A Nine Year Hiatus

The first place many people think of when the UK is mentioned is London, the capital city filled with businessmen in suits, the UK's top cinema stars, the iconic skyline, street signs, gardens, and monuments, all surrounding the Thames and Big Ben/Westminster. My very first visit to London was nine years ago; I was fourteen, surrounded by 43 other kids my age and herded from place to place by four teachers like a flock of sheep. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing experience, and quite an eye-opener for a young teenager's first steps abroad.

But after nine years, things change. A lot of things change.

On Language Education

Despite the fact that bilingual schooling is starting to crop up in certain regions of the United States, language education is something that's horrifically underdeveloped in public schooling. In my own high school, I had the choice between French, or Spanish. In second grade, I was taught bits of Spanish (I vaguely remember putting on a play at the end where animals kept coming into a restaurant and I was a gray seal) and in sixth grade I had the opportunity to take special time out of classes to learn Spanish again. Naturally, I picked Spanish.

But there should be more options. There are over 6,000 languages being spoken today. Over six thousand languages! How many do I fluently speak?

One.