(Reaction from a language educator to the editor of the Post Standard newspaper, Syracuse, NY, after reading an article on the growth of Mandarin Chinese in New York schools. Dated November 5, 2008.)

Embrace Mandarin but don't forget other languages

To the Editor:

I read, with interest, your article by Rebecca James on the growth of Mandarin Chinese in New York schools. This interest in the study of Chinese is to be welcomed; indeed, we at SUNY Oswego are in the process of crafting a Chinese Cultural Studies minor precisely because we recognize the growing importance of studying Chinese language and culture.

As schools move toward greater acceptance and inclusion of Chinese into their curricula, however, let us be careful not to adopt Chinese at the expense of other important languages, particularly French, German and Italian. Too often, the decision to offer Chinese is made at the expense of one of the latter languages.

Let us take German as one example of how such a decision to replace German with Chinese would not at all be in the best interest of students. Which country has been the world's leading exporter for the past five years running? Germany.

Which country has more Nobel Prize winners, other than the United States, over the past decade? Germany.

Which country (between China and Germany) has generated more patent filings each year since World War II? Germany. Which language is spoken as the mother tongue of more residents of the European Union than any other language? German.

Get the picture? It's easy to be enamored by what seems new and exotic, but the informed individual can make very compelling arguments for the study of languages such as French, German and Italian.

Let's be careful we don't overlook the many compelling cultural, economic and political reasons for taking languages in our schools that have served us well for many decades, and which will surely continue to do so.

John F. Lalande II
Professor and chair

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
State University of New York
Oswego, NY