Now, this is a particular issue in which I have a lot of stake, given the fact that I'm a French major.
It would seem a lot of people are worried if learning a language is really worth it. In
a Freakonomics episode last month a disgruntled father writes in to say:
I’m very curious how it came to be that teaching students
a foreign language has reached the status it has in the U.S. … My
oldest daughter is a college freshman, and not only have I paid for her
to study Spanish for the last four or more years — they even do it in
grade school now! — but her college is requiring her to study EVEN MORE!
What on earth is going on? How did it ever get this far?
In a day and age where schools at every level are complaining about
limited resources, why on earth do we continue to force these kids to
study a foreign language that few will ever use, and virtually all do
not retain?
Or to put it in economics terms, where is the ROI?
The Freakonomics team begins by discussing the psychological benefits of learning a language with some pretty thought provoking research. Participants in a study were more likely to take risks when speaking in a foreign language. Does this mean that thinking in a foreign language in inhibits our reasoning skills? Quite the opposite!
In the study, participants were given $20 and played a game in which each round you are asked whether you want to keep a dollar or bet a dollar. If you bet the dollar, a coin is flipped. Tails: you lose the dollar, heads: you get $2.50. Due to probability, on average the better return on investment is to take the risk. Those participating in a foreign language were 20% more willing to bet the dollar. The researcher, Boaz Keysar, believed that this difference is due to mental processes at play while speaking a foreign language. This led them to research how morality is affected by foreign language, and sure enough, it is!
Given the age old morality conundrum: "a bus driver is going to run over five people and kill them - so do you go ahead and kill the driver before he can kill the other five?"
Asking people this question in a foreign language makes them twice as likely to say yes. Keysar believes that perhaps thinking in a foreign language prevents the emotional response typically generated by these conundrums from changing their judgement. Physiologically: "you can show that people's arousal is higher when they use their native tongue" when it comes to emotional responses. "When people think in a foreign language, they're more reflective about their choices. They're more likely to engage in cost-benefit analysis, in a way, and less likely to be swayed by all sort of emptional reactions that they might have in general."
Hmm, so it seems there is a benefit to this language thing after all. In addition to this language has been shown to postively affect memory and executive function and could stall the onset of Alzheimer's disease. There's certainly a cultural benefit, put so well by a fourth grader interviewed in the episode: "I think a good thing that comes from learning a foreign language is that you can speak to more people." Bringing the world together, one language student at a time! But we're talking economics here. Is there an actual return on investment for the
cost of learning a foreign language?
In order to see what the ROI for learning a foreign language is, Albert Saiz saught how foreign language affected the earnings of 9,000 college graduates. Unfortunately the results on this end aren't quite so positive. As a language student overall, you earn about 2% more.
Interestingly, Saiz also compared languages. The lowest increase is 1.5% for Spanish speakers. French is 2.7% and German 4%. The take-away from this is that languages not typically spoken in the US will earn you more. But the language with the biggest ROI? English. But sorry, you have to be from a non-English speaking country. If so, you could be looking at a 10-20% salary increase.
The panel goes on to discuss how time spent learning a language could perhaps be better used, especially in high school. "There are so many kids who remain barely literate and numerate in their own language."
But wait,
The Economist has something to say about this! They imagine that the language student saves that 2% "language bonus" in a retirement account. Thanks to the miracle of compound interest, that 2% means $67,000 after 40 years. $77,000 for French and a whopping $128,000 for German. Did I mention that I'm changing my major now? Guten Tag Deutschland!
So we've talked about the personal benefits of foreign language, now lets talk about national benefits. A study at Cardiff Business School indicates that "lack of foreign-language proficiency in Britain costs the economy $80 billion, 3.5% of GDP, each year." (Britain mirrors the US in foreign language proficiency). More foreign language studies could mean more money for all in a world where international relations and global trade are becoming increasingly important.
Back at Freakonomics, Bryan Caplan says: "If
people either are going to get some big career benefit out of it or it
enriches their personal life, then foreign language study is great. But
if it’s a language that doesn’t help their career, they’re not going to
use it, and they’re not happy when they’re there, I really do not see
the point, it seems cruel to me."
All in all, I'd say that's fair. I chose French because I was infatuated with the language, the culture, and the idea that I could speak with people in a language other than English. To me, there's something magical about learning a different language from your native-tongue, especially when it's so rare (less than 1% of Americans know a foreign language.) Just like physics isn't for me, language isn't for some, and that type of educational diversity is what keeps things interesting.
