by Tristan Taylor

Created on: July 19, 2011

Having taken the "no" position, I must first qualify my answer by first questioning the way this debate question has been phrased.  The question itself "should children study languages" doesn't make sense.  To take a position, I'm going to have to assume somethings about the question such as whether or not the question is intended to read "should children be required to study languages in school?"  There is also another possible intention of the debate which could be "given advances in technology, should the average child be encouraged to study languages?"

            Since I have chosen to take part in this debate I am going to go ahead and give my answer to this question as "no" either way.  Before giving my reasons for saying "no", I want to address the circumstances under which I believe children should study other languages.  First, if a child is gifted linguistically and has an interest in foreign cultures, there would be absolutely no reason to discourage such a child from studying that language.  The future of diplomacy and business will always require representatives who are skilled at making connections and having relationships with another country's diplomats or business’ representatives.  This can never be replaced by a translator no matter how effective the device or software might be.  If I truly want to gain influence with someone who speaks Mandarin, then I will need to be able to walk up to them and say “Nín hao! Ni shì rúhé. Ni zhunbèi qù chifàn ma?” (Hello, How are you?  Are you ready to go dinner?) easily while looking them square in the eye all without having to first check a book, my laptop, or even my iphone app.  There will simply always be a need for people with these linguistic skills.

            Now, to actually address what I can only guess was the intended debate topic which is this "should children be required to study foreign languages in public schools?"  As I indicated earlier, my answer to this is a resounding "no".  Current public and educational sentiment is moving towards students, especially in high school, being able to focus solely on those subjects for which they show the most promise and interest.  As a teacher, I recently attended a summer workshop where the instructor talked

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