Responsibility Across Languages

As someone who speaks two languages and strongly attempts to understand and use another (Spanish), I don't typically find that I'm inhibited from much information by a lack of comprehension of another tongue. That is, unless I search news in Chinese, Arabic, etc.--languages that do not use a Roman alphabet and that do not have fundamental relationships to widely-spoken romance languages. I can go onto a French website, a British website, and to some extent a Spanish one, and understand what's going on in a given article enough to come away with a greater global understanding/ perspective. The thing is, although such focus on language is prominent in places like Western Europe, where taking more than one foreign language in High School is frequently the norm, the same cannot be said for the population of the United States.

Unfortunately, as a nation trying to retain its hold as a global superpower (and the sole global superpower on top of it), the United States faces a drop in legitimacy if its people remain complacent in regards to learning or understanding other people's languages. If the global political-economic arena was not as it currently appears, with nations rising out of relative 2nd-world status/lack of global influence to take larger powers down a couple pegs bit by bit, then this would not be an issue, necessarily. The American people could and have, in large part, gone around using English as a lingua franca without feeling pressured to learn another nation/region's language. But as U.S. power becomes challenged more and more, there is a well-thought sentiment that recognizes the pragmatic and respectful need for Americans to learn more languages. Yet even as this field of thought sprouts and flourishes, the rise of the Internet and universal, translatable communication arises; does the accessibility and translatability of the Internet make our new need to learn other people's language a non-need again?

In my opinion, no. Although the Internet can translate (with some efficiency) almost any worded document, and many news sites come in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic versions with a simple click, there are still large pockets of valuable cultural information, in only native tongues, that slip through the cracks. Many of us have used google docs to, say, translate an English letter into Spanish for a pen pal, but this "many of us" group also knows how awkward those messages come out in the target language. And if you didn't know that, simply try translating Don Quixote into English on Google Translator--prepositions vary by languages and we do not have the same idiomatic phrases. (Example: In French, it rains ropes, not cats and dogs.) So with information that cannot be perfectly translated or that is not translated at all, what do we do? Do we simply assume that the minds that publish things in our own language provide us with equally valuable information, of the same subject, and just hope it's all out there for us to find out our leisure?
Well, no, because primarily, that's arrogant. Assuming that anything of value is published in English as well as its native tongue represents a haughty sentiment from which I recommend we all estrange ourselves. Also, let us not forget that understanding someone else's language can help us understand new aspects and opinions on history, which we know is necessary to learn in order to intelligently plot the future.

In an example relating to history, we frequently (and in my case, very recently, with the reading of The Poisonwood Bible) discuss the Congo when learning about European colonization in school. I personally have learned that the Congo is an African country that has long had interactions with European nations, was humanly manipulated and decimated, in parts, by the Belgian colonial machine, and has endured horrendous economic & military manipulation by its own Congolese government almost since inception as an independent nation. But we very infrequently hear about what the state of the Congo is now from a Congolese person. Why? In large part, Congolese people don't speak English. Sure, you can read an article in Time magazine about the after-effects of Mobutu's regime, but that is largely secondhand knowledge and information. Firsthand knowledge comes from communication from a person who has lived the environment, who in this case would speak either French, Lingala, Kikongo, or one of various other languages represented in the Congo. I have a video here that demonstrates my point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UmCoYsENkc&feature=related. In it, a Congolese comedian does his sketch for a francophone audience in "Festival Juste Pour Rire." While demonstrating his political undercurrent of whites being afraid of blacks, and, in the example of the book "Tintin au Congo" http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/08/21/2009-08-21_too_racey_for_kids_offensive_tintin_book_depicting_africans_as_monkeys_banned_fr.html, a racist work nonetheless accepted and part of a widely loved series of French Belgian (Wallonais) books, we get a view of a modern Congolese citizen that is direct and accurate . He (comedian Eddy King) is a relatively wealthy Congolese man, which is not necessarily the norm, but to say that his opinion is less valid or demonstrative of Congolese people is ignorant of the personal intricacies that make us individuals. To even approach understanding the full breadth of a nation, one must accept all its peoples, socio-economic representatives, and cultural non-pluralities. And, finally, in this case, we cannot do so without the understanding of a specific foreign language.

In a world where legitimacy is increasingly determined by how well you can communicate and understand the needs and powers of others, knowledge of a foreign language roars to the forefront as a necessity. With the rise of the Internet, many things are written in English, but not everything is. And frequently, the real grit of culture--the life juice, the quotidian struggle and beauty, the political beliefs-- are not out there in all their individuality in the language most conducive to anyone who might be listening. To foster positive international relationships, we have to put forth the effort to understand others just as much as they wish to be understood; after all, as the self-espoused wealthiest nation in the world, with the most access to news, technology, and travel, isn't it much easier for us to put forth this necessary effort? Let's be responsible here. Let's own up to our undeniable resources and capability and learn more languages.