Why Can't Native Speakers of English Learn Another Language? Page 3
The Anglophone dilemma
The English language is spoken officially in over sixty countries and it should therefore come as no surprise that its native speakers feel very little need to be able to communicate in another language. This has been anything but a dilemma for the rest of the world which has jumped aboard the bandwagon to further increase the number of English speakers and to help spread the word that the language of The Beatles, Star Wars and Facebook is here to stay. So here we are now, decades after the end of the Cold War where the average native speaker of English is still monolingual – not fluent in any other language on the planet.
Ironically, English has become the most malleable of all major languages, adapting with the times and incorporating a vocabulary of thousands of borrowed words, mostly from other European languages. It’s as if most of its native speakers have declared that they already know enough of other languages simply by knowing English. So while being monolingual is by no means limited to the Anglophones (speakers of English) it’s definitely not considered to be something shameful. In fact, not knowing another language seems to be of no major impediment at all. So, why would this be perceived as a dilemma?
It has become apparent in the countries where English is spoken officially, that if someone is bilingual it’s probably a consequence of having a parent who speaks that language. It’s almost as if there could be no other reason for being able to speak more than one language than the most obvious – a genetic reason. Statistically, this is the reason for most of us being able to speak more than one language, so we can hardly accuse anyone of being uninformed. Or to be more accurate, it’s the reason for most people in an English speaking country to be fluent in more than one language. This is hardly a surprise when a list of the most desired places for migration happens to be the ones where English is spoken, above all others. As a result, those countries proudly display a vibrant population of migrants from all over the world who have brought with them the languages of their motherlands.
The unfortunate dilemma of being bilingual or multilingual in an English speaking environment is the assumption that a person’s family background determines the decision made to learn that language. In a society where there is an abundance of speakers in any language, there has developed a complacency attached to learning a foreign language because it is considered an unnecessary skill when there are so many people who speak that language proficiently. Why bother learning it from scratch? If someone was brought up learning a foreign language due to parental influences, shouldn’t that person be hand-picked for the job that requires language skills? Why would I want to compete for that same job when I didn’t have a heard start in learning the language from an early age?
Psychologically, it almost seems that the same attitudes that existed towards migrants performing lower paid jobs such as cleaning and working in restaurant kitchens has found its way into the misconceptions we have about those who speak more than one language. Let them do it so we don’t have to. Getting someone to translate something into English (or from English into another language) might be considered by some to be an extension of the ethnic world, of all things foreign. “They’re better at running small corner stores so let them do it. It’s what they do best.” I remember encountering this type of stigma in job interviews when I was younger.
“It says on your résumé that you can speak Italian but your family name doesn’t look very Italian.”
Those innocent observations soon ended when I started to speak Japanese at a later age and put an end to any comments about not looking very Japanese. It takes a completely different language to throw interviewers off guard for a few seconds until their brains remind them that this person does not look Japanese so there must be another reason for him having learnt to speak the language. The truth is that I had to learn Japanese outside of any classroom environment because the level of motivation in learning a foreign language in an English speaking environment is close to non-existent. Besides, most of the instruction was in English which didn’t seem to help us to let go of any dependency on communicating in English all the time. Unsurprisingly, students would leave an intensive course in Japanese with little recollection of the language, apart from knowing how to count to ten. Not much use to anyone linguistically, unless you’re a terrorist letting off a bomb.
Language Learning Trends
Wherever English is spoken as a native language, there has often been a tendency to implement French as something of a default second language in the classroom. This was naturally the case in the United Kingdom and Ireland due to their proximity to France, and in Canada it was a result of its bilingual situation where many Canadians speak French as a first language. Other countries in the Commonwealth followed a similar curriculum to whatever British students were subjected to in the classroom, so it didn’t matter if South Africa or New Zealand were developing different diplomatic paths, the colonial curricula of centuries past proved difficult to alter.
It wasn’t until the 1980’s that some of the English speaking countries started to break away from the traditional norms of offering French (or Latin) as a compulsory subject, depending on the degree of commercial or cultural influence the French language upheld. In the case of the United States, it was an obvious transgression to offer Spanish as the preferred foreign language of instruction across the country, and while this might make perfect sense to students who live in states that border Mexico, it is also argued that Spanish language instruction benefits all Americans in how they deal with their southern neighbours, whether they’re from Illinois or Massachusetts. Ever since the inevitable move away from traditional European languages such as French or German, there has been a yearly, gradual surge of Spanish language students (not considered a traditional European language in America compared to French or German) and ever since, there has been no looking back.
While the American trend of teaching Spanish to its students is obvious enough and it is also clearly without any doubt that Britain will continue to prioritise French as an important foreign language, the situation is not similar in other parts of the Anglo-sphere. At the same time that the United States was looking southwards to its neighbours’ developing economies, Australia was looking northwards to Asia. After all, governments will vigorously fund language programs if there is an economic incentive involved. There would have been little point in promoting Spanish as the foreign language of choice when that region made up a small percentage of trade with Australia, compared to the increasing level of trade with Japan. It may have seemed like an overnight transformation of language choice but over a few years, Australia would slowly crawl out of its comfort zone of learning Latin based grammatical structures similar to its own native language and start to learn kanji, hiragana and katakana. This is not to say that a whole country was suddenly speaking Japanese but it was certainly a progressive step forward.
So here we are a few decades later and with all the groundwork put in place across the English speaking world to prepare the next generation for the linguistic challenges of doing business internationally, how far have we really come? Different clusters of English speaking countries eventually woke up to the fact that Asia could open up possibilities of economic expansion while it was also realised that continental Europe was not just confined to studying French. After decades of native English speakers moving away from the safety of learning the next closest language to English, surely we could begin to expect some linguistic confidence in how native speakers of English communicate with the rest of the world. Sadly, it appears not.
Language teachers all over the English speaking world have struggled to encourage students to grasp a foreign language with vigour in a way that non-English speakers seem to be able to do quite naturally. All across Asia there is no shortage of students who wilfully enrol themselves in English language courses of their own accord and while that may have a lo
t to do with their parents’ advice (therefore contradicting the fact that it was of their own accord), there is also strong evidence to suggest that they perceive the language to be not only advantageous for their career choices but an activity that is considered to be cool by their peers. When a school subject such as English has the stamp of approval from people in the same age group, it’s of little wonder that teenagers across the globe would be lining up to be a part of this phenomenon.
Why learn another language when the rest of the world is learning ours?
Quite simply, the ability to comprehend. The spin-off or reward for learning another language is the key it provides to another culture and also the cognitive process that comes with thinking outside the box. The reasons are endless. An elimination of racism, of discrimination and of ill-perceived judgements as well as an ability to read people more accurately where cultures or mannerisms differ. Not to mention the duty we should inherit when abroad, where we really should be thinking of the image we’re portraying by being responsibly connected with our new environment. So then, why are so many of us still monolingual?
A simple answer as to why most native speakers of English are still monolingual and cannot cope with more than a few clichéd phrases in another language could be assigned to the fact that the most economically dominant country on the planet is still the United States of America. As if that were not enough, the United Kingdom acts as a strong ally to ensure that if anyone on Earth had any doubts about studying English as a foreign language, then those would be two valid and unquestionable reasons for doing so. Where the good old USA didn’t succeed in beating any linguistic competition to a pulp, the aging but mighty force of the UK would come in and finish them off. No other language can compete with such force and as a result, the ability to speak English – and only English – is endorsed.
But that’s not the only reason why many native speakers of English struggle to learn another language effectively. Sure, it’s easy to travel the world with a command of English and undoubtedly, if we were to choose a common language of communication around the world, or lingua franca, then we’d be wise to put our money on English. When an Italian businessman meets a client in South Korea, it’s not Italian or Korean that they speak together but English. Again, that’s another known fact about the current situation of English around the world and there are no surprises there. Previous attempts to bring the world together under one linguistic umbrella have resulted in little success and in some cases, absolute failure. Try travelling abroad while asking people if they speak Esperanto and you’ll see my point.
I want to find some real hard truths about the inability of most Anglophones to communicate in another language and it goes far deeper than just resting on the laurels of knowing that the English language is a lingua franca for the whole planet. If it were that easy to assume that the whole world has succumbed to speaking English, then why can’t we travel the world with a fistful of US dollars? After all, that currency is still considered to be the world’s benchmark for measuring other currencies and while other currencies have gained ground in recent decades, the American dollar is still the most widely used currency on the planet. It could be argued that the dollar is not the official currency in other parts of the world and is therefore in fact a legal requirement for a shopkeeper to accept the currency of whichever country the shop is located in. If that is so, then why is it not a legal requirement for the official language to be enforced? To some degree, it is enforced. Work has to be performed in the country’s official language unless a majority of workers determines otherwise. Schools teach their students in the official language as it’s assumed that the students all speak that language. Yet, if I want to use American dollars to pay for something in a Spanish restaurant - that’s not allowed. So while I’m allowed to ask if anyone can speak a foreign language, it’s not acceptable to ask if I can pay in a foreign currency.
So what has all this got to do with speaking English around the world? It’s about what’s allowed and what’s considered acceptable, according to the national psyche. The US dollar is in fact accepted as legal tender in some countries outside of the United States and there would be no problem to walk into a store in Ecuador or East Timor with the intention of paying in US dollars. For whatever reason, the local currency has failed in those countries and a decision was made to temporarily use the greenback as legal tender until a solution could be found. It may not be an ideal scenario for the psyche of that country and certainly affects national pride, but the alternative would be to continue using an inferior currency that had as much value as toilet paper. It’s this word – inferiority – that comes to mind when assessing the feasibility of being able to walk into a store and expect everyone to communicate in English. In most parts of the world, that would be considered acceptable, because the image of English as a foreign language is that it is a superior currency which is easily convertible and has its own image of prestige. It’s a brand name.
This brings me to my next point of what it means to be a brand name for a language. English is not the only brand name language that comes to mind. All throughout the English world (and in other parts of the world as well), French is considered to be a brand name. To attach a few French words onto a label or a menu is to add some flair or luxury to a product, in the same way that food becomes cuisine or after-shave becomes cologne. Other languages have their specialities in areas such as classical music and food (Italian), psychology and engineering (German) or martial arts (Japanese). By simply adding a few words in that language, depending on the speciality, adds an aura of quality or mystique. Sometimes the words might not even make sense to a native speaker of that language, but if it looks good – it sells.
I’m sitting in a café in Taipei and making a few observations by what I see around me. For a start, I’m in a setting which is not traditionally Taiwanese and while cafés in this part of the world might not come to mind when thinking of the world’s favourite destinations for enjoying a cup of coffee, the world is becoming more and more homogenous in how it serves coffee. Not only are the names of the different types of coffee familiar to anyone from other parts of the world, but the décor is over-represented by words in English. There’s a picture in front of me that appears to be a print of the Italian countryside, perhaps Tuscany, but instead of any words in Italian – they’re in English. The table where I’m sitting has some words in English printed on it and while some of the words may not have been spelt correctly, I’m not here to judge. I’ve seen far worse on vending machines in Japan or shop windows in China. I must say – Asia is a terrible offender when it comes to badly written words in foreign languages. A true testament to the fact that it’s not about the quality of the word but the superficiality of what it represents. Something foreign and exotic. But are we any different when we write French words like déjà vu without the proper accents?
It’s quite a noisy little café and as is often the norm in many parts of the world, catching up with friends in an establishment like this is not the sort of thing people do after a day of work on a construction site. It’s a middle-class realm and it’s evident by the groups of well-dressed university students and businesspeople who take a table, similar to mine, with its badly written English words that are simply thrown together to resemble something chic, something de rigeur and perhaps a little bourgeois. Three French words used to make a point that we do the same thing in English when we’re trying to impress our friends – even if the words are used in a slightly incorrect context. Still – everyone looks happy here in this downtown café surrounded by words printed everywhere in English, despite their own mixed abilities with that language. Being the only foreigner in this café makes me another part of the décor here. Sadly, as I’m of European descent and I’m here in Asia, it’s automatically assumed that I’m an English speaking foreigner - and in the same way that one goes to Disneyland to see Mickey Mouse, it’s a nice surpr
ise to enter a café and see a real-life foreigner surrounded by Western style images on the walls. Just like in the movies!
A waitress comes to my table and starts chatting. She commends me on my Chinese and asks a few questions. Suddenly, a group of noisy students comes in at the same time that their coffee machine is turned on and I don’t quite catch her last question. It’s then assumed that I didn’t understand her Chinese and she struggles to ask the same question again in English. There’s that assumption that I always dread. Just because I look like I could be from Europe or North America, there’s no doubting that I speak English. The other assumption is that I probably don’t speak the local language. Wait a minute – I am an English speaking foreigner. For a moment I was silently cursing people in this café for making assumptions until I realised they were right. I’m a stereotype.
Looking around this café, it’s of little surprise to me that she can speak a bit of English and although she struggles, she has no inhibitions to do so. Most travellers in Taiwan would be pleased to be able to fall back on English at any given opportunity and without even thinking to commend her on her efforts to speak English. There’s the other assumption. Wherever native speakers of English go, there will also be someone who can speak English – even in a downtown café. However, I’m not one of these travellers and while I may come across as being slightly arrogant sometimes, I have my reasons for standing my ground and not resorting to English at the drop of a hat. So I answer the waitress in Chinese as soon as the coffee machine stops and our voices are again audible. I’ve obviously gone against the norm of what’s expected in this part of the world. Instead of being the foreigner who enters a café and starts speaking in English, I’ve rewritten the rules by communicating in the local language instead.
If a foreign language is to make itself heard in classrooms around the world, it needs to entice its potential students with more than just the lure of better career prospects, for there is still no substantiated proof that a foreign language in an English speaking country actually improves potential earnings. Sure, there are job positions that are advertised with an emphasis on being able to speak a second language but this requirement is soon overlooked when an applicant can demonstrate adequate experience and academic qualifications in its place. The fact of the matter stands – a foreign language is a secondary requirement. If two applicants apply for a managerial position and one of them is fluent in another language whereas the other one is monolingual but possesses slightly more experience in management skills, more often than not, the position will go to the applicant with more experience – even if the company specialises in dealing with a particular part of the world.
There needs to be more of a personal interest in wanting to learn another language and while it is true that career prospects are something to be taken personally, the interest that comes with a particular hobby or vocation creates far more of a mental stimulus for wanting to learn that language. A passion in karate or aikido will in turn lead someone into becoming more familiar with the Japanese language in the same way that an aficionado of Italian opera or Italian cuisine will become more acquainted with the Italian language. The problem is that while karate and Italian food may be considered popular to some extent, they’re nowhere near as influential as the magnetic pull of the type of popular culture that communicates to people on a wider scale – namely the appeal of popular music and film.
So while the rest of the non-English speaking world dabbles with niche markets that appeal to small pockets of society by offering an insight into their cultures through special interests such as Japanese manga or Russian literature, these are media that go through a filtering process so that a comic book from Japan or a novel from Russia can still be appreciated by a monolingual speaker of English – because the language is put through a grinder and comes out the other end as an English language product. The same can be said of an English novel that is translated into Russian where a vice versa effect should have the same outcome, but in actual fact, that English novel is usually backed up by a catalogue of other writers that are sometimes intertwined with movies that were adapted from novels, tapping into different demographics where the novel might have only appealed to a limited readership. The same can be said of comic books originally printed in English that take on a new dimension after their adaptation onto the big screen. The satisfaction of reading a manga comic book from Japan often ends there, while the English language equivalent often entices the reader with a behind-the-scenes world of further marketing potential of that same product, instead of just moving from one volume to the next.
To commit the time to take a general interest in reading a Japanese comic book or Russian novel requires more than just a random selection from a bookshelf. Very few people would pick up an unknown book without first knowing something about its content. If that actual genre has something of a brand image attached to it, in the case of either of these products, it’s a definite head start. But it doesn’t just end there. The background has to first lure the reader to that section of the bookshelf and if a comic book can be backed up by an entire culture of comic books from the same part of the world, it stands a good chance of capturing the reader’s interest in its original language. However, if the books contain very few references to the language’s origin (catch phrases in that language or useful idioms) then the convenience of being able to read the English translated version often overtakes the urge to want to read it in its original format. This is where popular culture (in English) has managed to keep the consumer wanting more but at the same time, reminding the reader (or viewer) that although this may be a translated version of the English book or film, the original version is important for understanding the background of the sub-culture, be it through comic books or romance novels, for example.
Until other languages can convince an audience that a series of action movies out of China, to use a good example, would be made more enjoyable if the viewer could understand more of the Chinese language, it seems unlikely that the English language has much competition when it comes to marketing itself through popular culture. Not only should the plot of the film be relevant to the language background but also the music soundtrack and characters should remind the viewer that this is all related to the culture behind the language. If not – the viewer becomes disconnected with having seen yet another action movie from somewhere in Asia.
So, to try to answer the age old question as to why native speakers of English are notoriously bad at learning other languages is a complex one. On the one hand, there are a million excuses as to why another language should be learnt at all if everyone speaks English, and while it is of course not true that the whole world speaks English, it’s the general assumption. Backed up with the reason that very little motivation exists when most languages offer not much more than a menu of their local dishes in that language, only a handful of highly acclaimed movies, an occasional novelty record that goes to number 27 on the US Billboard charts and something cute associated with that language such as yoga, flamenco or origami – there doesn’t seem to be much of a beeline in terms of potential language students. For as long as the language is spoken by millions of people, there will always be a demand by others to learn that language. But we’re talking here about mass demand that’s generated from popular culture. Let’s face it – if the language is not sexy enough, it’s only ever going to be a niche language – not something that appeals to billions of people instead of thousands.
On the other hand, there seems to be a far more calculated reason for not wanting to become immersed in the languages of others. Whether it’s in business or diplomacy, the ability to communicate an idea or demand is far more powerful when it’s delivered in one’s own native language. Angela Merkel may be able to deliver a speech in English, but it would be considered bad public relations for Germany’s head of state to be seen speaking publicly in a foreign language while she’s in charge of Europe’s most dominant economy. The same can be said of Hu
Jintao from China. Whatever his level of English (or of any other foreign language), we’ll never know from any public speech for that would be a major loss of face for China’s national pride. So to have the upper hand in any negotiation, the safer option is to stick to one’s guns and not make any concessions by submissively reverting to the language of the opponent. This old tactic of standing firm is not only common in the history of imperialism, whether it was the expansion of the British Empire in the 19th century or Cold War diplomacy in the USA, but also a sub-conscious reality for many native speakers of English, regardless of their involvement in the spread of the English language.
So if you happen to be a native English speaker in a place where English is not officially spoken, and you’re in denial of learning that language for reasons that range from a lack of time in that place or because of no real necessity, then ask yourself. Are you speaking English to local people from an ingrained fear that you will be otherwise overcharged when shopping or perhaps not taken so seriously? Or is it out of genuine concern that the words will not come out correctly? We need to be realistic about the fact that while the English language is going to be around for quite some time and indeed, it may be true that others have more of a valid purpose for learning our language, we cannot discard the benefits that come from knowing some (not necessarily all) of the host language. The event of being ripped off in a local market would be less likely if there were some basic command in the local language and an effective level of negotiation, be it diplomatic or otherwise, would not require the constant need of an interpreter.
I’ll admit that of all the languages I speak, the English language is by far the most influential across the globe and if I were not a native speaker of that language it would be my first and foremost priority to learn it as my second language before any other language. Its cultural tentacles would have captured me at an early age, whether it was through music, film or other forms of popular entertainment. No other language can compare in this respect. However, as we enter a new era in how we communicate in a world where non-native speakers of English far outnumber native speakers of English, the ability to meet others half-way is a huge step forward and it doesn’t require complete fluency in another language – just a good dose of cultural exposure and a basic command. In the absence of a linguistic nemesis that challenges the English language on the same level of popular culture, we should never forget that it is the power of money that determines the language that is spoken. The customer with the money usually determines that language and if we’re to continue to rely on the rest of the world as a customer, we should remind ourselves of the need to understand the customer.
So spread the word to all the native speakers of English you know. It’s time to stop being embarrassed about the lack of grammatical skills and vocabulary that have inhibited us from communicating effectively in other languages. Regardless of the amount of necessity, we owe it to ourselves and to those learning our language to show that this is not a language based on linguistic arrogance and superiority. It’s a wonderful melting pot of many other languages that should in fact make it much easier for us to take the plunge and move away from being yet another monolingual speaker of English.
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Wayne Parry
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