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Analysis and Conclusions
   


    
Again and again as I worked on this project
    I was amazed by the variety of languages that would be useful
    to know: Tagalog to talk to neighbors, Bengali to talk to nearly
    200,000,000 people, Chinese for business, Czech for travel, Spanish
    for everything. At the same time as I realized this diversity,
    I was stunned at the lack of diversity represented in the languages
    taught in American public secondary schools. The paltry numbers
    of students who study any language but the most common ones seems
    a crime. It does not seem to be a coincidence that the languages
    not taught in secondary schools are those considered difficult.


    
The results of my surveys show that most
    people agree which languages are the difficult ones: those that
    appear most different from English, especially if they have different
    writing systems or sounds. There seems to be unconscious prejudice
    on the part of both language teachers and language learners against
    these "difficult" languages. This does not mean that
    the teachers or students are bigoted, but that they have been
    misled by what has long been considered common knowledge. But
    the myths persist; they keep students from attempting "more
    difficult" languages, and they keep school districts from
    offering them.


    
In fact, however, there is little difference
    in "difficulty" between various languages. People learn
    languages at a similar rate no matter what the language is; unfamiliar
    sounds do not inhibit learners from achieving high levels of
    oral proficiency. Many languages that at first seem unrelated
    actually share grammatical features with English: just because
    a language does not use the Roman alphabet does not mean that
    it is entirely alien to English speakers.


    
This conclusion does not suggest that studying
    French, Spanish, German, or Latin, as 96.42% of American high
    school language learners do, is to be avoided. These languages
    are very valid ones to study: they offer rewards in daily life,
    in travel, and in literature. But limiting language learners
    to these languages, when many others are equally easy to learn
    and potentially just as valuable for a myriad of purposes, should
    not happen. Every student should have the opportunity to study
    whatever language she chooses, and she should choose among the
    languages knowing all the facts.