My current online college course...

My current online college course uses a text called “Fundamentals of Management”. I am actively studying the first chapter and posted an email to my fellow classmates about something I read in the chapter. The point was worth sharing!

The section in the chapter I refer to is about the evolution of management and the history of management thought. Here is the body of the email:

Did anyone else notice that Hugo Munsterberg established a psychological lab at Harvard in 1892 yet his pioneering book was translated into English in 1913? Is it safe then to assume that his work at Harvard was conducted in German?

As a second language learner, this bit of trivia grabbed my attention.

The situation with Henri Fayol grabbed my attention as well -- he was dead for five years before his work was translated into English and he became known to US managers and scholars. Imagine what kind of collaboration could have taken place if Americans had taken the opportunity to study under Fayol while he was still alive. Had they been in the habit of regularly reading the newspapers of the day in French, they might have known about his work YEARS earlier. (Fayol “was the first to identify the specific managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling…Most contemporary management books, including this one [meaning my text], still use this same framework and practicing managers agree that these functions are a crucial part of their jobs”.)

Same deal with Max Weber and his work on bureaucracy --he died in 1920 and his contributions were not recognized until years had passed. His most important work was translated in English in 1947, twenty-seven years after he died. Unless he wrote it just before his death, about 30+ years passed before Americans benefitted from his work.

Yet the attitude I encounter from monolingual Americans is negative toward seriously learning other languages. What's the use they say?

These are perfect examples of why there is value in speaking other languages -- you can take advantage of the work of others and instead of re-inventing the wheel you can learn from them and build upon what they have done.

Lest anyone think I am anti-American, I was born here and have lived here all of my life. My parents were both bilingual but chose to raise their children as monolingual English speakers. I started to learn a second language in high school and after thirty years am now functional in that language. I have gone on to dabble in a third language and have learned simple words in two other languages.

(End of what was written to my classmates)

Whenever I travel, I tend to run into people who don’t speak English yet for whom I am able to offer assistance because I can speak some basic phrases in their language. It is a heartwarming feeling to put things learned in school (vocabulary, grammar, verb conjugations) to practical use reaching out to other human beings. It’s like the difference between learning about driving and actually getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. Or like the difference between smelling warm cinnabons and actually eating one. There is NO COMPARISON!

Diane