March 6, 2009

The Study of Foreign Languages Should Not Be a Zero-Sum Game

By STEPHEN BROCKMANN

Last April, the University of Southern California announced plans to eliminate its German department, stating that it wanted to shift resources away from European languages to Asian languages like Chinese and Japanese. The decision was made in view of the growing importance of Asia for the American economy generally and the economy in Los Angeles specifically.

That move, and others like it, has sparked a debate about the relative importance of learning European languages like French,

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