German Language and Culture Institute

Anchorage Daily News, March 5, 2005

Did you know that on February 17^th, 2005 the US Senate passed S. Res. 28 and designated this year to the promotion and celebration of learning a foreign language? Unless you are a foreign language teacher, few people probably know.

Our Washington politicians finally have come to realize that foreign language study makes important contributions to a student's cognitive development, our national economy, and our national security. The American Counsel of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) did the necessary lobbying and spearheaded the designation process. The year is still young and we shall see how this designation will have materialized in the various foreign language classrooms in the end and if teachers of foreign languages can count on continued support.

Strong support is necessary because according to the Virtual National Translation Center only 9% of Americans can speak their native language plus another language fluently, as opposed to 53% of Europeans. With language competence Americans are better equipped to conduct effective trade policy, expand international trade, ensure the integrity of national defense, and enhance international communication.

We all live in a time of transnationalism, the interaction and interdependence of people speaking different languages and coming from different cultures. Even geographically remote Alaska experiences the repercussions of worldwide physical migrations and dissemination of information that entail a socio-cultural and political development. That forces everybody to rethink the meaning and implications of social togetherness.

Social togetherness means that individuals of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds share a community, yet preserve their cultural individualities. Languages are the culture and understanding culture is a lived experience that is only perceived, received, and understood in the context in which it is so deeply embedded. If individuals have an understanding of a language they demonstrate an understanding of the culture and the importance of communication. Language learning across borders expands the scope of our world. Or to put in the words of German philosopher Wittgenstein (1889-1951): The limits of my language are the limits of my world.

Language connects people and bonds them into what adult educator Mezirow called a “dialogic community”. Through language we construct meaning and communicate on a micro or macro level. Successful communication is tied to the proficiency in the language we speak, even when speaking the same language.

Lack of understanding and knowledge creates fear and anxieties toward others. I recently interviewed adult learners who were learning German and one said: “When we were kids we distrusted anybody that spoke a foreign language. If I’d talk to someone else, I’d say to him, you don’t realize how well you can speak your language until you take a foreign language. It improves your own.” Someone else explained that speaking a foreign language is “being cultured,” which is the ability to feel comfortable in one’s own culture as well as in that of others.  Since we make meaning through language, language learners make meaning of things that are different and develop a critical understanding of their own culture—the self— in relationship and comparison to “the other.”

But I am too old to do this! I hear very often from adults who would like to learn one. Wrong! One is never too old to learn and not too old to learn a foreign language. For some reason this out-dated and scientifically unsound belief continues to survive. Surely it serves as a convenient excuse. Of course, chances of sounding like a native speaker when learning foreign language in adulthood are rather slim. But is that the true objective? Learning a foreign language entails—well—of course the words and grammar, but at the same time it is obtaining insight into celebrations, customs, economy, history, politics, music, art, food, literature and more.

Good foreign language instruction and learning is built on these important components of the foreign language. Take heart and make a belated new year’s resolution: Learn a foreign language and allow yourself to be amazed by what you discover.