After reading Alkman Grantitsas, “Americans Are Tuning Out the World” it made me realize how self-absorbed our country really is. When I watch the news on the television I usually do not care about other countries problems. I care about the economy and anything that effects me. This is the way out country is. Only in the past four years has anyone really cared about what was going on in some other country. This is only because the Iraq war was and is such a con-traversal event.
I like how Grantitsas said that 16% of students in 1965 studied other languages compared to 8.6% now. English maybe the most known second language of the world and is known as the business language but that does not mean that Spanish or French can be learned. Spanish is the most common language and French is the second. I also thought that it was interesting that students study aboard much less than they used too. I have thought about studying aboard and I think it would be a fun and amazing experience.
Grantitsas said that Americans are tuning out the world. As I said earlier, I totally agree. Not many people did much about the Asian Tsunami, SARS, the bird flu, and the mad cow disease.
I believe that we as Americans should pay more attention to foreign affairs especially because of globalism. With quicker and better communication today there is no reason we as a country should not be involved or at least know what is going on in other countries.
America as a Self-Centered Country
February 27, 2008 by johnmayne
Good job John. A thought – provoking post. I think that learning foreign languages is extremely important, especially in the countries that we have conflicts with. For instance, there are so few Arabic speakers, it really becomes an issue of national security. Thanks!