Editorial: Multilingualism is invaluable, even if English is widely spoken

Unlike their peers in the humanities and social sciences, foreign language majors always… Unlike their peers in the humanities and social sciences, foreign language majors always graduate college with at least one marketable skill. But according to a prominent higher education pundit, their expertise might soon become less valuable.

In a recent New York Times op-ed, former Harvard president Lawrence Summers downplayed the importance of multilingualism — at least for native English speakers. “While there is no gainsaying the insights that come from mastering a language,” Summers wrote, “it will over time become less essential in doing business in Asia, treating patients in Africa or helping resolve conflicts in the Middle East.”

We couldn’t disagree more. Whether or not English becomes the professional world’s lingua franca — according to Ethnologue.com, native Chinese and Spanish speakers currently outnumber native English speakers — foreign language proficiency will continue to impart innumerable benefits.

Even if recent graduates remain within the U.S., for instance, they’ll probably live alongside foreign-born residents — which, according to 2010 Census data, now comprise roughly eight percent of the country. And if graduates move to cities like Austin, Los Angeles or San Francisco, they’ll need to brush up on their Spanish: By 2050, according to 2008 NBC projections, the Hispanic-American population will double. Given current demographic trends, it seems naive to insist that English will remain universal.

Furthermore, even if graduates confine themselves to a culturally homogeneous business environment, they might nonetheless interact with customers on a daily basis. And customers, unlike overseas business partners, might not speak anything other than their native language.

This is to say nothing of the employment opportunities multilingualism affords. Despite English’s supposed ubiquity, countless employers value foreign language abilities — even, in some cases, above professional experience. Until all other countries abandon their native tongues, linguistic versatility will remain an important professional asset.

In any case, we don’t think English will forever remain the premiere “global language,” any more than French or Latin did. Predominant dialects change according to power relations, and the United States, as most people know, has recently lost significant ground to China and India. Within 100 years, a different columnist in a different region of the world might challenge the necessity of learning anything other than Mandarin Chinese.

With all due respect to Summers, we find it hard to imagine a world in which multilingualism becomes irrelevant. And even if English does supplant every other dialect in the business community, we hope universities will retain their foreign language departments, if only to remind students what they’re missing.