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| The US could use an unofficial second (and third and fourth) language | The US could use an unofficial second (and third and fourth) language |
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| Perhaps this is why Singapore’s bi-lingual language policy – each person learns at least two languages (one is English) at school from the age of six – allows for true diversity. During primary school, my class did everything together, except when it came to these second-language sessions. We would pick up our bags and split up into Chinese, Malay and Tamil groups. I studied Chinese (which meant Mandarin), and in secondary school added German to the list, neither of which were languages I could have learned at home. | |
| Singapore is a cacophony, with new sounds every which way. New York is supposed to sound that way, too, but when I arrived, I was mainly hearing English in a wide variety of accents. And traveling further across the US, I realized even accents were a measure of diversity. | |
| I wouldn’t claim that Singapore’s system has no problems – there could be more of a choice as to which second language we learn. At the moment, one is assigned to you along ethnic lines, which can get complicated if you’re mixed race like me or if you’re Chinese but your mother’s native tongue is Cantonese. Still, the result is a linguistically diverse population, and a daily collage of words: announcements in the four official languages on the train, English for official documents, Chinese when ordering at the food court and the National Anthem in Malay. | |
| We’d be unlikely to see a backlash to a commercial like the recent Superbowl Coca Cola spot, in which ‘America the Beautiful’ was sung in a number of languages, a wonderful testament to the diversity of the nation. Or so I thought. To be fair, that was by and large the public reaction, but a significant vocal minority let rip on the internet with a startling amount of vitriol. Perhaps it’s not that startling to anyone who’s ever read a comments thread. Still, even amongst the welcome-to-America-now-speak-English tweets, people said things that have made my jaw drop. My favorite so far: “Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border.” | |
| This uniquely American vitriol isn’t just a question of linguistic ability. It’s a symptom of a profound lack of interest in other cultures: speaking ‘foreign’ languages becomes something strange people do in faraway places. Various studies have determined that only about 3% of published work in the US is translated, which means 97% of all reading matter comes from the English-speaking world. Given that only about one in three Americans speak a second language with any fluency, this leaves a great deal of the world’s culture inaccessible to the bulk of the country. | |
| America is justly proud of the richness and diversity of its people, but it’s a pity this isn’t better reflected in the languages spoken here. The country seems ripe for a Singapore-style bilingual or trilingual education system. This happens in some places, but is often elective, and starts too late. The malleable mind of a young child is a sponge for languages, and it’s a missed opportunity not to teach every elementary schooler a second language they’ll be able to pick up with tremendous ease, compared to how difficult learning a language can become as you grow older. | |
| I’m not saying America should become less of a melting pot. But it could learn a thing or two fromSingapore’s rojak. | |