Language Learners of the World Unite

There are many reasons why what occurred in the Oval Office of the White House last Friday was disturbing. These reasons range from the geopolitical to the diplomatic to the shattered norms of common human decency, but for me, one of the most troubling aspects of the exchange between President Trump, Vice-President Vance, and President Zelensky was watching the spectacle of two native speakers of English ganging up on a man who speaks English as his third language.

Language learners the world over cringed to see it, whether they were in the trenches of their first experience of second language acquisition or sophisticated diplomats who spoke seven languages fluently, for speakers of more than one language share the same hard-won knowledge: how difficult it can be to express yourself in a language that is not your mother tongue.

While very few of us have ever been in the Oval Office trying to defend our country’s honor in front of what can only be called a hostile crowd, we have all been in situations where we were under linguistic stress, where it was important that we achieve a certain goal, and where we knew in our hearts that our language skills might not be up to the task. No matter how fluent or confident we might have grown in a particular language, doubt always lurks in the corners.

People who have never learned a foreign language to the point where they might have to speak it in company can understand the particular stress or the amount of concentration required. President Trump is mono-lingual, and if Vice-President Vance speaks another language, I can find no evidence of it on the Internet. But there were other language-learners in the room that day. I am thinking of one in particular, Secretary Rubio, whose first language is Spanish. Secretary Rubio looked almost as uncomfortable as Zelensky did. In fact, he looked more uncomfortable. Zelensky was sitting up straight, leaning forward. Secretary Rubio was pressing his back into the couch as if he wanted it to swallow him up.

To Secretary Rubio’s discredit, he did not come to his fellow language-learner’s aid, only sat there, like everyone else, with a glazed look on his face. Was he thinking about his father, a man who came to the United States in 1956 from Cuba with little to no English? Was he thinking of all the exchanges he had overheard as a child, and later maybe helped translate for, between his father and native speakers of English who made no allowances? Was Secretary Rubio thinking of all the sacrifices his mother and father had made for him and his siblings, working long hours with little energy left over to perfect their English, but who were determined that he and his brothers and sisters would go into the American schools, learn English fluently, and go on to be successful in the new country?

Of course, Secretary Rubio is the United States’ chief diplomat. He might just have been thinking of what a disaster this was and wondering how in heaven’s name he was going to manage it. Or he might have been horribly, deeply embarrassed and wanted to get out of the room.

Zelensky must also have wanted to get out of the room, and was probably happy to leave the White House, however abruptly, even if it meant that the minerals “deal” which wasn’t much of a deal wouldn’t get signed. Perhaps he shouldn’t have tried to explain about all the treaties Russia has signed and not abided by. Perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned that JD was mouthing off about a country that he had never visited. Perhaps it didn’t matter what he said, or didn’t say. Perhaps the decision had already been made before the wheels of his plane ever touched down on American soil, the decision to find something that would play into the narrative that Zelensky and Ukraine were disrespectful and not sufficiently grateful to earn our continued support. If Zelensky, under fire, struggled to express himself in English, so much the better. Most Americans don’t speak a foreign language and have never attempted to learn one. When you haven’t had the experience of speaking haltingly yourself, it’s easier to discount someone speaking haltingly to you, easier to disbelieve what they’re saying, or to believe that they are less intelligent than you are.

When, actually, the opposite is the case.

Learning A Language… was a poster I used to have on my classroom wall when I was still teaching. It was a poster I made myself, and on which I had listed all the ways that learning a new language could be beneficial for my students.

It was one of the first things I did at the beginning of each year, go down the list with the kids so that they would feel positive about themselves and about our mutual endeavor. My students liked the poster. They liked the idea that speaking more than one language would help them get a better job. Or that it would make it easier for them to learn an additional language. They liked the idea of being able to communicate with more people or the idea that being bilingual made them special, that it meant they had more of something rather than less. But they especially appreciated the final bullet point.

• Learning a language makes you smarter.

Scientific research does now suggest that this is true. You use a particular part of your brain to learn language, the same part of your brain that helps you do math. As with anything, muscular or neurological, the more you use that muscle or pathway, the better it works, and the easier it is to use it again and again. This is why once you learn your first foreign language, it’s easier to learn your second and your third. This is why it makes your brain nimbler and more able to deal with complexity.

What I didn’t put on the list, because I thought it might be too challenging to explain to elementary school children, was that learning languages improves your emotional intelligence as well. It makes you more empathetic. It makes you kinder and humbler.

How does learning another language do that? Because the process of language acquisition is slow and arduous, and it often forces the learner to put themselves at a disadvantage in relation to other people. You have to speak without all the words you need and then struggle to understand what is said to you. You realize how fragile your control over your world is and how language dependent. You realize how quickly it can all be swept away. Having learned another language also makes you more understanding of people at a similar linguistic disadvantage, or maybe of anyone at any disadvantage at all. More than anything, it forces you to offer yourself up to the kindness of strangers, to trust other people to help you, and it makes you want to help other people in the way you were helped when you were at your most vulnerable.

I believe this. I believe that language learning has made me a better, kinder, more self-reflective person, and I believe that it has had this effect on many of the people I know, but like all theories, it doesn’t work for everyone. Vladimir Putin is tri-lingual. He speaks Russian, German, and English. Back in the day, when people still dreamed of Russia joining the other European nations as a partner rather than an adversary, he used to travel to Germany and address the Bundestag in German. It was noted and appreciated that he made this effort, that he put himself at a disadvantage in the service of improved diplomatic relations. It stood him in good stead with the Germans for a long time, up until he invaded Ukraine.

No chance of our guy building up that kind of good will, or if we continue on our present course, any good will at all. One by one, our allies are being humiliated and attacked. They are accused of disloyalty or trying to stiff us. Who cares what they think, some might ask? We’re the most powerful country in the world, and showing people who’s boss is going to make us even more powerful. Perhaps, but a country needs friends, just like people do. You can only sit in your big, beautiful, empty house so long until it starts to echo unpleasantly. Language falls away, unless you start talking to yourself. And if you need assistance in that big, beautiful, empty house, who is going to come to help? The emergency services? You cut them long ago.

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