The Value of Foreign Language Classes in High School….Mandarin Chinese Becomes A Popular Choice.

On last night’s Late Show, we discussed the value to high school students of learning a foreign language…especially one that will give them a competitive edge in the emerging global economy.

A recent article in the Trenton Times suggests that Lawrence High School is among a number of Mercer County schools giving more emphasis to Chinese language instruction. And they go on to quote the percentage of students in each school taking the Chinese courses.

Unfortunately, no discussion of foreign language is complete without hearing from those who have a more jingoistic perspective. Cries of “English first” were very common throughout the discussion.

The point being made, and hammered throughout the hour was the value, going forward, that these courses would have as our young people enter the workplace…and not to placate a growing minority to satisfy some need to be “politically correct” and cater to our growing minority population.

In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that a good many of our graduating students from high school don’t even have a rudimentary knowledge of the proper use of their mother tongue.

When expressions such as “lol” and ‘btw’ become common usage among today’s graduates, you know we’ve entered into a world where shorthand becomes the order of the day and the written word loses its value.

Languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, perhaps Farsi, Arabic, and yes, even Spanish will be much needed in the years ahead so as to allow our youth a place in the ever expanding global market…one in which they’ll need all the tools at their disposal to compete.