Secondary and Tertiary Languages Taught at Schools

Being bilingual or multilingual is a widely appreciated skill in any job. Being proficient in several languages can aid in opening up career opportunities and enable communication with a wide range of people. Furthermore, it helps one understand and appreciate different cultures as well.

Around the world, schools encourage students to learn at least two, if not three languages for the aforementioned reasons. Let's look at the options and requirements for this.

India

Being multilingual isn’t cool? Yeah! Right? But you know this is not even cool, it is really beneficial for our career. But how? In an era of accelerating globalisation, it can help your chances for a good job, school and college education, emigration, and studying abroad. It is essential for travelling and pursuing your interests and hobbies.

As you can see the advantages of being multilingual. Let's talk about our school curriculum. Are the languages we learn enough to be multilingual? The answer is no, obviously.

What are some languages you have studied in your school or studying? For me they are: Hindi and English. Since both Hindi and English are recognised as official languages by the Indian government. According to the Indian Constitution, there is no such thing as a national language.

And in some boards in India, we have the option to not choose Hindi as a language subject by continuing English as a compulsory one in high school. In India, different states have different school curricula. There are almost 121 languages in our country, some of which are very official ones. And in each state, students at least have to study 2 languages from which one of them is English and the other probably their state language.

But the point is can we use this other language in the future? From the point of view of a career in our country may be yes but not internationally. The International School curriculum is a bit different than ours, they actually give options to students of some languages: German, French, Mandarin, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic etc. as the secondary or tertiary language in their school.

These languages are the most widely spoken foreign languages in the world. Let’s see the benefits of studying some foreign languages in school

German

If we study German as our secondary or tertiary language it is probably going be the best decision you have ever made. After French, German continues to be the second most widely spoken foreign language in India; the mother tongue is used most frequently in Europe. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and other countries all have it as their official language. German is also easy to learn, German and English both share Proto-Germanic language roots. Numerous German words have been borrowed or modified into English. In actuality, the two languages share some grammar rules. You can also get a chance to not even study in some of the best universities in Germany, which are highly recognized in the world but can also get a chance to work in some of the best companies in the world.

French

In India, learning French is the most common foreign language. One of the top foreign languages to learn for careers in India's corporate sectors is French. In a variety of industries, many international corporations utilise French as their working language. Fashion, education, banking, finance, import and export, travel, retail, education, automobiles, luxury goods, aviation, etc. are all included.

Spanish

With 20 countries that speak it, Spanish is one of the most extensively used languages worldwide. After French and German, Spanish is the third most popular language to learn abroad. Learning Spanish can open several employment options, including those in media, foreign service, travel and tourism, and international business. Spanish language fluency can be a huge plus for careers in BPO, translation, interpretation, and language education, among other fields.

Japanese

Japanese is one of the popular foreign languages to learn. The developing India-Japan relationship and the expansion of Japanese businesses operating in India have increased the demand for the Japanese language. Japanese is not easy to learn but not very difficult as well. Learning Japanese will increase job opportunities for you.

USA

In high schools, the standard 4 languages offered are Spanish, French, German, and Latin. Students can choose which one they want to take and are able to switch if they want to. Some schools don’t require you to take a language until a specific grade; it is simply a student’s choice for how long, but it is recommended you take it all 4 years of high school. Colleges generally look for students who have at least two years of experience with a foreign language. Ivy leagues and other selective schools look for even more proficiency in a language for three or four years. Although it’s not required you take a certain number of years to study a language, it’s always best to learn it longer since it shows your commitment and dedication to learning about other cultures.

Some pros of learning a different language are that they allow for better and faster thinking amongst students. This improves a person’s ability to multitask and everyday problem-solving skills. They can also easily learn more languages since the brain reduces the amount of time required to transition between tasks. Another good thing about studying a second language is that you never get bored! Languages are always interesting since they can be so much different compared to your mother tongue. They also allow you to learn about other cultures and understand how the origins of their dialects came to be. It opens your eyes to see how people can be so different simply by their speech.

Although there are a few pros to learning multiple languages, there also comes a few cons. One big issue that occurs is that simultaneous language learning can become very confusing at times. Sometimes verbal communication, writing, or reading can become difficult because everything is jumbled up. It’s easy to mix up grammar and other words because one is not fluent in the language they’re learning. Another con is that education in a language can be inconsistent. After high school, many students don’t continue learning a language, so they lose their knowledge. Even throughout high school, some students lost the opportunity to learn because their schools don’t offer foreign language classes.

Sweden

Schools in Sweden prioritize Swedish over English as their first language. Almost every school teaches subjects like math, science, history, and geography in Swedish.

English is also a language, but it is a secondary language. English is compulsory for students to learn but not compulsory for them to use in their daily life. Students in Sweden also prefer to use Swedish as their speaking medium since the classes are taught in this language.

They also have extra language classes like German, French, and Spanish as a third language (an extra class) around 2- 3 times a week.

Everyone in Sweden uses Swedish widely, compared to English which is why teachers prefer to communicate in Swedish as well as the students.

Some schools prioritize English, but they are not as many when we compare them to Swedish-speaking schools.

Everybody understands English, hence students help other students who cannot speak or understand Swedish. Teachers also have extra classes for students to catch up and understand the concepts in English.

Taiwan

In Taiwan, language learning plans in multiple educational reforms have been laid out according to the national policies. Governmental institutions have made and executed two major directions including the Bilingual 2030 policy and The New Southbound Policy. In December of 2018, the Executive Yuan approved a blueprint published by the National Development Council to develop Taiwan into a bilingual nation by 2030, with the aim of raising the general level of English proficiency and improving the country’s overall national competitiveness in professions, workforce, and college/high school education. The New Southbound Policy was also brought to attention as the increase of on-campus training courses on both Chinese Mandarin to immigrants and Southern Asian languages to local Taiwanese, aiming to decrease language barriers between incoming immigrants and domestic citizens.

A few rollout strategies have been drafted by governmental officials to achieve The Bilingual 2030 policy such as the offer of integrated platforms of English learning and translation resources to both the public and private sectors. As some regions may suffer in language learning due to resource inequality, the implementation of an integrated database platform can help decrease the inconvenience of accessing available resources. Many executions include introducing a thoroughly bilingual environment in the workforce, establishing pre-requirements in recruitment according to applicants’ English level, and promoting the establishment of exclusively English-language television stations, information stations, and radio broadcasters. Some might argue that The Bilingual 2030 policy reflects cultural colonialism, and some express concerns about the difficulties that “translation of official government pages, encouragement of speaking English at the office, and English language television”, however, do little to aid this goal other than sidelining the many languages spoken by Taiwanese at home.

The New Southbound Policy was also brought on the stage and widely debated. The New

Southbound Policy in Taiwan launched in 2016 featuring three key directions: people-to-people interactions, two-way exchanges and cooperation, and resource-sharing, and the Ministry of Education (MOE) establishment of the New Southbound Talent Development Program in conjunction with the aforementioned offered programs. Courses involving Southeastern Asian languages are being taught in high schools and colleges. On the other hand, The MOE held its first “TCSL Teacher Training Courses” in July 2019 to empower local Mandarin teachers with advising mechanisms in hopes to enhance the Chinese competence of international students.

Learning languages through an organized system by schools and governmental institutions allows us to better understand the culture, history and differences between languages with credible materials. It is both the nations’ and education-related organizations’ responsibility to plan ahead and make sure citizens are culturally nourished and aware of the benefits of learning secondary languages. As we all agree with the goal and positive intention of the laid-out language learning plans, it is the priorities that government officials need to take into consideration- how and what should all citizens equip to achieve the ultimate goal of a nation's development on an international scale.

UAE

The primary language of UAE is Urdu and the secondary language is English. The tertiary language is mandatory till grade 10. The languages which are generally offered as tertiary languages are Hindi, Malayalam, French and Urdu. There are some of the pros and cons of learning several languages.

The pros are:-

1. It helps students communicate better

2. Improves memory

3. A better understanding of technology

The cons are:-

1. It’s difficult to learn different types of languages

2. Language extinction

Learning languages helps students to communicate better with others and helps them to travel all over the world.

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Authors

• Siya Heda

• Ankita Chaurasiya: India

• Shivika Varshney: USA

• Adithi Natarajan: Sweden

• Nicole (Wei-Tung), Ling: Taiwan

• Anika Varshney: UAE