Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Senator Paul Simon, RIP
The late Senator Paul Simon was outspoken on the importance of studying foreign languages. He wrote The Tongue-Tied American: Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis in 1980. One might say he was a bit of a monomaniac on the subject.
Senator Simon managed to blame the events of 9/11/01 on American ignorance of foreign tongues. In his endorsement of a November 2003 report for the Association of International Educators, Simon said: "The nation learned on September 11, 2001 that we must become much more sensitive to the rest of the world."
The report Simon endorsed went much further: "We are unnecessarily putting ourselves at risk because of our stubborn monolingualism and ignorance of the world." In other words, had there just been a few Americans who spoke Arabic on those jet airplanes, the Twin Towers would still be standing.
Learning a foreign language is always a good thing. But the American people can hardly be expected to learn every tongue spoken by anyone anywhere who has a grievance against America. Simon's hospital bed endorsement of Howard Dean is worrisome. Might a Dean Administration handle a future terrorist attack on American soil with mandatory language classes for American citizens?
|posted by Jim on 8:19 PM|
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