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You bring up a good point about second languages. I took three years of of High School Spanish (1960's) Never used it for years. Today, I understand some Spanish, especially when it's written, but that's because I studied Latin and can often see the root word connection. I learned a few conversational Japanese phrases because of some business many years ago.

I also know a few Welsh words and phrases but they can't be repeated in public.

I picked up enough Vietnamese to ask basic questions, like "Which way did the Viet Cong go?" "Where's Uncle Ho?" "How much money did you say?" (well, let's pass on that last one).

Today, I think fluency in Spanish or Mandarin Chinese might be a good way to go. Arabic might come in very handy for the next few years, or if McCain has his way, the next 100 years.

Learning to be fluent in a foriegn language is important. But note that I didn't say we should be a bi-lingual nation. There's a difference.

Perhaps the day has come and gone when it was necessary to study Greek and Latin, but the study of a language or two that's important might be required given the global economy.

I think it should start at a young age. But you have to use it to maintain fluency or what would be the point?

I have a pretty easy time of it, getting my kids interested in foreign languages. I speak four of them (Arabic, Swahili, German, French, plus a little Japanese, a smattering of Russian, and some Greek). What I enjoy most with my children is to show them that English itself is a patois of so many different languages. My son really likes the Navy. "Admiral"? That's an Arabic phrase. And whenever I get the chance, I never hesitate to tell absolutely anybody - at cocktail parties and so forth - the "Istanbul is really a Greek name for the Turkish capital" story - those stupid Turks. So around the Eells household learning foreign languages is for sure going to be a rite of growing up. My wife is reasonably familiar with Chinese, so I'll let her lead the way on that one. Ahh, Hel, no I won't. I've always wanted to learn Chinese...

Put it another way, too. At least for a little while longer, the United States is the richest and best country on the planet. Can't we spend a little of our time and money teaching ourselves how to fit in with the rest of the world? And don't wealthier people just have bigger brains, anyway? We should be able to cram a handful of languages up there with option expirations and recipes for really good afternoon drinks. It's not exactly noblesse oblige, but you can see my idea from there. Why can't we just play along with everybody else nicely? So learn some Arabic. Learn Chinese.

And I'll tell you this story for nuthin'. When I was in Tanzania as a college kid, fluent in Swahili, I was practically a movie star. But at the same time, nobody would guess that I was American. I'm a 6'4", blond, blue eyed guy, so everybody guessed "Russian!" first. This is helpful; NOBODY messes with Russians. But then they'd name every other country in the world before throwing up their hands in disgust and guessing "Canadian?" When I told them I was American the response was universal incredulity. "Americans don't learn languages!" Be the sneaky American who knows what people are talking about, eh? That sounds like smart social Darwinism right there.

The reason, Mr Eells, that Americans don't learn languages is precisely because they are the richest and best country on the planet. As such, Americans don't learn languages - they force others to learn theirs.

Sure, Chinese may be useful, but China has existed for thousands of years and they've never really succeeded in spreading their culture to places beyond their borders, and maybe Chinatowns in big cities. And Arabic - I mean, perhaps that's going somewhere but I'm still bent on the idea that English is the world's predominant language. Everybody speaks English. Japanese businessmen speak English. Osama bin Laden speaks English. The president of France speaks English. Twenty years from now, I expect English to have ousted many of the more culturally rich languages from general use. A hundred years from now - more so.

Wealth, also, doesn't give someone bigger brains. It just gives someone the option to expand their knowledge. I know plenty of stupid rich people. They wouldn't learn how to make toast, let alone a foreign language. On the other hand, those self-made businessmen are rich BECAUSE they're smart. Knowledge can bring wealth, but I think wealth seldom brings knowledge.

The One at the Desk has a very good point. The English speaking world may not have the future on its side but it does have history on its side. The worldwide habit of learning English as a second language has become (and will continue to be) self perpetuating.

I speak four languages; English, Canadian, Australian, and American. And I know a few words in other languages.

I am skeptical of Arabic becoming such an important language any time soon. If it hadn't been for Tamburlane, we would probably all be learning Arabic now. But the disastrous abuses in the Arabic speaking regions over the last several hundred years have sadly prevented it from fulfilling the promise it had back in Babylonian times. In recent years, the most useful knowledge of Arabic has been in the distressing field of surveillance. I recently read that the NYPD has more Arabic speaking officers than the FBI. The most worrisome aspect of this is how little I was surprised.

I also suspect that Mr. Peterman is underrating the important of romance languages like French. Consider the number of nations in which French is already spoken. In addition to the obvious examples of France, Canada, and Switzerland, there are numerous African nations in which French is a prominant (if not THE prominant) language spoken. And, at least for the moment, I have more hope for the future of these African nations than most Arabic ones (I appreciate that some of these overlap, like Egypt). But Africa is often referred to as "the developing world" and these opportunities for development have tremendous potential for making fortunes for visionary bussinesspeople in the process of tremendously improving the living standard of the most impoverished peoploe in the world.

My confidence in the future of Africa is based on the slow but steady debunking of so much of the bad "environmentalist" propaganda that continues to circulate. As long as the Al Gores of the world do not get there way, the millions of Africans who have lived in squalor for so long have a chance. The progress is slow but it is happening. And a good percentage of it will happen in French.

DreadPirateRoberts, you've given me hope. I'm from Canada and am fluent in French, and since moving to Florida five years ago, have heard nothing but that French is a dying language and is only appreciated for how it sounds. I never thought of it from the African standpoint.

I'm relatively certain that in the American spirit of wanting to boast that "my kid is smarter than your kid", more languages are going to be introduced into schools.
I myself have always gone to north carolina public schools with somewhat low budgets.
When I was in elementary school, we had a Spanish teacher come in once a week as one of our "special" classes [the others were gym, art, and music].
We learned colors and the like, none of which I would still know without my most recent semester of Spanish.
Middle school ignored languages, offering them as optional electives, but now in my high school we are required to have two years of a language to graduate.
The languages offered are Spanish, French and Latin [I hate how they teach Latin as if you're supposed to speak it; it's dead, move on!], Spanish being the most popular.
If you enroll in IB classes you can get up to six [I believe] years of any of the three [we have a messed up schedule, don't ask how it works out].
The idea of offering Mandarin has been brought up, but student interest was so low that it never got passed.
And why should we want to take it? Most students think that if you have to take two years of something just to pass, why would you take something that will probably never be relevant to you [assuming that most students who don't care for school will not go into business].
My school offers many "career paths" [I never agreed with them, but that's beside the point] that tell you what classes to take to help you in your chosen future. I don't recall the name of the path, but one is there to help you in the business world. If Mandarin was approved by the board, then it should defiantly be a requirement for all "business prep" students.

Lovey, I started learning French in high school, but quit because "I was never going to use it." (sigh) And here I am...

Heiress's first sentence "Languages keep cultures alive." is so true and such a brief and yet eloquent way to put the subject in context.

I think the corollary to this statement may be observed in the Catholic church in the United States when the celebration of the mass was changed from Latin to English. I believe that there was so much lost in the translation, and not just the literal aspect. The mass, for me at least (I stopped going long age for a plethora of other reasons) lost much of it mystique, it's romance, it's lyrical qualities that made it something a bit more special. It became clumsy for lack of a better way to describe it. It went from Opera to something much less (Now how's that for being politically astute?)

I believe that to be a citizen of any country requires one to be able to speak the language. I also believe it is a bit arrogant to expect everyone else to take steps to understand you without some effort on your part to understand them.

And yes, it is good business.

To: Heiress,

How do the French treat you? I have a friend who has travelled to France on business and he says he's always been treated well and they've helped him with his attempts to say the right things in French. I know another person who wouldn't go back for any reason, finding the French rude and refusing to speak either English or French to him.

I suspect that it's a matter of adapting to the culture. The "Ugly American" syndrome.

I hope the following is not an indication of how hopeless we are, but during a recent Presidential term our ambassador to Germany spoke French as a second language and our ambassador to France spoke German as a second language.

The Soviets had a long-time ambassador to Hanoi during the Vietnam War who understood Vietnamese culture, spoke Vietnamese fluently, and had even lost weight so he would blend in with the smaller Vietnamese. Our amabassadors to the South spoke English. None of them even spoke French ( another language spoken by upper class Vietnamese who ran the government). They lacked even a basic understanding of the history of Indo-China. They probably couldn't find the country on a map. (Hey, come to think about it, you can't South Vietnam on a map today....the ambassadors were ahead of their times!)

I think this might be a problem in Iraq. Any of our diplomats speak Arabic? Or are they all idealogues armed with the administrations agenda?

Mr Peterman, I'm probably not as worldly as you, but somehow I figure that France is the land where diplomatic treaties are written, but French isn't a diplomatic language, at least in the past century. If it were, maybe the Germans could have been dissuaded from invading... twice.

I also personally believe that you are at a waiter's mercy if said waiter can pronounce the menu selections better than you can. If you have to point then you are completely at the mercy.

My cousin joined the Army the major reason was so she could learn more languages. She was assigned to learn Arabic. I think she will be most likely translating for a diplomat with in the next few years. If she stays in that long.

I took Spanish in High School I had a first year just out of college teach she was AWFUL I pretty much flunked it. I took French my Senior year should have started with that as a Freshman I really liked it & I could actually relate the French Teachers methods. I have 2 friends who have French as college minors they are now both nurses, One of my girlfriends sister is a Spanish Major (Spains Spanish) she teaches at Dartmouth spends half the year in the U.S. the other half in regions of Spain teaching. She is also married to a Spaniard who's English is very bad. He is an Antique book librarian at the college.

I was surprised a few years ago when I was in Russia & most of the people spoke English. I was more surprised when I was told that by the next year the Metro System would have signs in both the Cryllic Alphabet & the American Alphabet. It kind of saddened me though I was having fun figuring out the routes by having learned just a tiny smattering of Russian.

I have heard that its easier to learn a langauge while younger I do agree with that idea. It's too bad that the public schools can't really offer it to the grade schoolers. I think it could possibly make a huge difference in many peoples lives.

As for me I would still LOVE to learn actual Russian & then maybe French.

"I also personally believe that you are at a waiter's mercy if said waiter can pronounce the menu selections better than you can. If you have to point then you are completely at the mercy."

I pity the poor folks who the waiter told to order the snails & they didn't even realize it :)

SSJ:

Your point about making an effort to understand others if you wish to expect the same from them is a good one. But, in this respect, I believe visiting a country should carry with it a certain courtesy. If I visit France or Germany, it is my responsibility to be understood, not the natives' responsibility to understand. I should know enough to get by. By the same token, if a French or German visits the U.S., these positions are clearly reversed. However, practicality has dictated that most Europeans have learned enough English to make it easy for English-speaking tourists such as myself to bypass this courtesy. When I honeymooned in Paris, I didn't speak much French because I simply didn't have to. Most of them spoke English.

ExPat:

Speaking of my Parisian honeymoon, I found that the vast majority of the people I encountered were perfectly gracious and accommodating. Very little of that stereotypical French rudeness about which we so often hear (I have also never encountered "English reserve"). The bigger problem seemed to be commonly accepted dishonesty. There were many cases of false advertising and broken promises which, when confronted, were simply greeted with a shrug. Lack of manners is one thing; lack of honor is something very different.

I have also worked with several French expatriates here in New York and encountered similar attitudes (even among those I liked and with whom I was friends). Once, in a production of Shakespeare's "Richard III", one of the crewmembers snapped several production photos. Many people in the cast paid her money to have the photos copied and delivered to us. She took the money and took her time. Most of us never got the photos. I got less than half of what I had paid for. When I mentioned how we had paid for something we never received, she responded "Why are Americans always so concerned about money?" And that was that. There were many other such examples but that one was the corker.

If you check out a charming comedy called "Le Divorce" by James Ivory, it strikes me as a very fun and knowing examination of Franco-American relations among ordinary citizens of both nations.

Heiress:

Naturally, if you have any refutations, explanations, or other comments on the above paragraphs, I appreciate that your expertise on this topic far outweighs mine.

Also, I want to let you know that my quest for "factual romance" has just had a lovely boost: My family got me a perfect Father's Day gift, a GORGEOUS book entitled "First Class: Legendary Train Journeys Around the World". The text and photographs are... the only word is Petermanesque! And the whole thing is bound to look like an old-fashioned steamer trunk. Definitely a nice appetizer until I can actually visit the mentioned locales in person.

As a simultaneous interpreter, working with many people from the State Department, I was amazed at how xenophobic many diplomats were. One thing I noticed was that, even if every member of the delegation was perfectly bilingual, the French always insisted on interpreters...great job security for me.

I see my own linguistic abilities as pretty limited...given the scope of what's our there. My French is ok, German not what it once was, and Hindi growing...thanks to Bollywood.

Every language I have learned has showed me a different way of seeing the world just because of the way the language is structured. That, in and of itself, would be a reason to learn as much as possible...n'est pas?

One story about kids and learning language. Our son went to a bilingual school and saw scant use for double homework in everything until he figured out that he and his team mates could speak French on the soccer field and it was unlikely that the other team would understand a thing. I guess pragmatism rules.

English is the Language of Commerce. Therefore, outside of New England boarding schools and pretentious gatherings on the Upper East Side, it's the only language that matters.