Dear Mr. President — my proposal for better language education in the United States

Daniela Semeco

CEO, Polyglotte® İnc.

169 11th Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

www.polykeyboards.com

December 20, 2015

President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I'd like to propose a solution to a problem you addressed in 2008 concerning the need for better language education in our country (http://youtu.be/BZprtPat1Vk). At a town hall in Powder Springs, Georgia not long before your election to the presidency, you encouraged Americans to become multilingual in two or more languages, like the rest of the world. It's true, we're pretty far behind. In Europe, for example, 10% of the population speaks over four languages; in the U.S., 70% of the population speaks only one.

Learning a language consists of making clear impressions on the brain. We should begin by making the learning process more natural. We could make innovative learning materials more accessible to students and create opportunities for them to travel and discover the world.

Language is learned through behavior and environment. I am an interpreter and inventor, myself. I speak four languages fluently (English, Spanish, French and German). From my experience, I can break down this learning process into three parts: 1) auditory skills (speaking and listening), 2) reading and writing, and 3) grammar.

How can we expect a child to write correctly in Spanish if their computer keyboard cannot produce an ‘ñ’ (n with tilde)? Or they may want to produce an 'ß' in German. The current typing solutions are inadequate and quite frankly a barrier to the learning process. They were designed for the monolingual world of America’s past, rather than the polylingual world of our emerging present and future. That's why I invented the Polyglotte® multi-language keyboard, because a person who is able to type correctly 100% of the time will learn more efficiently. It's confusing to sometimes write Genève and other times Geneve. After a while, a person will wonder if that word carries an accent or not. Their memory will become clouded.

Learning a language can be life-changing. It helps people gain confidence, understanding, and enlightenment.

We should make it easier for students to integrate language into their daily lives. We can send them to study abroad at low cost, rather than weighting them down with colossal loans. I was able to get a great education in France for only $200 a year. Other countries don't charge their students so much money. Let's give our young people more options to travel and take part in systems that will not subject them to indentured servitude (AKA student loan debt). There's a better way, and I'm living proof of that.

In the meantime, I invite you to try our patent-pending keyboard, which makes it possible to write in 20 languages using more than 200 special characters on a single keyboard layout. Any feedback we can get would be amazing!


Please, let's stop asking our students what they can do for us. Let us ask what we can do for them.

Thank you,

Daniela Semeco


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