> Don’t make the mistake of arguing that knowing a second language has many benefits. The point is that foreign language instruction in schools doesn’t teach a

> Don’t make the mistake of arguing that knowing a second language has many benefits. The point is that foreign language instruction in schools doesn’t teach a second language. Here he seems to be making the argument that it just doesn't work rather than that it's not worth it. At the same time, Bryan Caplan whom he quotes and seemingly endorses, is arguing that it's not really worth it. Not quite sure what to make of this other than that both points strike me as equally ridiculous. Foreign languages absolutely /are/ worth it, even if one is lucky enough to be born in an English-speaking country, and saying that second language education should be dropped because it doesn't work is absurd. Language education certainly needs to be improved all over the world. There is enough research and anecdotal evidence that clearly shows that the standard language education with a focus on learning grammar and doing 'fill in the missing word' exercises from day one is largely a waste of time as opposed to a focus on listening comprehension and learning whole phrases and sentences in context and with relevant material one has a genuine interest in. For example I find there's a strong correlation between English movies being subtitled (Netherlands, Nordic countries), as opposed to dubbed (Spain, France), and general English levels in the population. As for the 'hardly any jobs use foreign languages' argument - that really is quite disturbing, but in a way also very honest at the same time. The goal of school isn't to help children develop into self-determined fully-formed adults but rather to produce economically useful human resources. Learning different languages enables one to view and conceptualise the world differently. There's a strong indication that being multi-lingual reduces the risk of Alzheimer's and dementia. A second language opens up a whole new world, culture, literature in a way that consuming translated material simply cannot provide. Last but not least, it seems to me that there's a frighteningly large number of Americans whose worldview is more or less that North America is the cradle of civilisation, Europe is this quaint little village where you can go on holiday and the rest of the world is basically a shithole, to paraphrase our beloved leader of the free world. In my opinion being exposed to a different culture/world from an early age through an improved language curriculum focusing on immersion in real world material can absolutely have a positive effect on this and in that context also help improve the current political discourse, which, to butcher a quote from John Oliver, mostly boils down to "two people who don't know what they're talking about, being condescending to each other until one of them eventually manages to land a sick burn". Who knows, if more people had a better idea of what the world actually looks like outside of their own borders, it might even become a little harder for the US to keep spreading all that democracy around it. Sorry about the rant, this sort of thing really gets me going.