“Learning a language often is a waste of time,” says Jay Mathews, author of the Washington Post’s education blog, ‘Class Struggle,’ in his most recent post. Mathews begins by describing “conventional wisdom” -- learning a foreign language “improves cognitive development, […] enhances academic skills, encourages a sense of the wider world and looks good to colleges” -- but goes on to say that “there is little evidence that many students achieve much fluency in high school.”

Using Washington metropolitan area schools as an example, Mathews notes that “[m]ost high schools…do not require foreign language study for graduation.” The “majority” of students taking a foreign language are doing so because “selective colleges often require them.” He explains the disinterest in foreign languages, saying:

Because much of the world is striving to learn English, Americans wonder why they should bother to learn other languages. We talk about the importance of foreign language learning to our national security, but we don’t mean it. If if [sic] we need speakers of exotic tongues, we import them.