Comments

What is the definition of "monolingual"? An American.

As a foreign language teacher, I am saddened. What's amazing is
that this trend is so contradictory to the Left's supposed emphasis
on multi-culturalism. There is no thorough understanding of other
cultures without a knowledge of their languages first and foremost.

"Monolingual" means knowing only one language, to answer another
poster's question. Sadly, it describes a majority of US citizens!

A former Spanish teacher once told me that I was "biologically incapable of learning Spanish." Unfortunately, I believed him.

Thirty years ago I moved to La Paz, Bolivia, where my interest in ministry and people forced me to learn the language. Today, my life, family and ministry have all been enriched because of the experience.

If the U.S. church is serious about making disciples they will take seriously the challenge before us to not only learn pop culture, but to learn the language of real culture.

I certainly believe that ending teaching of foreign languages is a huge mistake. Not only are people learning a second language but it does help one gain a better understanding of how the English syntax is built. I grew up with a second language and then studied two others in High School and University. I continue twenty years later to find reasons to learn bits of other languages. I recently studied spoken Mandarin Chinese,then used it in Taiwan on a mission trip. When our team arrived we learned that we would also be using a variety of Hokkien words to reach that people group. I know I had a much better experience because of the languages I used there.

i'm a native of quebec, which, though my husband may argue it, i still believe is canada's most multilingual province. i started learning french at age 5, and continued to the end of high school and my first year in college, and used it on a daily basis until i left the province. but i was uneducated compared to the majority of my friends who were first- or second-generation immigrants and came to canada with their native language, had learned english in their home country, and promptly became fluent in french in quebec. several of them spoke additional languages as well. what a shock when i moved to ontario to study and was overwhelmed by a tide of people who stopped taking french as soon as they legally could (outside quebec it's not required after grade 9) and were relieved to not have to trouble themselves with learning another language. all the excuses i've heard - it's hard, i don't like the language - are so stupid. besides the fact that it's just useful to have, not having it means separation from canada's french-canadian population, which is the single least-Christian people group in the developed world, with a population percentage of 0.02% Christians! To put that into perspective, 0.5% of the population of pakistan is christian...so why aren't more canadians concerned about learning french???

I share your commitment to language and culture learning (they must go together) as a means of good communication, and by which we engage with the wider world around us. This discipline of learning another language, and thereby contextualizing our thoughts through the understanding of the host culture, is part of the long-term solution to many of the current and persistent questions, including misunderstandings, in our world today.

Bob Creson
President/CEO Wycliffe Bible Translators USA

My university, at least, seems to have a good Spanish and Portuguese department, a large Spanish language library collection, as well as close ties to Mexican and S. American universities and programs...but then, so does our governor, who is Hispanic.

That said, I never studied anything harder, even hired a tutor, to learn Spanish, and only made Bs and Cs...which promptly left me the minute I graduated. And I'm around plenty of Spanish speakers.

Same thing with German, when I lived in Germany...just did not pick it up. A friend of mine seem to pick up languages practically by just meeting someone, and all of my grandparents were multilingual, one of my grandfathers spoke five languages fluently, Norwegian being his first language, but not my parents.

However, knowing how to pronounce Spanish names has come in handy...my sister's in laws are Hispanic, though many don't speak Spanish either. But then, I'm Norwegian, and I don't speak Norwegian...

I speak,read and write both English and Spanish fluently. I use a bi-lingual bible when I teach sunday school or speak to people. In July I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic as part of a missionary trip with 75 other fellow christians. Most of them only speak English so the twenty or so who are bi-linguals will have to translate for those who are monolingual. If the bi-linguals were not going how would Mathews 28:19 be carried out?

The link I'm posting discusses an adventure in self-taught Italian. Yes, you can indeed acquire a reading knowledge of another language in a few months of focused effort -- if that language is within the same "family tree!"

OTOH, you can reach out to people from Muslim nations by contacting a local university, and finding a "language partner." Someone who will help you learn Turkish, Farsi, or Arabic, in exchange for help with English pronunciation. God has brought the mission field to our doorstep, from halfway around the world. These are incredibly sharp young people, a few social strata higher than you could anticipate working with in our own culture (!) -- and they are here to learn. Bright-eyed, enthusiastic, tourists having the adventure of a lifetime, and eager to establish friendships with Americans who will show them, their language, and their culture, appropriate respect.