How America Got its Foreign Language Gap

Abstract

The President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies said that Americans' incompetence in foreign languages is scandalous, and recommended required undergraduate studies in international studies. The commission urged that the federal government spend $178 million more than the $67 million appropriated for foreign languages and international studies at all levels for fiscal year 1979. Obviously, the commission is going well beyond any mere residual embarrassment there might be, from the time a United States interpreter made President Carter look like a complete fool during a state visit to Poland, earlier in his tenure of office, by mistranslating Carter's words into broken, suggestive Polish that had some Poles rolling in the aisles with derisive laughter. In Warsaw the vogue for a while was American jokes, it was reported. That incident was only symptomatic of the continuing, widespread degeneration of language study in this country. How did we get where we are? I have a theory. When curricular relevance came to the fore at colleges and universities during the period of anti-Vietnam War protests, too many administrators knuckled under to student demands to do away with foreign language degree requirements. The administrators had hidden agendas for doing so, however. They were as much (if not more) concerned about serious enrollment declines, and the prospects for more of the same, as they were about relevance in their colleges' curricula.