Alaka Basu has a nice OPED in the Washington Post on the study of critical languages. National security considerations aside, why learn a language?
But we say nothing about the biggest incentive and the biggest return of all: the love affair that can develop between a student of a foreign language and the language itself. If I taught a language, I would begin by evoking the beauty of the very sounds of a particular language. Indeed, listen to the sound of even the name of an unfamiliar language — Pashtun, Swahili, Zulu, Dogri. Merely saying the names aloud makes one want to know more.
Will the Hopeful One ever get this? Read the piece and I will add some comments later today.
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