America likes to think it’s smarter than the rest of the world, but when it comes to studying and learning languages, that isn’t the case.
Kids in the US are at the bottom of the list when it comes to knowing a language besides English, which fortunately for us, is the dominant global language right now.
But shouldn’t students living in the last true superpower be able to understand what the rest of the world is saying?
Research published in Psychological Science suggests that simply thinking in a foreign language helps people make quicker and better life decisions.
Furthermore, a study by the College Entrance Examination Board reports a direct correlation between foreign language study and high SAT scores.
People who speak a foreign language often enjoy better career prospects and higher standards of living.
And there are even health benefits — recent research from the University of Chicago suggests that a second language also helps prevent dementia later in life.
Unfortunately, only 20% of US students in kindergarten through 12th grade learn a foreign language, according to new Pew Research Center data.
That’s strikingly low compared to Europe, where more than 90% of youth study at least one foreign language, and often more than one.
For a young person in Romania, say, it makes sense to start learning other languages early, as their mother tongue isn’t spoken much beyond the country’s borders.
That may explain why 100% of students there are studying foreign languages—as are youth in Austria, Cyprus, France, Norway, Malta, Luxembourg, and Lichtenstein
Another likely reason for the interest in foreign languages in Europe is the concentration of tongues within countries and throughout the union.
In Switzerland, for example, there are four official national languages—French, German, Italian, and Romansh. In Belgium, there are three official tongues—French, German, and Dutch.
Europeans also share more borders with speakers of other languages than Americans, who have only English and French to the north in Canada and Spanish south of the border in Mexico.
Still, the language data points to an issue in American education, too.
As Pew Research points out, European nations have national standards for language study, and students must pass exams in acquired tongues.
By contrast, the 50 US states each have their own education standards.
There’s no uniform language study requirement across the country.