As you’ve probably noticed, all students at USC have a language requirement as part of the Carolina Core, ranging from just having to meet entry-level requirements to having to take two more classes past entry level.
Why, you might ask, do all USC students have to learn another language? Isn’t English good enough? It’s the language spoken by the most people worldwide, the most commonly used language for international business and the dominant language of the U.S., the world’s most powerful nation.
It’s true that English has a privileged status. Its ubiquity means we have a luxury most of the world is now deprived of, that of knowing only one language. But I argue that this luxury is really a deprivation, and one that USC’s language requirements play a vital role in correcting.
By requiring that all students have at least a basic exposure to a foreign language, USC is ensuring that our nation’s future community, business and political leaders have the potential to benefit from knowing another language.
I say the potential to benefit because anyone can pass two classes without getting much out of them. There is, however, a lot to be gotten out of language classes. Students who apply themselves and care about actually becoming proficient in the language, not just getting good grades, will find taking these classes a very rewarding experience. There’s an extra layer of satisfaction to looking back over your progress in an academic discipline when it’s a skill you’ll be able to use (if you keep it up) your whole life.
You don’t just get satisfaction from learning a second language — there are a number of associated benefits to your cognitive ability, personal development and career outcomes.
An article in The Atlantic compiling multiple studies found that compared to people who speak only one language, multilinguals score higher on standardized exams, perform better in tests of memory and are “more perceptive to their surroundings.” Rather than actually increasing IQ, it seems that bilingualism improves the brain’s executive functioning. According to the website Scientific Learning, our brains’ executive function “helps us manage time, pay attention, switch focus, plan and organize, remember details, draw on our experience and avoid bad behavior and speech. It’s a control system of the mind that allows us to focus on what’s relevant and to ignore distractions." Because of this, learning a second language is likely to positively affect your overall academic performance.
Learning another language facilitates your personal development by letting you communicate with people you would otherwise have been unable to. This gives you a better appreciation of other nations and cultures and forces you to think critically about the linguistic paradigms you unconsciously employ, recognizing that each language has its own accepted ways of putting something. When you learn a new language you have to adopt its characteristic style and different method of saying things in order to become fluent.
Thanks to forces of globalization, today’s world is more interconnected than ever, leading to more interaction between people who speak different languages. In this environment, it is increasingly advantageous to speak more than one language. Fluency in a foreign language is a valuable asset that makes you a more marketable job candidate and, once hired, can get you a higher salary.
As we’ve seen, picking up a second language improves your mind, helps you develop into a 21st century citizen and gives you a leg up in the business world. It’s never going to be easier to learn another language than while you’re in college, so take language classes at USC to begin developing a skill that you can use for rest of your life.