolingual is a factor of geography more than education. I live in New England the closest area to me that predominantly speaks a foreign language is Quebec, but most of the Quebecoise speak English conversationally. Next to that the Mexican border is 32 hours away by car.

I studied French for 5 years, the closest I've come to having a French conversation outside of class is speaking three sentences with a friend I met in college who also spoke French. It just never comes up. It's much easier to learn a language when you have actual people to speak to in it.

Which language?

Once I learn that language, how do I maintain it?

I've "learned" three languages aside from English over the years, and even when I've traveled to areas in the world that predominantly speak that language, English is so ubiquitous that it really didn't matter if I knew it or not.

I'm essentially monolingual again, even though I can understand bits and pieces if necessary.

Why bother? I would have to drive 22 hours straight to get to a location where English wasn't the primary language. This isn't Europe where the language changes faster than the timezones.

OP: You haven't given any positive rationale- this sounds like idealism

My counterpoints:

I live in the UK. I can get to several other European countries in time to have lunch there and be back home for supper. I have visited several of these countries. In each case I have attempted to speak the local language (I studied French at (high) school for 5 years). In each case, as soon as I open my mouth, locals respond in English with apologies that their English isn't perfect (it's usually fine anyway). As a result it is almost impossible to improve in that language since there is little opportunity.

You are forgetting the 'common language' problem: Let's say you have parties from 2 different countries or states that speak completely different languages. What language do you choose for communications between them? one-on-one you might take turns but what happens when you have 3? 4? or maybe 20-50 like India? What language do you suppose Poland and China communicate in? What language do you use to cover news in science and technology? The other trade languages have largely lost out to English on the world stage.

I live in the US and speak three languages. I almost never have an opportunity to speak anything other than English, and it's not for lack of desire.

That said, I think the word pathetic is way too harsh. People just have different needs and priorities.

There's really no pressure for most Americans to learn another language. English is the lingua franca across the Western world, American culture has been disseminated globally, and besides that, most Americans spend their whole lives without ever leaving the country. I'm making no comment on whether or not these things are good or right, but there's almost no social, personal, or economic pressure for an average American to learn a separate language. Anecdotally, the only times I've ever felt like learning another language it was as a hobby or challenge to myself.

Upvoting because I actually disagree. Learning a language is a personal journey and the only way to really do well is to be surrounded by it.

As a bi-lingual person I disagree. It makes sense for me to learn english as it's practically an universal language but if you already speak that natively then I don't see a need to learn some other language just for the sake of it. Yeah it's not a bad thing but also not necessary. I spent 6 years studying swedish aswell but I never bothered to actually learn it because Swedes can talk english better than I can talk swedish. Every single hour sitting in the swedish class could've been spent better doing literally anything else.

It's not pathetic at all. The US is nearly three times the size of Europe and speaks the same language...why mandate learning another? It makes sense in Europe because of how many languages are spoken there.

If the US was like Europe with each state speaking a different language, it would probably be mandated. There is very little value for Joe Schmoe in the middle of Iowa to learn French or whatever.

You're gonna get (rightfully, imo) downvoted not because people agree with you but because your post is condescending as fuck

Us speaks de facto on international language of communication. Other countries have much better second language programs because it is needed if you go outside of your (relatively small) country and or consume information on internet the vast majority of which is in English. The same story is for any English speaking country. Do you think that UK is different?

Well, this IS an unpopular opinion, so.. thanks for that?

My wife is a LOTE teacher (language other than English) at one if the introductory grade levels where it is mandatory and one of the biggest problems is that the kids don't want to learn. And this is in a community where the language she teaches is spoken by a significant minority of residents. She also teaches special classes to kids who speak the language at home but need instruction in literacy.

Teachers in the district have had parents tell them that they are wasting money because everyone in 'murica should speak English.

It was mandatory in my midwestern HS?

We had 3 students enrolled in Latin, maybe 30 in Japanese, the the rest in Spanish and mandarin.

Barely anyone kept it up. I blame a few factors. I think there should have been more encouraging elements.

Counterpoint the USA has 350,000,000 people and landscapes from Arctic tundra to tropical islands and most everything in between. Learning another language may be fulfiling for many, but rhere is plenty to do and see without leaving US territory.

Least embarassing thing about the US.

Isn't it the case with western Europe. Like don't most British people who don't have mixed origins speak only English. Or nearly hold onto what they have been taught at school

I'm 28 years old and have never needed to know another language.

The only time not knowing another language has impacted me was when I was working with someone who couldn't speak English but we worked out non verbal communication and actually got a long pretty well.

With all that said I would love to learn multiple languages. The problem is there's few teachers/services to teach languages and even fewer people to help practice conversational speaking.

When I was in school ~20 years ago you needed at least 2 years of a foreign language to graduate. Pretty sure that's still the case.

...you say in English.

Also for the record if you learn 3 romance languages that's the equivalent of like 2 normal ones because they're so similar. Fight me.

It is mandatory. Just not a whole lot of mandatory happening. 2 years required in high-school. And 2-4 semesters required in college depending in your major.

It's a good start, but I think it needs to happen very early on. I took 2 years of Spanish in highschool, and it was a good start. I've been practicing for 20 years since. I'd say I'm close to fluent, but 2 decades is long time to get to fluency.

In my area you're required to take at least 4 or 5 years (can't remember which one) of classes involving another language throughout middle and high school. But we never have a need outside of those classes to use the language we learned, so most people forget it.

When there isn't really a need to use another language, it's mostly a waste of time learning one.

It is mandatory. A very little. By state

When I was in high school, New York required three years of a language for college track degree, but an Engineering Major in college had no farther requirements

In Massachusetts, my older son went to a private high school that also required 3 years but my youngest son in public high school I think needed only two. The older is an Education major and requires an additional semester of a language in college

Even if these requirements are universal, they’ll never be more than an intro to most kids, unless they start much earlier and there is some form of immersion

Edit: worse than I thought:

• https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/foreign-language-requirements

Presently, 23 U.S. states do not require the two years of foreign language study that is required for admittance into many colleges.

The problem with US education is not just the lack of foreign languages. There is a lot lacking, or people would not fell for the most stupid things: Just look at those "professional idiots": antivaxxers, SovCits, MAGA heads, incels - you cannot get there with being uninformed, those people have professionalized idiocity, most of it based in a severe lack of understanding basic science, basic math, basic everything. Looks like the American school model of "if you can football or cheerleading, you will pass" is no real model for success.

We don't really in the UK either.

The problem is there's not really a good second language choice here.

Thanks to colonialism, I can speak three languages. The problem is that I suck at all of them.

Muricans might only speak one language, but they're actually really good at it.

I'm an English-speaking Canadian, so the de facto 2nd language here is French. It was mandatory at school. I'd say I have a passable reading knowledge of it, though my oral comprehension sucks. That's still good though. I can read signs and menus in Québec and maybe even say a few words if people are patient with me.

What I find a tad amusing is that while English class was also mandatory, I don't remember learning much about the English language itself. Like I learned more English grammar and language structure from French class, plus those couple of semesters of Latin I took.

I also speak a bit of Japanese as it's my literal mother tongue, but there, the situation is sort of reversed from French. Speaking comes naturally but reading is hopeless. So I guess I am bilingual in 1 + .5 + .5 sort of way?

Ditto with the UK system. It sucks ass compared to the rest of Europe

There 300 different "languages spoken at home" (ie native language) in America.

Pick which ones are important and tell the other 298-odd ones why they're not.

I used to think most people learn Spanish or one of the “immigrant” languages like German or French.

I used to know some Spanish. I forgot it because I never use it. There's just not much point unless you regularly leave the country.

I had to downvote because I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Joke's on me. I'm the asshole who took Latin.

Semper ubi sub ubi

That said, my kiddo is going to a Spanish immersion school

Foreign language was mandatory for me, but it's pretty hard to maintain language skills since there's not a lot of opportunity to practice it naturally. It's much easier to learn English because so much media is in English globally. I still think it's good to teach, just for the experience of learning how to learn languages.

I’m fully on board with this. I only speak English, but I took Latin classes from 4th through 12th grade and I don’t think I learned any useful translation skills from that in the slightest. HOWEVER my Latin teacher in high school loved talking about the culture of ancient Rome and how that was impacted by/reflected in the Latin language.

As a programmer, I have learned a number of different programming languages and my favorite class in college was “Programming Languages” because of how different languages reflect and simultaneously determine different ways of thinking about a problem.

A language is a tool, and if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. If the only way you can talk about things is the way you and the people you’re immediately surrounded by talk, then you only have a hammer in your toolbelt and you likely can’t even think about the problem in more than one way, let alone talk about it in more than one way.

More people would be more open minded, understanding, and worldly if they all learned to be fluent in at least a second language.

As an American, I'd agree to a certain point. It is sad that foreign language skills are not terribly well emphasized in the US, but finding instruction in languages you might want to learn can be challenging depending on the language, unless it's something common such as Spanish, French, or German. I work on my language skills using online resources as much as I can, but I'm also an adult with a full time job, so finding time is also a challenge. Also, unless you're surrounded by people actively speaking the language, it can be exceptionally difficult to build those skills and hang on to them for very long. I know a little Danish, a little Russian, a little Finnish, a little Greek, a little Japanese, a little Mandarin, but lacking the ability to immerse myself in environments where those languages are spoken, I'll likely never get good enough to speak any of them anywhere close to fluently aside from knowing a few phrases at best.

And to your point about how language learning should be mandatory, it's a nice idea, but when I went through school, it was mandatory to take at least one language course. I took French in high school. I didn't enjoy it and don't remember a damn bit of it. Most of the kids I knew took Spanish. Nearly all of them also didn't retain any of it. So, it's more than just making instruction mandatory, schools need to get kids genuinely interested, otherwise none of it will stick.

I’m Belgian. We have three national languages. One is my native language, I’m pretty good at another and I can express myself in the third. I also know English and have notions of a few other European languages. Though some Belgians only know one language or maybe two, most of us can hold our own in three or four. Sometimes more.

So let me just say this: learning a language will really open up a new part of the world for you. That’s not some stupid motivational shit to put on language textbooks. You’ll start to laugh at different jokes, pick up habits, views and culture that would have passed you by completely. It’s really hard to explain this to people who grew up in a mono-culture, but you are really, really missing out.

People in Canada outside of Quebec sometimes just speak English.

I see a lot of the 1% kids in the US are taking Mandarin lessons and are pretty good at it. They're starting them at 4 years old too.

It's mandatory in California.

It's changing, but not because of the education system. 22% of Americans speak a language other than English at home, and many, many more are likely bilingual enough to speak to immigrant relatives.

It's hard to find numbers on third generation immigrants, but anecdotally seems very common for grandchildren to be able to speak to a non-english speaking grandparent. Almost 1 in 3 are either an immigrant themselves or are a child of an immigrant parent, so it stands to reason that the number having at least one grandparent to speak a language other than English is significantly higher, perhaps 40-50%.

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/12/languages-we-speak-in-united-states.html

Spanish should be taught right along English in this country. But it won't be because it's only spoken by the "lessers."

Popular opinion: there should only be one language

Most of us Americans can only speak English and still suck at writing it.

USA highschool kids who arent heavily self or parent motivated can barely read and a simple question like 17x3 will require effort on their part. It is intentional, the elites want workers not competitors.

Meanwhile my 15y son works for himself repairing devices and appliances. The boy is smarter than me by a wide margin, good thing I have the street smarts he lacks or I'd never catch him in anything

Our 2nd language is being forced to learn to suck the teet of capitalism.

Fuck off. Who do you think you are to decide what should be manditory for everyone take your head out of your ass .