Imagine this: you’re new to America, young, excited for your future, apprehensive about assimilating to a new culture and lifestyle. You’ve been learning and speaking English for a few years now, and you are the best student in your classes back home. You make your way around your town during your first few days, but become increasingly disheartened. Instead of the positive, impressed reactions you were expecting from the locals about your English skills, you’re being met with snickers, thinly veiled derisive comments and passive aggressive jabs at your accent and grammar.

Now, imagine the same scenario, except you speak no English, and are met with a metaphorical wall built on denial of services and help due to a communication barrier. They refuse to learn and/or speak your language, and you haven’t had the opportunity to learn theirs. How would this country and, by extension, the world, continue to function?

I was, and am extremely lucky to have grown up in a family environment that fosters and encourages multilingualism. I learned English as a second language at a very young age, and faced very few problems with language-related bullying when I moved to the United States in the fourth grade. The foreign language programs in my middle and high schools were some of the best in the state, and fairly high up in national rankings as well. However, the unfortunate truth is that not everyone had the same opportunities as I did.

According to U.S. Census Bureau reports from 2009, only about 20 percent of Americans are at least bilingual. Even worse are the statistics in the United Kingdom, where approximately 95 percent of citizens are monolingual English speakers, according to the BBC. 

Although statistically, America seems to be in a better place than the U.K., this is not an excuse for complacency in furthering and improving foreign language instruction in the U.S.

Immigrants coming to this country are encouraged to learn English as quickly as possible as a part of their assimilation; people tend to forget, or choose to ignore how difficult it is to learn a new language, especially in a stressful situation. Despite this, very little effort and funding is put into foreign language programs around the country to ensure that our country’s children meet the same standards of bilingualism in the event that they, too, leave their country for another, non-English speaking one.

The reality is that we are becoming a more globalized society, both nationally here in the U.S., and internationally as well. International relations have become top priority for policy makers as countries work to achieve stability and prosperity. Companies and corporations are expanding globally, creating an increase in business-related travel, and tourists are finding more affordable ways to visit new places and experience new cultures.

All of the things listed above are important reasons to encourage bilingualism, and even multilingualism. It’s comforting to know that I have the ability to communicate with people and have a more thorough, wholesome view when I travel abroad to certain countries. On a more practical, beneficial front, instilling the need to learn more than one language and providing adequate programs to do so fosters individual, societal, and global awareness in children and teenagers, which can then be implemented in future careers and life situations.