Approximately over one billion people around the world are learning English. In Europe more than 90 percent of children learn English from the start of elementary school. In the U.S less than a third of schools require or offer foreign language courses.

While foreign countries believe becoming diverse in more than one language especially English is the key to success in a competitive work field, America believes that foreign language courses take a hit on education budgets, as they become the first to get cut. While 200 million schoolchildren in China become proficient in English less than 50,000 of American students at the same age learn Chinese.

Outside of the United States, learning another language is looked at as a crucial part to the core curriculum in order for students to succeed in the future. In the U.S learning a foreign language is a course we are forced to take when we hit the sixth grade. Although I may be able to count to thirty in French, after taking it for almost seven years I should know a little bit more than Au Revoir. I wish it were treated like a Math course, where it was taught everyday in order to obtain proficiency.

In America we rely on English as a crutch as so many people around the world, learn it and speak it, which makes us look ignorant when we travel to foreign countries and speak English without giving the country’s native language a try. While the world around us is learning English we are ignoring taking a shot at another language.