AS children, we are usually comfortable with the very familiar environment that we live in. Before we go to prep school, our parents and older siblings are there to play with us and communicate with us in our native tongue which is English of course. Later on in school, we are introduced to new ideas which are grouped together – arithmetic, abstract, arts, music, several ball games and other sports, algebra, geometry, geology and other earth and natural sciences, human physiology, physics, chemistry, etc.

Yet in all these groups of study, the medium used remains the same – English. Then later on in our primary studies as we are introduced through subjects which induce cultural awareness such as history, we will learn that we are not alone in this comfortable and familiar bubble that we live in. We learn that this planet is made of several bubbles, each having a distinct culture and language. A Babel-like situation arises. That’s why as early as sixth grade, we are encouraged to take a second language course. Under the No Child Left Behind Act signed by President Bush in 2003, American students whose mother tongues are not in English encourage to take the language as a second course so they won’t be left behind when they grow up and can compete with their English-speaking counterparts.

This is when multilingual schools in the United States were born. There are lots of multilingual methods to begin with. One method involves half of the students as Spanish-speaking for example while the other halves are native English speakers. The Spanish-speaking students will ask the teacher in their vernacular, the teacher will answer in English and they will be assisted by their English-speaking counterparts. The same method is practiced in Canada where half of the population speaks English and the other half speaks French. Multilingualism doesn’t only exist in primary or even secondary schools though. It also exists in colleges and this method can be applied to foreign students who are here in the United States to study highly technical fields such as architecture and surgery.

If one is a French or an Iranian would-be surgeon, one cannot certainly understand English medical terms. So a multilingual method in teaching is conceived and the medical student is bombarded with lessons in his native language (French for the French, Farsi for the Iranian). For the last two years of his or her medical studies, the person then takes a few English lessons on the side focusing mostly on medical terms so one can grasp them in the host country which is the United States of course. Across the Atlantic, the European Union has mandated to its member states that all high school students must acquire the basics of a second language. The European Union powers-that-be have recognized the enormous diversities of that continent as far as language is concerned. Even though countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Poland, Norway and Scotland are closely located with each other, they don’t speak the same language. Spain alone has got loads of regional dialects.

As a closing to this article, one can be reminded of the movies Babel and Lost in Translation. If one doesn’t appreciate the language of another culture, one can really be lost in translation.