Agar, who has spent many years living and working abroad, proposes that is not the American innability to learn that keeps us from learning other languages, it's our ego. From a practical standpoint, I understand why it would be much more beneficial for a child native in Dutch, for example, to learn English then for an English speaker to learn Dutch. For native-speakers of smaller language communities the motivation is present, in that English or other more mainstream languages will basically be required to be successful in business or academia. That kind of pressure just naturally does not exist for English speakers because they already possess the "language of commerce". Even within English, the "circles" we create feed into group superiority and broadening the gap in the understanding of language, that we are supposed to be masters of. The more we segregate as language communities, more confusion about meaning is sure to insue. Is there any way to slow down this natural language progression? Could the separation someday lead to entirely new languages?
How prepared are Americans for a new "language of commerce" such as Mandarin Chinese, considering the Chinese economy is set to outgrow ours in the near future? Will we suffer as a nation because of unwillingness to change and accept cultures / languages other than our own?