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I appreciate your response.. and again, I agree that with you that learning a language is not necessarily a path to personal betterment. But it might be..

Leaving aside that what you describe is really not learning a language (downloading some language programs).. I would like to return to the question - give me an example of something that does make you a better person?

I'd be inclined to say that genuinely trying to understand others' worldview DOES make one a better person.. and committing oneself to six months in country and two years of communicative study of another language (and culture) may very well make you a "better" person, or at least a more open person.

Perhaps even a jerk would be a better jerk if they committed themselves to try to understand someone else from their own perspective. :)

So how do we become better?

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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I just made a rather lengthy post to a new thread below, but wanted to comment directly to scottmil - while I obviously disagree, I'm really interested in one statement: "you don't need new languages [to further your worldview]"

I happen to agree with this statement - but I'm curious if scottmil's ideas of what it takes to "further one's worldview" are similar to mine, or very different.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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I am a language learner and teacher - I hold a Certificate in TESOL from PSU. I've taught English in S. Korea and Venezuela, as well as here in Portland for PCC, Lewis and Clark, and as a Community ESL (now ENNL) instructor. There are so many issues indicated by this topic and the way it's framed, I look forward to hearing the discussion.

I'd like to highlight two points for discussion. First: it's interesting to pose the question of the usefulness of learning a "foreign" language in a country where people from many different language backgrounds reside. While it's a topic too long to address briefly, I'd just like to suggest that the question cannot be fully asked without considering the language environment wherein one considers what counts as a foreign language; and where a particular country exists in a geographic, political, economic and social matrix that includes adjacent countries, cultures, and languages. Nobody disputes the usefulness - or perhaps necessity - of learning the primary language of a culture that one lives in. Or, maybe we could say, that few English speakers dispute that learning English is important if you plan to live in the US - but people from the US, some of the most geographically mobile people in the world, are also widely believed to be the least linguistically competent travelers. And that's not to mention the many Americans who live in other countries and teach english or buy retirement property without having a communicative grasp of the language of the culture they reside in. This usefulness is not questioned in ANY OTHER COUNTRY, and I think uniquely reflects the linguistic privilege of US English speakers - in fact, the hidden question seems to be: what is the usefulness of knowing ANY other language besides English?

The second point of discussion branches off the first in a very particular direction: let's assume that you acknowledge(whether you like it or not) that you live in a large community that includes multiple language communities. How can one say that they understand this wider community without the ability to interact with some of these linguistically marginalized groups? Many well meaning English speakers wring their hands over the inability of certain folks to be able to communicate in English - but it is unarguable that non-english speakers DO reside here, and travel here, and anyone who has never learned another language, not to mention not spent significant time in a "foreign" culture, has almost no basis upon which to base generalizations about what's good for the wider community, what it thinks, needs and wants. Even further, in a globalized environment, one can not even reasonably generalize about (or understand) humanity or the human condition without some experiential awareness of "foreign" ways of thinking, knowing, and being. To pose the question of the usefulness of learning a foreign language is only possible from an entrenched ethnocentric position. This position I'm laying out has less to do with the specific culture learning that goes on from learning a particular language - a very important topic - but goes to what I think is a more fundamental question about language and culture learning - what is the general value to a human being (and her community) of trying to understand another's perspective or way of life? What do we learn when we realize that there are things we can't fully understand?

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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