I’m on board with both you and r/lurker_galore, you guys make great points. Our monolingualism fuels progress and power, and the rest of world bends to conform to keep up. We wouldn’t be expected to know a thing about Croatia, but any Croatian would be a fool to not identify our flag and current affairs. Geopolitically the majority of Americans have no need to learn other languages.

But how much progress would we make diplomatically, and possibly in overall education if our country placed more value on language learning and international studies? Look at how involved the rest of the world is, even if just by necessity. How would the world benefit if this was a rising trend in the US?