Did Obama get it right or not?
Wednesday, 16th July 2008
It’s not only Obama’s comment about learning languages that has been interesting over the past week here in New York - "we should have every child speaking more than one language" - but also the responses from a range of groups who agree and disagree with him to varying extents.
He’s come under quite a lot of criticism for (possibly) implying that speaking only English is not enough, and encouraging us to learn a second language. He’s not saying that we need to learn another language to use in the USA, but that it is advantageous for everyone to speak more than one language. To have the ability to say a few words in French, Japanese or any one of the over 5,000 languages in existence is a wonderful thing, and isn’t that hard to do.
I feel that Obama has a point: the sentiment comes from a man who is acutely aware of his own inability to speak any language other than English which, for me, is a welcome indication that at least one presidential candidate can think beyond his own intellectual context.
Augusta is Director of Studies at Cactus New York
Tags: english, french, spain, new york, obama, japanese, learning languages
Posted by Sarah Gooding under In the news,
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