Olsen emphasizes need to learn foreign languages

As a school recognized for its exceptional language programs and support of positive international, it is no surprise that the Middlebury-Monterey lecture series talks are greeted by an attentive audience. This was no different last Thursday, March 3, when students and faculty gathered to hear one of this year’s speakers Barry Olsen, assistant professor at the Monterey Institute Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education address the importance of foreign language acquisition.

The annual lecture series is “a way for Middlebury and Monterey faculty to come and see each school while sharing expertise and providing learning opportunities,” explained Dean of International Programs Jeff Cason.

Olsen, who joined Monterey’s faculty in 2007, cited Monterey’s recent merge with Middlebury as part of the reason why he entered academia.

“I thought it was a wise step to join the two schools,” he said. “It showed foresight from both institutions.”

Olsen, who has worked as an interpreter since 1993, spoke to the audience about why foreign language acquisition is so essential.

“I believe that English is important, and it will continue to be so,” he said. “But it isn’t enough anymore.”

Beginning his lecture with a quote from A Tale of Two Cities, Olsen painted the modern world as one experiencing both the best of times and the worst of times.

According to Olsen, because technology is now much easier to access, we are in the best of times. It is much simpler now than ever before to be engaged as a global citizen. Consequently, the need for multi-lingual speakers is great.

Simultaneously, Olsen holds that this is the worst of times — the demand for Chinese and Spanish speakers is going up rapidly, but the United States is not producing enough citizens who can speak those languages.

And while both Chinese and Spanish are currently languages in demand, Olsen also urged students and faculty to pursue other languages as well.
Jon Brach ’13 found this aspect of Olsen’s lecture particularly motivating.

“He was very knowledgeable, and the lecture encouraged me to continue with German,” he said.

After stressing the importance of language acquisition, Olsen continued on to outline various reasons for why people of different languages communicate with one another. The first reason Olsen cited is conquest.

“After World War II, the Allied powers needed a way to bring the Axis powers to justice,” he said.

According to Olsen, this drive, which led to the Nuremburg trials, is one of the major reasons why there are jobs for interpreters today. To allow different powers to speak with one another, the United States saw the necessity of having well-trained interpreters.

The second reason interpretation became necessary was religious conversion. Olsen described how, when missionaries wanted to convert others, they had to speak the indigenous language.

Most recently and as global industry has developed, Olsen described the importance of communication to drive commerce.

“This reason is, by far, the most powerful,” he said.

Asked later, Olsen said that commerce has the capacity to be the most powerful educational incentive to learn new languages to satisfy the business world’s needs. For instance, if an industry wants to sell products to a Chinese clientele, their advertisements must be in Chinese and they will employ more Chinese speakers, both native and foreign.

For Maureen Wise ’13 this idea was the most thought provoking.

“I like learning languages, and language education is interesting to me,” she said. “I thought that … the [idea that] business world could effect education … was really interesting.”

Olsen also laid out 10 rules that a student learning a language should follow. These rules included exposing oneself to as much media as possible in the target language as well as developing writing skills and are sent to every incoming Monterey student.

“The list of 10 things that students are sent before going to Monterey were really helpful,” said Peter Moore, ’14. “So many people are studying languages here now, and the rules seemed useful.”

At the end of his lecture, Olsen explained that because the world is becoming increasingly “globalized” and not everyone speaks English, the United States needs to produce multi-lingual citizens

Kevin Thorsen ’11 found the lecture enlightening.

“He was incredibly knowledgeable on how language learning relates to the larger world,” he said. “He was a very precise and eloquent speaker.”

“It used to be almost impossible to find authentic native speaker material when learning a language,” Olsen said. “Now, it’s incredibly accessible. The technology is there. And the need now for cross-cultural, cross-linguistic communication is greater than ever before. English is great, but it isn’t enough.”