
Foreign Language Requirements Are a Waste of Time and Money - gwern
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2012/08/the_marginal_pr.html
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sesteel
I like this guy; I took 3 years of Spanish when I was younger. This education
helped me briefly when selling clothes to Spanish speaking clients. They
appreciated the effort and I made good commission. That was almost 20 years
ago; I have forgotten almost everything I had learned in those years of
foreign language instruction.

It is clear to me, in retrospect, that it is much better to embed yourself in
a culture to pick up their customs and language. Classroom instruction is
simply not enough to be worthwhile.

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justaaron
yeah, because that's what Americans should keep telling themselves:

"everyone wants to learn English and come here to America anyway because we
are the best and have better versions of everything. If you want to know
anything about the world, don't bother leaving New York City"

The subject of the article above is symptomatic of a larger navel-gazing
mindset which literally has trapped hundreds of millions of peoples thinking
patterns in a box shaped like the modern English language. Far be it for the
author to examine any use for other languages further than his interest in
Opera. One wouldn't seek to engage in global travel, re-settle elsewhere,
conduct business or gain an education abroad, or attempt to communicate with
those outside of the English Language Bubble, surely that would be
inconceivable.

I want my 5 minutes back.

