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The Study of Modern Languages and the Present Crisis
Author(s) -
Wolf John B.
Publication year - 1942
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1942.tb00139.x
Subject(s) - frontier , isolation (microbiology) , democracy , task (project management) , political science , sociology , political economy , law , management , economics , politics , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Author's summary.— Only in the last forty to fifty years American isolation has become politically impossible. This has resulted in a challenge to our democratic way of life, for it implies that United States citizens—both leaders and followers—must come to understand our complex world. Since the first step to understanding other peoples must cross the linguistic frontier, a task for American education is to breach that wall. Our leaders must have access across that linguistic frontier, and as many of our citizens as possible must have at least a “Cook's tour” through the cultural life of other lands.