The spread of English has its roots in 17th-century British colonialism and imperialism. As the language of the British Empire, history’s largest group of states, colonies and territories under one power, English spread like wildfire as Britain conquered and imposed the English language in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and more. As English grew dominant, its position and importance were reinforced by commerce, for English speakers had access to the best markets created by the British Empire’s exploitation of resources. 

In 1983, about a decade and a half prior to what is considered the end of the British Empire’s reign — the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 — the Internet was created, accelerating English’s worldwide spread rapidly. It created a trade and social interaction system unlike anything known before, and English dominated it. The language could now reach new heights, even influencing isolated valleys and faraway islands. Across today’s world, greater economic success is essentially determined by whether one has the ability to speak English, especially in the U.S.

As a result of America’s majority of English speakers, we often do not prioritize learning foreign languages. Most Americans speak only one language whereas most Europeans speak two and, in Africa, it’s common to speak three. What’s worse, dominant European languages hold a history of driving out indigenous languages, contributing to endangerment. For example, the Spanish conquering of the Aztec Empire weakened the native language, Nahuatl. Of the world’s roughly 7000 languages, about 43% are endangered. 

With that said, English may soon wane in its hegemony over other languages like Spanish and Mandarin. However, that doesn’t mean English dominance is going away — not by a long shot. 

Spanish teacher Jessica Verweyst teaches Spanish 1 and 2 at West High. Through studying and teaching language, she has noticed that English dominance occupies particular areas of society. 

“[English] is the national language of a variety of different countries,” Verweyst said. “English is also very widely spoken for international business, sometimes for medical practices and often for commerce, trading [and the] economy.” 

English’s economic dominance is so profound that both the World Bank and World Trade Organization use it as their official language. And because language is a part of culture, the English language also extends English culture. French teacher Karen Craddock, who teaches French 1 at West High and French 2 at Central High, specifies that English encourages the export of American culture.

“If you visit other countries, you might hear American music on the radios, [and] you see movies from Hollywood being advertised,” Craddock said. “[There are] American theme parks like Euro Disney in France and across the world. I think there is an overrepresentation of American culture around the world.”

English impacts other languages, as well. For example, the Spanish infinitive for ‘to flirt’ is ‘coquetear,’ but the commonly accepted anglicism, a word borrowed or adapted from English, is ‘flirtear.’ Anglicization isn’t inherently a bad thing; after all, 60% of English itself comes from Latin. However, countries like France and Italy are trying to push back on anglicization by introducing laws that limit its usage. 

“I know France has made some laws to try to protect French culture, saying radios have to play a certain amount of French music, trying to carve out a space for French culture to exist as well,” Craddock said. “There [are] even some broadcast laws: they’re not supposed to say ‘goal’ when they score a soccer goal. They say ‘but.’”

In the U.S., we claim not to have an official language at the national level. While there are benefits to abstaining from an official language, this doesn’t inherently create equity. It parallels the concept of racial colorblindness, best described by the commonly used phrase ‘I don’t see color.’ Being “colorblind” supports the ideology that not talking about race solves racial inequalities. Consequently, any mention of race disrupts racial harmony and is considered “racist.” As a final result, addressing racial disparities and racist policies already in existence is “racist” and, therefore, shunned. 

Similarly, not having an official language doesn’t solve the fact that Americans who speak English have substantial advantages economically, socially and politically over those who don’t. Verweyst finds that the dominance of English creates hurdles for students, specifically in the U.S., who don’t speak English.

“Especially for our [diverse] heritage, the fact that we educate strictly and specifically in English, being considered a ‘melting pot,’ [is] a challenge,” Verweyst said. “Education should be a basic right and accessible to everyone, so my concern would be that as we have more immigrants in the area, those students would have [a] harder or more difficult time accessing that basic right.”

Language barriers also prevent people from accessing culture. Craddock believes that a dominant language supports an exclusionary community.

“If you happen to not be from an English-speaking house or English-speaking culture, it can create some obstacles,” Craddock said. “You can feel out of place [and wonder] ‘Where are the people that are eating the food that I eat at home? Where’s the representation for my religion? My fashion sense?’”

Students feeling culturally out of place may even be uncomfortable with the English language, especially given its difficulty. English is not an easy language, as acknowledged by Latin teacher Tom Herpel, who also leads independent study in Greek.

“I tell my students all the time, ‘Latin is not tough; English is tough,’” Herpel said. “It’s a language of exceptions, and it’s a language that’s really difficult to learn and actually sound like you’re fluent.”

Despite being one of the world’s hardest languages, English is still dominant in our society and our schools, assumingly for its cultural relevancy and impact; for some West staff, however, exploring foreign language has augmented their identities.

Learning about her Spanish teacher’s obstacles in coming to America, Verweyst’s Spanish journey hastened in her first year of high school. After graduation, she took a gap year, lived in Ecuador and learned about daily life with the Rotary Youth Exchange program, further igniting her passion for Spanish and teaching. 

Initially, however, Verweyst explored language with slightly different aspirations.

“Originally, I wanted to study Italian in high school; my family immigrated through Ellis Island from Italy, so it was a connection with my personal heritage that I wanted to learn about,” Verweyst said. “Unfortunately, my high school didn’t offer [Italian], and my counselor encouraged [me to learn] Spanish, the closest similar language that was offered.”

Alternatively, Herpel’s interest in Latin began later in life, during his time in college at Washington University in St. Louis.

“I was always into the humanities, so I took a Greek mythology class and loved everything about it,” Herpel said. “I used a lot of Latin and Greek in that class, [said to myself] ‘I want to deep dive into this,’ took Latin and Greek and decided I want to spend the rest of my life talking about this language and sharing it with others.”

Craddock, on the other hand, always had a passion for the French language and culture. Although she couldn’t take French until high school, the delay didn’t stop her from pursuing fluency and knowledge. Going into her junior year of college, she finally visited France, leading to a fulfilling career teaching French.

“I cannot remember a time when I didn’t love French culture,” Craddock said. “It’s always fascinated me, and the more I learn about it, the more I’m interested in it. When I got to college, I knew I wanted to keep studying it. I kept studying it, kept loving it, and then started thinking, ‘I’d like to help people; I’d like to share this knowledge,’ and then it was like a hand in a glove. It all fit together.”

Verweyst values the wisdom she’s gained from learning Spanish. With it, she’s able to communicate with and help more people than she could before.

“[Language has given me] the ability to communicate with others, learn their perspectives [and] prejudices, communicate with a wider group of people [and] support students and families of Spanish speakers in [the] educational track,” Verweyst said.

Despite studying what he calls a ‘retired language,’ Latin allowed Herpel to travel and learn from the experiences of people who lived more than a millennium ago.

“[Language] enabled me to get into the minds [of] the authors [and] the common folk of the society that dominated Europe for many years,” Herpel said. “That opened up the opportunity for me to study abroad for a semester in college and see what I was looking at in textbooks. When you see it in person, that’s when you have this light bulb realization that these people were actually people.”

When you learn a modern language, you also gain the ability to speak to a unique group of people with distinct experiences, cultural norms and lifestyles. Learning French allowed Craddock to expand her social connections in this way. 

“My best friend is from Belgium,” Craddock said. “I got to visit her in Belgium and learn so much about her history [and] her family’s history. Her mother survived the Holocaust, being hidden by a French family in the south of France. Her uncle survived Auschwitz. If I didn’t know French, I don’t know if I’d have a [special] connection with [her]. [Language] opens your world.”

Learning foreign languages can also give you a better understanding of your own. For example, learning Latin can help you identify and understand many English words on both the ACT and the SAT, improving scores. 

At the end of the day, for Herpel, Craddock and Verweyst, it all comes down to helping students learn, whether that means improving linguistic skills or expanding cultural knowledge. 

“Giving students a variety of choices helps make sure every student has the opportunity to study a language or study a different culture,” Herpel said. “I would love for everyone to at least try [Latin] because it does have so much to offer [to] everyone, and the more [that take] Latin, the merrier.”

Overall, the prevalence of English isn’t a problem on its own. What is a problem is our limited policy regarding how speakers of other languages are treated politically, in education and in other areas of life. For example, we could expand the Voting Rights Act — Section 203 Language Determinations — to provide language provisions for smaller groups of people. The inequities between speakers of dominant and non-dominant languages need to be addressed. 

Although language ‘retirement’ is natural, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t preserve a variety of languages. Verweyst even suggests learning mathematics or music theory because they both read differently than English. Linguistic diversity should be encouraged; after all, our country is supposed to be a “melting pot.” 

“You don’t want a concert with only clarinet music. You need the other cultures represented. Who wants to just hear one type of music? One language is too limiting,” Craddock said. “When you learn a new language, you learn a new culture, a new way of looking at things, and that’s something [that] can enrich your life and move us all forward. [Language learning] teaches us how much we are [all] alike. We have [different] cultures, but we [are] more alike than we [are different].”