What if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL?

Today I watched a brilliant talk by Patricia Ryan, an English teacher in Dubai:




She asks a great question: "If I knew a monolingual Dutch speaker who knew the cure for cancer, would I stop him from entering my British university? I don't think so, but that is exactly what we do!"  She asks, how many skills are we overlooking because this genius does not speak English?  What if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL?

In some cases scientists have failed to reach the correct answer because their languages and ideas didn't and couldn't help them visualize the question in the right way.  Any interpreter can tell you that we think about some ideas in one language, some ideas in another.  Why?  Because it's just easier, that particular language lends itself to the discussion at hand.

There are currently 6,000 languages in the world, and in 90 years we will have only 600.  That means that a language dies every 14 days.  Imagine!  That means that in a year the world loses 26 different ways of describing the human experience. 

As an interpreter, I cannot count the number of brilliant people I know who have struggled to learn English.  Brilliant people who may speak more than one non-English language, but who are unable to figure out our grammar and syntax.  Does that make them less intelligent than we who have spoken English since birth (and, incidentally, can only speak one language)?  Furthermore, what happens when the elder generations can no longer communicate their wisdom to their grandchildren who no longer speak their language?

Ryan points out that the price of even taking the TOEFL are sometimes cost-prohibitive.  The reality is that even for those who will never attend college, learning even basic English is sometimes economically unfeasible.  Many drop out of basic ESL classes because they need to work.  It is ironic that when you are working two or three jobs to support your family and guarantee that your children can someday attend college, that you might not have time or energy at the end of the day to learn English yourself. 

Every interpreter has been asked, "But why can't this person just learn English?"  This is a question that we all struggle to answer.  "They are learning."  "It's hard for them."  "I'm here because they want to express themselves fully."  -- all are quick, pat answers that we offer.  However, as Ryan points out, the question is larger--yes, we all can learn English, but what will we lose if we do?