Berkley Center

Sitting down for lunch on my second day in Salamanca, I was struck by how authentically “Spanish” it all felt. I was confirming firsthand what I had only ever read in my pre-departure handbook:  lunch is truly a sacred hour in Spain. Indeed, as my host mother Isabel heaped a huge, delicious portion of paella on my plate and we began to animatedly chat, it was a far cry from the often hurried lunchtime of the United States.

Yet, other mealtime experiences have made me realize that I truly cannot escape the United States while I’m here.

Case in point: I went to a bar and ordered callos (a traditional Spanish stew of cow stomach)… as Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” played in the background. The juxtaposition of the US Billboard Hot 100 pop hit with the authentic Spanish dish was amusing, to say the least. And this is just one of many illustrative anecdotes. In fact, in almost every café I’ve been in, American songs have rung out in the background—from “Born to Run” to the Ghostbusters theme song!

The pervasiveness of these American songs speaks to a larger point: the ever increasing prevalence of English use in Spain and other countries in general. As a Linguistics major, this social phenomenon at the intersection of language and globalization greatly interests me.

A 2013 report by the EU’s statistics arm Eurostat found that English was studied by 94 percent of upper secondary school students and that “English was declared to be the best-known foreign language in 2011 amongst the population aged 25 to 64.” It is clear, then, that English has solidified its position as a lingua franca of the twenty-first century, especially in Europe.

But in my opinion, the nature of this trend’s implications is anything but black and white.

One on hand, I recognize that for many non-native English speakers, knowing the language has simply become a professional requirement. “Ninety-two percent of global employees say English is required or important for their job, and this is true at all levels of the organization all over the world,” states the Globalization of English Report by Pearson English. In Spain—with the latest figures from October 2014 reporting 24 percent national unemployment and 50 percent post-college unemployment—the pressure to learn English to distinguish oneself in the job market is particularly urgent.

With Spain in particular still reeling from such devastating effects of the 2008 global financial crisis, it is undeniable that English will more and more be viewed as an indispensable skill.

Yet, I can’t help but feel that with this rise in English use in Spain and the EU comes a certain linguistic and cultural loss for Spaniards and native English speakers alike.

Language is not just a vehicle for verbal expression. It also conveys culture. I believe you can tell a lot about a culture by its refranes, or sayings, and every night at dinner my host father Agustín teaches my apartment mates some Spanish ones. An apt one for the dinner table that has come up frequently is oveja que bala, pierde bocado (a sheep that bleats loses its mouthful of food). This underlines the importance of cuisine in Spanish culture. What if English’s increasing predominance in the younger generations crowds out such unique sayings, these seemingly innocuous but revealing windows into culture?

I also fear that English’s “boom” across Europe creates a disincentive for Americans to learn foreign languages themselves. “Why put in the effort studying when I can most likely go abroad and find people that speak English?” the train of thought may go. This attitude is anything but productive.

Call me biased because of my Linguistics leanings, but I strongly believe that learning another language is incredibly enriching. It lets you experience a different perspective and opens you up to a whole new world of possible connections and friendships. Speaking to an English-speaking Spaniard connects you on a communicative level; speaking to them in Spanish connects you on a deeper, more personal level. And so, the “English-ization” of Europe may very well serve practical purposes, but I hope that the potential foreign language learning ambivalence it could foster in the United States fails to take hold.

Para resumir (to sum up), English’s surge is a testament to America’s powerful footing in the world, but in its wake it would be incredibly disheartening for the powerful cultural value of linguistic diversity to fall by the wayside.