Let students choose the foreign language for entrance exams, including neighbors' languages and the languages of newcomers
In short
- Schools stop testing only one big language as the foreign language on entrance exams.
- Students can take the exam in the language of a neighboring country or of people who have moved to their area.
- Schools can choose foreign languages for their classes that fit their region.
- Every language is scored with the same weight, whichever one a student picks.
If this comes true
A middle school student in a town on a river border uses the neighboring country's language, chosen in class, to give directions to an old woman at the morning market, and has decided to take the high school entrance exam in that language too.
Perhaps
Young people raised at schools that cut back on classes in the world's most widely used language might not be able to read new research from abroad or job openings, and might be left behind.
Water so far 💧 0
The proposal in detail
This covers entrance exams for high schools and universities that include a foreign language, when the exams are run by public bodies or by schools that receive public money. In these exams, the foreign language subject is no longer limited to one specific language, and test takers can choose from several. The choices include widely used international languages, the languages of bordering countries and nearby regions, languages spoken by many people who have moved into that society, and minority languages within the country. The organizations that run the exams adjust for the difficulty of each language so that the level of skill required is the same and the scores carry the same weight, whichever language is chosen. Languages are added in order, starting with those that have enough test takers, and for languages with few test takers, results from outside exams that check speaking or reading on a common scale can be used instead. In elementary and middle schools, schools and communities can choose which foreign language to teach to suit local conditions, and by adjusting how teaching licenses are earned, they can hire people who can teach the language of a nearby country or the language of families who have moved in. Every school keeps offering a chance to learn widely used international languages for children who want to choose them. When a university program needs a particular language, it handles this by offering chances to learn it after admission.
BenefitsLearning a neighbor's language also becomes a path to the next school
When the exit of the entrance exam is widened, the learning that leads to it changes all at once. If students can take the exam in a neighboring country's language, schools in border towns can teach that language head on, and students can learn it knowing it will help them later. When people in neighboring societies can speak each other's languages, business, tourism and mutual help in disasters grow, and people judge the other side less by news and rumors alone. For children from families that have moved in, the language spoken at home becomes real strength for the exam, so they do not throw it away as something to be ashamed of but keep polishing it, and their ties with parents and grandparents are kept. When classmates learn that language too, a bridge is built between the people who moved in and the people of the area. When the situation changes from children all over the world learning the same one language to people who speak many languages growing up, a society gets strengths of its own in translation, interpreting and work across borders. Children who want to learn the one big language can still choose it, so this does not forbid anything but adds to the paths people can choose.
DrawbacksLess contact with the world's common language could widen gaps
One widely used international language is now the language of much of science papers, technical information and job openings across borders. If students can choose other languages on entrance exams, fewer people may learn that language, especially in rural schools and among students who want the path where points are easier to get. As a result, young people may find it harder to reach new knowledge and big job opportunities in the world, and society as a whole may be at a disadvantage in international dealings. This effect will also not arrive evenly. Children from wealthy families pick up that language at cram schools or by studying abroad even if their school does not teach it, but other children have no choice but to rely on the language they chose at school. The freedom to choose ends up creating a new gap. Also, making the difficulty of exams equal across languages is technically very hard, and test takers may drift toward whichever language gives even slightly easier points, and arguments over unfairness between languages may never end. It is hard to find teachers who can teach languages with few speakers, and the cost of making the exams adds up.
Learn the background
In many schools around the world, "foreign language" has come to mean one big international language. It is certainly useful for work and research, but as a result, hardly any children learn the language of the neighbor they see every day across the border, or the language of people who have moved into their own town. Neighboring countries go on not knowing each other's languages, able to talk only through a third language, or not at all, and misunderstandings and prejudice are hard to clear away. The language that children from immigrant families speak at home is treated as useless at school, and words begin to break down between parents and children. The biggest reason this imbalance does not go away is the entrance exam. As long as the exams for the next level of school test only one language, it makes sense for schools and families to put their time and money into that language. Even when a school or teacher wants to teach another language, students do not sign up for a subject that does not help them pass, and no one is trained to teach it. There are many calls to value linguistic diversity, but as long as the exit where students are judged is fixed on one language, those calls never reach the class schedule.
Choose them ready to accept their drawbacks too (up to 5)
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This proposal was written in Japanese by AI (claude-opus-5-5, policy version 2026-10-23b) and translated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5). Nobody has checked the facts. Read the original (日本語) How the AI writes