Recently, the issue of learning foreign languages at school has become widely debated. While some argue that pupils should independently decide whether they want to learn languages, this essay highly disagrees with such a view and considers that foreign languages must be obligatory for everyone.
To begin with, brains are most flexible during childhood. This means that the information given to children strongly affects them in different ways, depending on what the content is. According to recent research, not only do students who were obligated to learn languages at school speak these languages fluently in adulthood, they also outscore in other aspects of life. For example, such individuals demonstrate better performance in debates as their brains are trained to produce more arguments and prepare a convincing speech. In addition, such students are highly appreciated in the job market. Therefore, schools worldwide try to force children to learn languages to prepare them for adulthood.
Secondly, children have a limited capacity to decide what is beneficial for them. Most commonly, instead of doing homework and going to school they would prefer spending time doomscrolling TikTok or playing Roblox. Undoubtedly, this way of passing time negatively affects their abilities. Therefore, the responsibility for children must be taken by adults – they should encourage their children to learn how to communicate in different languages. However, individual action is not enough. Thus, governments ought to enforce obligatory foreign language courses at schools and schools should enroll everyone in these courses.
To conclude, children must be given better education to prepare them for adult-life and only the collective action of governments, schools and parents can make all children learn languages.