[Applause] when I asked my friend some of the words they would use to describe our generation they mention ambition optimism memes and as well as well as tech focused and STEM careers especially when looking at Silicon Valley there was always a mention towards the pressure to pick a stem career after all Silicon Valley could be said to be a stem capital of the world a hotbed of Sim innovation since the 60s the area has birthed global Giants like Apple Google and Adobe as well as hosting world-class universities like Stanford and UC Berkeley Mount View is the exemplary Silicon Valley High School given the popularity of our APM programs as well as hosting a successful and popular robotics team but this focus to loot from other disciplines mainly our interest and drive in foreign languages now it's not uncommon for students at MBA chess to take multiple science or math classes at once right but how many of you can remember it when there's to ensure that same passion for foreign languages by taking a class over the summer or trying to use it with neo speakers or even just using supplementary materials outside of the textbook not that many just from classrooms we see students more engaged and doozie a stack with STEM subjects ultimately valuing stem over foreign language on a systemic level and this bears are in data as well as of according to the Modern Language Association language enrollment across the entire country has dropped by seven percent since 2009 but while most of us don't realize that we need foreign languages in our education just as much as them our international cultural exchange instantaneous communication and globalized economy dictate that we must be able to understand people for across the entire world and understand their very culture and point of view to do so foreign languages must be a part of both primary and secondary education and must be valued just the same as any other core subject language is the key that unlocks our world for holding every detail in high definition and if our journey is it generation is too big successful in this world is imperative that we grasped that fact now let me ask you all another question how many of you really understand why something is right or wrong in your native language and the rules behind it well for the most part it's pretty intuitive to distinguish between right and wrong but when you start saying another language everything works on different serve rules that aren't so intuitive in studying how that language conveys meaning you gain perspective for the many ways that meaning can be conveyed well a phrase translated from one language into another make her the same general meaning the specific ways that that meaning is conveyed very widely from language to language even looking at how languages write how they take the sounds all of our mouths and onto the paper we've seen an intense variety between languages Chinese for example uses thousands of symbols each getting a specific meaning and pronunciation and Japanese uses that alongside two other sets of symbols that each know a specific consonant and vowel pairing Koreans Hangul expresses things using symbol syllable blocks which each know a specific syllable and in Arabic in Hebrew you only really write in consonants and in Hindi stemming gari scripts we see the vowels modified constant basis oh my god there's so much variety even looking at how languages do use the Latin alphabet express things for writing we've seen intense variety as well English for example is relatively complex and irregular at times all Spanish is relatively consistent and even though it's famous orthographic complexity French can often be more straightforward than English at times the intense variety of ways that languages have come up with to express the same ideas is amazing and although we may be writing in so many different ways we were ultimately still expressing the same ideas but it's impossible to comprehend that without studying another language and not understanding of diversity is only further when looking at culture culture and language are tightly interconnected the beliefs value and practices of a culture are expressed through individuals using the language and many concepts that we understand in our culture are actually thought of in different ways in different cultures you can see this in their language now Chinese for example uses the characters Xiang and Xiao didn't say a last month or week or next month or week respectively and these characters mean up and down now when I started learning Chinese I constantly confused these phrases but when I started thinking of Chinese time is going top down rather than the left-to-right spectrum and Western languages everything fell into place as we see in Chinese time doesn't have to stop be thought of in one way and can actually be taught in many ways in many cultures it's the same way of how different map projections display the features of the Earth's surface differently how can you see the many ways that we can display the e features of the earth without looking at more than one map studying a new language is like looking at a whole new map for communication it's looking at the same cantos but in a whole different way but we must begin to invest in those concepts now why though we extra why would we learn in a foreign language why would we spend so much time well the u.s. is founded by people from across the entire world who all come from different nail languages and different cultural backgrounds in 2015 alone the use granted over 1 million people of foreign birth permanent resident status in fact almost 25% amount view high schoolers are non-english native speakers you can very well be next to one of them right now not only that been our world of instantaneous communication there's so much more interaction between every corner of the globe my dad regularly speaks to people from Japan Israel and China as part of his work who all speak different languages and come from different cultural backgrounds learning in their language is about getting inside their head or their shoes as the popular adage goes about connecting with another person understanding where they're coming from and being able to bridge your culture with Iran when I spoke to a student who took part in the awhile change two years ago they said in Japanese everything is formal and informal the conjugations honorifics and specific ways of addressing people who are older and younger than you all indicate a high amount of respect and degree and interest in structure this explains differences like when hosting guests Japanese people will not let others the guests do any kind of menial chores during their stay because because it is seen as extremely disrespectful for them to let them do that and looking at our culture through their language you gain its perspective for the many ways that the many different differences in norms values traditions and history making what was once weird and bizarre not much more reasonable so if we're going to promote this cross-cultural connection we have to start acting like languages actually matter languages need to evaluate the same as any of the other core subjects as an integral part of primary and secondary education to do so foreign languages must start at the primary level as part of education most of Europe does this integrating foreign languages as part of the curriculum between ages 6 and 9 and requiring student societies a second of foreign language throughout high school in fact some countries require students to say a second foreign language during high school as well by requiring students to study foreign languages in both primary and high school these countries are taking languages seriously as part of a student's educational experience well in the u.s. languages are treated as electives during high school in Europe languages are treated as part of an essential an essential part of a student's educational experience an essential part of a student's functioning in the modern world but this policy change also requires and changing values when we devalue foreign languages by saying that they're not an important part of our students education we devalue foreign cultures and ideas different ways of life and different perspectives and promote Anglo centrosome what was a possibility for connection and understanding as rejected by blunt ignorance look I love foreign language just like other students in Jordan calculus or singing or playing sports I revel in the chance to dissect a grammar textbook to learn the French past reflexive pronoun or the Chinese passive voice and while I understand then that everyone shows this passion we almost have foundations in foreign language just like everyone should have foundations in algebra or the basic principles of our Constitution the education system is meant to produce students who can at least understand the fundamentals of every subject so that they can be competent members of our society and world even if they don't end up using trigonometry or the basics of 17th century Europe in their day-to-day lives and careers language brings a person to a whole new understanding of the diversity in human experience and explains culture in a way that simple study cannot even if the specifics of vocab and grammar are lost the values and skills language imparts want several years of study for us we stand at the edge of division language can be the bridge that brings us back together so let's get to work thank you