Learn Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese

I remember sitting in my Russian language class, taught by a wonderful, soft-spoken teacher, while my eyes glazed over because the language sounded so much harsher than the lovely sing-song Italian language which I adored and learned on my own after I learned German in school.

I would sit in the back of the class not just because I was one of the taller females but because I wanted to do crossword puzzles away from the teacher’s prying eyes. I did learn Russian, but she was teaching us Russian language for business and trade and, years later, I wished I had paid more attention. Some of my classmates were happy that they finally learned the Cyrillic alphabet and got a passing grade.

A former university colleague started a program for elementary schools in the area, using high school students to teach young American students Spanish under the guise that Spanish-speaking people have a hard time learning English and, it won’t be long before they will dominate society, and why not make it easier for the rest of us by learning their language? I found that statement dubious since she was making it in the 1990, but it appears that she was right.

There is nothing wrong with countries adopting the language of another conquering or invading society, especially when the invaded country does not have an official language. It had happened many times throughout history and especially during the Roman Empire. Although the administrative language was Latin, the conquered tribes mixed their local dialects with Latin which resulted over time in the Romance languages of today, i.e., Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Romansh, and Portuguese.

Given our economic situation right now, perhaps we should learn Mandarin Chinese as well as Russian.