The WW-P News article “Parents Tell School Board to Put Hindi in WW-P” (May 25, 2012) cites two reasons given by 25 Indian-American parents to introduce Hindi as a formal course offered in the schools — “to help children be better prepared to work in the global economy” and “connect with those in India.” The first reason is not supported by facts; the second, though a valid and genuine need of first generation immigrant children, is not the stated goal of the World Languages Program in our schools.
Immigrant children already have an immersion experience in native language and culture in their home and social engagements. The stated goal of World Language Program is to make them a better global citizen and be able to work in diverse communities. Teaching Hindi to Indians, Mandarin to Chinese or Hebrew to Jewish students might not be a great way to inculcate in those kids an appreciation for diversity. This is a debatable topic and a policy issue, and I am not for or against the idea. I want to present some facts so that the debate on one particular question gets more streamlined: How important is the knowledge of a foreign language for doing business?
Despite being internationally one of the largest trading economies in the world, these United States are for most part a closed and self-sufficient economy. This might come as a surprise to many who fail to realize how big our economy really is. We have a GDP of $15 trillion and only 13 percent of it is due to exports. Imports are slightly higher at 16 percent of the GDP. That puts us in the top 10 most closed economies in the world, right along with Nepal, Ethiopia, Brazil and Tonga.
Compared to us, China, Britain and Mexico’s trade percent of GDP is 30 percent and for Korea the number is above 50 percent. Think about your own expenses and where most of it is sourced from. Our biggest expense — taxes — are recycled back into the U.S. economy through social security payments, medicare payments and defense purchases. Our property tax payments are used for education, public safety, and municipal services. Those services are produced and consumed within the economy. Other big monthly expenses like healthcare, gas, and electricity are all produced and consumed inside our economy.
In a real sense, our United States are a world within themselves. Mostly, we can live by ourselves and don’t much need the rest of the world. In this context, the census numbers for the languages used in our nation are English, 225 million (80 percent), Spanish, 35 million (13 percent), other Indo-European languages (including French, German, Hindi etc.), 10 million (4 percent) and Asian languages (including Chinese, Korean, Filipino and others), 8 million (3 percent).
So around 93 percent of U.S. population does not speak any other language except English and Spanish. Knowing these two languages should be good enough for any business or career in the US.
Despite this, let us for a moment insist that even in this closed economy; our kids need to learn one of our business partners’ language. Our largest business partner is Canada, followed by China and Mexico. Trading volumes with other nations is small compared to these three.
Even if we take into account our 15 largest trading partners, the relative distribution of languages used would be English, 29 percent; Mandarin, 22 percent; Spanish, 20 percent; Japanese, 7 percent; and German, 6 percent. French and Hindi, account for less than 3 percent each. Additionally, English is the de facto language of corporate India and that of the European Commission.
There is a strong need to revisit the rationale and the course offerings of the World Language Program in our schools. I am hopeful that the facts mentioned in this letter would make this discussion more fact-based and less rhetorical.
Alok Sharma
Davenport Drive, West Windsor.
