The language that you’re reading this in is only the third most popular native language in the world. 

While most of us have taken some form of a language class in school, you only really learn the basics if you start right now. With fewer colleges requiring two years of a foreign language, fewer and fewer students are encouraged to pursue them to a higher level. 

Only around 10% of college students study a foreign language while a staggering 63% of college freshmen plan to study abroad at some point in their time at university.. This polarizing gap may allow you to see the appeal of language in the first place. 

Mandarin is the number one most spoken native language in the world and yet Cherokee Elementary School was forced to disband their Mandarin program due to lack of enrollment. While this change had been on the table for years and as highly controversial as the final decision was made two weeks ago and is still being talked about. 

I think this opens a perfect opportunity for a breakthrough and I’d like to propose my own idea: Offer a wider variety of languages for students to learn. 

In LFHS the students are offered the choice of learning only a select few languages: Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Latin. 

While these are certainly important languages, they are not the only ones that students should have the opportunity to learn. 

Considering that there are over 7,000 languages spoken in the world, each with its own unique culture and history, the importance of incorporating more variety into the language curriculum should not be overlooked. 

By limiting language options to just a few, we are missing out on the chance to be exposed to the abundance of communication and cultures.

“I would love many, many, many languages. The challenge that we’re coming up against now in the entire building is that we have a smaller overall student population, so if we did offer a new language, it would be harder to sustain that enrollment,” said Ms. Rachel Abel, World Languages Instructional Director at LFHS. 

Unfortunately, due to the relatively small size of LFHS, our options have to be limited to only the few. While these choices still do prepare students for success in the globalized world, it would be worth looking into embracing a broader range of languages in our school. 

This means expanding language offerings to include a wider range of options, and providing students with the resources and support they need to become proficient in these languages. 

It also means recognizing the cultural and historical significance of each language and teaching students to appreciate the value of diversity in connecting and speaking. But what about ones that aren’t spoken?

ASL. 

“Although it’s not a spoken language, Latin isn’t either; It would just be a different offering. I’ve heard a lot of schools looking at that because there are a lot of industry credentials that you could get for that,” Abel said. “Let’s say after four years of sign language here, you would get a certificate and you could work in a hospital helping a patient, or in a legal event as an interpreter. That would be interesting to look at too.” 

Nearly 1% of Americans actually know sign language. Could it be that this is because schools don’t encourage students enough to learn it, or perhaps they don’t believe it to be useful? 

Investing in language education is an investment in our future. By giving students the tools they need to communicate with anyone for that matter, we can foster greater understanding and cooperation in the business world, legal world, and medical world to build a more peaceful and prosperous place for all. 

According to Cambridge University Press, studies have shown that language learning can improve cognitive function, memory, and problem-solving skills. 

It can also increase cultural awareness and empathy, which are essential qualities for successful global citizenship.In today’s globalized economy, the ability to speak or understand multiple languages can give students a competitive advantage in the job market.

Some may look at learning a foreign language as a “meaningless endeavor” that won’t give them any use later in life. 

That simply is not the case. There are more Spanish speakers in America than in most other Spanish speaking countries. That may not be that surprising if you’ve noticed that most people in the foreign language program take Spanish as it is the most popular subject. However, if LFHS offered more options for students, the enrollment might be more dispersed. 

Italian, German, even Japanese. All of those languages are widely spoken among millions of people across the globe. 

Language can connect you to a culture in an entirely different way. Once you can actually communicate with people in the real world, it’s a whole different experience. You might find a special connection with a person, culture, or language that you would never have been interested in if not given the chance to explore it. 

Considering all this, it’s easy to shrug it off as an unrealistic future. If it’s something that students feel strongly about, it’s something to speak out about. 

It’s a shame that because of Lake Forest High School’s small size, we have to be somewhat more restricted. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Schools in the area like Stevenson, New Trier, and Lake Zurich have all implemented new language programs, and we can too. 

As access to technology grows and interconnects us with the world, it’s as important as ever for us to be able to converse with people of all backgrounds and dialects – and language is the first step.