What it is that makes Americans so resistant to learning foreign languages? Maybe it’s our history of isolationism, maybe it’s patriotism, maybe (probably) it’s laziness. If English was good enough for Jesus and Shakespeare, it’s good enough for us, we sometimes say. But a few moments of surfing the worldwide web is time enough to discover that many of us refuse even to learn our own language. Here are 20 cold, hard, embarrassing facts about foreign language learning in the U.S. of America.
1. In Europe, 44% of citizens speak multiple languages. In the U.S., only a paltry 9% can say the same.
2. It is estimated that more than half the world speaks at least two languages, compared to our rate of slightly less than 1 in 10.
3. Students in Finland dedicate about 16 hours each week to foreign languages, and still manage to come in second in reading, second in math, and first in science. American students’ ranks: 14th, 25th, and 17th out of 34.
4. In the last 30 years, we’ve had just two presidents with passable abilities in one foreign language (excepting President George W. Bush’s attempts at Spanish).
5. We haven’t had a multilingual president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. That’s 66 years, if you’re counting.
6. “An avalanche of criticism” came down on Barack Obama in 2008 when he dared to suggest American children should learn a foreign language. Later he had to point out to the American public that learning is a good thing.
7. As of 2011, only 10 states have a foreign language requirement for graduating from high school…
8. …So it should come as no surprise that 2/3 of all U.S. high school students graduate without studying a foreign language. Not mastering a foreign language — studying.
9. Sign language is the No. 4 most-studied foreign language at American universities. Learning any language is a good thing, but considering there are many more Russians, Italians, Dutch, and Greeks in the world than there are deaf people, these languages deserve to be much higher on the list.
10. According to the U.S. Department of Education, as of 2006, not even 1% of American high school students combined studied Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or Urdu. Together these languages are spoken by an estimated 1.7 billion people (so they’re kind of important).
11. An estimated 60,000 American students study Chinese, compared to 200 million Chinese students studying English. That’s a 1:3,333 ratio.
12. The recent spike in the study of Chinese is due to the fact China is sending us teachers and paying their salaries for us.
13. In the summer of 2011, federal funding to 14 foreign language programs arranged through the Higher Education Opportunity Act was cut by 40%, from $126 million to $76 million.
14. That $76 million for foreign language represents 0.00126% of the total federal budget.
15. Five years ago, the number of college students graduating without ever having taken a foreign language class was 92%.
16. The laughably-small total of 136 bachelor’s degrees was awarded for studies in foreign language in 2008.
17. From 1997 to 2008, the percentage of elementary schools offering foreign language instruction fell from 1/3 to 1/4.
18. It’s no wonder schools don’t offer foreign languages anymore — they can’t find anyone to teach them. In the 2007-2008 school year, 3/4 of states experienced shortages of foreign language instructors.
19. Of the 25 leading industrialized countries in the world, 20 begin teaching students foreign languages in elementary school. In the U.S., the average starting age for learning a second language is 14.
20. In 2008, Hillary Clinton, now the Secretary of State and thus the highest-ranking foreign diplomat in the country, demonstrated what an American education culminating with a diploma from Yale Law School apparently gets you — a total lack of foreign language skills.
是什么讓美國人對(duì)學(xué)外語如此排斥?是因?yàn)槊绹催h(yuǎn)流長的孤立主義?愛國主義?還是美國人的懶惰?以下列舉了20個(gè)令美國人尷尬的事實(shí)。
1. 在歐洲,44%的公民能說多種語言,在美國,具備這種能力的人大約只占9%。
2.據(jù)估計(jì),全球超過一半的人至少能說兩種語言,這個(gè)比例在美國小于十分之一。
3.芬蘭學(xué)生每周花大約16個(gè)小時(shí)學(xué)習(xí)外語,盡管如此,他們的閱讀和數(shù)學(xué)能力仍居全球第2,科學(xué)能力全球第1;而美國學(xué)生在接受調(diào)查的34個(gè)國家中,相應(yīng)的排名只有第14,第25和第17。
4.在過去的30年中,美國僅有兩位總略通一門外語。
5.自富蘭克林•德懷特•羅斯福總統(tǒng)后,美國沒有一位總統(tǒng)能講多國語言,這種現(xiàn)象持續(xù)了66年。
6.2008年,奧巴馬總統(tǒng)提議:每一個(gè)美國孩子都應(yīng)該學(xué)一門外語,此言一出,立即引來排山倒海的批評(píng)。
7.2011年,全美僅有10個(gè)州,在中學(xué)畢業(yè)考試中有外語要求。
8.不足為奇,美國三分之二的高中生畢業(yè)的時(shí)候沒有學(xué)過一門外語。
9.肢體語言是美國大學(xué)中第四大外語,學(xué)習(xí)任何一門語言都是一件好事情,但是考慮到美國境內(nèi)有很多俄羅斯人、意大利人、荷蘭人和希臘人,這些人的總數(shù)遠(yuǎn)比美國的聾啞人要多,所以,這些國家的語言受重視程度應(yīng)該更加靠前。
10.根據(jù)美國教育部(微博)的統(tǒng)計(jì)資料,2006年,不到1%的中學(xué)生一同學(xué)習(xí)了阿拉伯語、漢語、日語、韓語、俄語和烏爾都語,而全球講這些語言的總?cè)丝谶_(dá)到了17億左右。
11.據(jù)估計(jì):目前6萬名美國學(xué)生正在學(xué)漢語,2億中國學(xué)生正在學(xué)英語,兩者的比例是1:3333!
12.目前,阻止美國學(xué)生學(xué)漢語的障礙是中國正在向美國輸出漢語教師。
13.2011年夏,聯(lián)邦用于14個(gè)外語學(xué)習(xí)項(xiàng)目的資金被削減了了40%,從1.26億美元降到了7600萬美元。
14.上述用于外語學(xué)習(xí)的7600萬美元大約僅占聯(lián)邦總預(yù)算的0.00126%。
15.五年前,一門外語都沒有學(xué)過的大學(xué)畢業(yè)生裝占到了92%。
16.2008年,全美僅有136名大學(xué)生獲得了外國語言學(xué)士學(xué)位。
17.從1997年到2008年,開設(shè)外語課的小學(xué)數(shù)量從三分之一降到了四分之一。
18.2007年到2008學(xué)年,美國四分之三的州遭遇外語教師人才荒。
19.在25個(gè)工業(yè)化國家中,有20個(gè)國家從小學(xué)開始就開設(shè)外語課程,在美國,學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)一門第二語言的平均年齡是14歲。
20. 2008年,希拉里•克林頓向人們出示了她的文憑——耶魯大學(xué)法學(xué)院文憑。這位后來擔(dān)任美國最高外交官——美國國務(wù)卿的女人獲得的只是一張法律專業(yè)的文憑,可見美國教育制度對(duì)外語教學(xué)的忽視到了什么程度。
美國十大外語
語言種類 |
2006年秋季
注冊(cè)學(xué)生 |
與2002年相比
增加比率 |
2009年秋季
注冊(cè)學(xué)生 |
與2006年相比
增加比率 |
1. 西班牙語 |
822,985 |
10.3% |
864,986 |
5.1% |
2. 法語 |
206,426 |
2.2 |
216,419 |
4.8 |
3. 德語 |
94,264 |
3.5 |
96,349 |
2.2 |
4. 肢體語 |
78,829 |
29.7 |
91,763 |
16.4 |
5. 意大利語 |
78,368 |
22.6 |
80,752 |
3.0 |
6. 日語 |
66,605 |
27.5 |
73,434 |
10.3 |
7. 漢語 |
51,582 |
51.0 |
60,976 |
18.2 |
8. 阿拉伯語 |
23,974 |
126.5 |
35,083 |
46.3 |
9. 拉丁語 |
32,191 |
7.9 |
32,606 |
1.3 |
10. 俄語 |
24,845 |
3.9 |
26,883 |
8.2 | |