when I asked my friend
some of the words they would use to
describe our generation they mention
ambition optimism memes and as well as
well as tech focused and STEM careers
especially when looking at Silicon
Valley there was always a mention
towards the pressure to pick a stem
career after all Silicon Valley could be
said to be a stem capital of the world a
hotbed of Sim innovation since the 60s
the area has birthed global Giants like
Apple Google and Adobe as well as
hosting world-class universities like
Stanford and UC Berkeley Mount View is
the exemplary Silicon Valley High School
given the popularity of our APM programs
as well as hosting a successful and
popular robotics team but this focus to
loot from other disciplines mainly our
interest and drive in foreign languages
now it’s not uncommon for students at
MBA chess to take multiple science or
math classes at once right but how many
of you can remember it when there’s to
ensure that same passion for foreign
languages by taking a class over the
summer or trying to use it with neo
speakers or even just using
supplementary materials outside of the
textbook not that many
just from classrooms we see students
more engaged and doozie a stack with
STEM subjects ultimately valuing stem
over foreign language on a systemic
level and this bears are in data as well
as of according to the Modern Language
Association language enrollment across
the entire country has dropped by seven
percent since 2009 but while most of us
don’t realize that we need foreign
languages in our education just as much
as them our international cultural
exchange instantaneous communication and
globalized economy dictate that we must
be able to understand people for across
the entire world and understand their
very culture and point of view to do so
foreign languages must be a part of both
primary and secondary education and must
be valued just the same as any other
core subject language is the key that
unlocks our world
for holding every detail in high
definition and if our journey is it
generation is too big
successful in this world is imperative
that we grasped that fact now let me ask
you all another question how many of you
really understand why something is right
or wrong in your native language and the
rules behind it well for the most part
it’s pretty intuitive to distinguish
between right and wrong but when you
start saying another language everything
works on different serve rules that
aren’t so intuitive in studying how that
language conveys meaning you gain
perspective for the many ways that
meaning can be conveyed well a phrase
translated from one language into
another make her the same general
meaning the specific ways that that
meaning is conveyed very widely from
language to language even looking at how
languages write how they take the sounds
all of our mouths and onto the paper
we’ve seen an intense variety between
languages Chinese for example uses
thousands of symbols each getting a
specific meaning and pronunciation and
Japanese uses that alongside two other
sets of symbols that each know a
specific consonant and vowel pairing
Koreans Hangul expresses things using
symbol syllable blocks which each know a
specific syllable and in Arabic in
Hebrew you only really write in
consonants and in Hindi stemming gari
scripts we see the vowels modified
constant basis oh my god there’s so much
variety even looking at how languages do
use the Latin alphabet express things
for writing we’ve seen intense variety
as well English for example is
relatively complex and irregular at
times all Spanish is relatively
consistent and even though it’s famous
orthographic complexity French can often
be more straightforward than English at
times the intense variety of ways that
languages have come up with to express
the same ideas is amazing and although
we may be writing in so many different
ways we were ultimately still expressing
the same ideas but it’s impossible to
comprehend that without studying another
language and not understanding of
diversity is only further when looking
at culture culture and language are
tightly interconnected the beliefs value
and practices of a culture are expressed
through individuals using the language
and many concepts that we understand in
our culture are actually thought of in
different ways in different cultures you
can see this in their language now
Chinese for example uses the characters
Xiang and Xiao didn’t say a last month
or week or next month or week
respectively and these characters mean
up and down now when I started learning
Chinese I constantly confused these
phrases but when I started thinking of
Chinese time is going top down rather
than the left-to-right spectrum and
Western languages everything fell into
place as we see in Chinese time doesn’t
have to stop be thought of in one way
and can actually be taught in many ways
in many cultures it’s the same way of
how different map projections display
the features of the Earth’s surface
differently
how can you see the many ways that we
can display the e features of the earth
without looking at more than one map
studying a new language is like looking
at a whole new map for communication
it’s looking at the same cantos but in a
whole different way but we must begin to
invest in those concepts now why though
we extra why would we learn in a foreign
language why would we spend so much time
well the u.s. is founded by people from
across the entire world who all come
from different nail languages and
different cultural backgrounds in 2015
alone the use granted over 1 million
people of foreign birth permanent
resident status in fact almost 25%
amount view high schoolers are
non-english native speakers you can very
well be next to one of them right now
not only that been our world of
instantaneous communication there’s so
much more interaction between every
corner of the globe
my dad regularly speaks to people from
Japan Israel and China as part of his
work who all speak different languages
and come from different cultural
backgrounds learning in their language
is about getting inside their head or
their shoes as the popular adage goes
about connecting with another person
understanding where they’re coming from
and being able to bridge your culture
with Iran
when I spoke to a student who took part
in the awhile change two years ago they
said in Japanese everything is formal
and informal the conjugations honorifics
and specific ways of addressing people
who are older and younger than you all
indicate a high amount of respect and
degree and interest in structure
this explains differences like when
hosting guests Japanese people will not
let others the guests do any kind of
menial chores during their stay because
because it is seen as extremely
disrespectful for them to let them do
that and looking at our culture through
their language you gain its perspective
for the many ways that the many
different differences in norms values
traditions and history making what was
once weird and bizarre not much more
reasonable so if we’re going to promote
this cross-cultural
connection we have to start acting like
languages actually matter languages need
to evaluate the same as any of the other
core subjects as an integral part of
primary and secondary education to do so
foreign languages must start at the
primary level as part of education most
of Europe does this integrating foreign
languages as part of the curriculum
between ages 6 and 9 and requiring
student societies a second of foreign
language throughout high school in fact
some countries require students to say a
second foreign language during high
school as well by requiring students to
study foreign languages in both primary
and high school these countries are
taking languages seriously as part of a
student’s educational experience well in
the u.s. languages are treated as
electives during high school in Europe
languages are treated as part of an
essential an essential part of a
student’s educational experience an
essential part of a student’s
functioning in the modern world but this
policy change also requires and changing
values when we devalue foreign languages
by saying that they’re not an important
part of our students education we
devalue foreign cultures and ideas
different ways of life and different
perspectives and promote Anglo
centrosome what was a possibility for
connection and understanding as rejected
by blunt
ignorance look I love foreign language
just like other students in Jordan
calculus or singing or playing sports I
revel in the chance to dissect a grammar
textbook to learn the French past
reflexive pronoun or the Chinese passive
voice and while I understand then that
everyone shows this passion we almost
have foundations in foreign language
just like everyone should have
foundations in algebra or the basic
principles of our Constitution the
education system is meant to produce
students who can at least understand the
fundamentals of every subject so that
they can be competent members of our
society and world even if they don’t end
up using trigonometry or the basics of
17th century Europe in their day-to-day
lives and careers language brings a
person to a whole new understanding of
the diversity in human experience and
explains culture in a way that simple
study cannot even if the specifics of
vocab and grammar are lost the values
and skills language imparts want several
years of study for us we stand at the
edge of division language can be the
bridge that brings us back together so
let’s get to work thank you