Before his junior year of high school, Blake Brigman only spoke one language.

It was after a bout of summer boredom that he began teaching himself Italian, and then French, then Spanish, and currently,  Mandarin Chinese.

Now a senior in the College of Business Administration, Brigman’s passion for language is as strong as ever.

“I thought I was one of those people who couldn’t learn a language,” Brigman said. “But I still to this day remember the first word in Italian I learned — il cane, the dog. From that word I was captivated. It was a sudden hunger for more.”

Unlike Brigman, most Americans —roughly 80 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau ­— speak only one language. Julia Paulk, assistant professor of Spanish at Marquette, says that’s a major issue.

“In order for countries to get along we need to be able to communicate. We need to be able to reach out to people in their language and not expect them to accommodate us in ours. It opens up the world of ideas,” Paulk said.

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Communication breeds commerce, and with more businesses in more markets than ever before, foreign languages are an increasingly valuable asset to job seekers.

Paulk, who teaches a Spanish for the professions class at Marquette, believes the American approach to language education needs improvement.

“It is something we need to work on,” Paulk said. “I think we need to start (educating) younger in life, and I think we don’t take it far enough in the universities either.”

Research from the Center for Applied Linguistics found that most American students don’t start learning a foreign language until age 14, while many countries in Europe have required foreign language study at the elementary level.

The Rev. Jeffrey LaBelle, assistant professor in the College of Education, says that starting early is crucial to get more students speaking more languages, citing research that shows bilingual students outperform peers in reading comprehension and conceptual ability.

But even with the obvious benefits, language education still isn’t as heavily emphasized in the U.S. as it is elsewhere. In Europe, for instance, 50 percent of people over age 15 can hold a conversation in a second language, with less than 20 percent of Americans who can speak more than one language.

LaBelle says the reason this gap in language education exists could be attributed to the status of English as a global language, as well as “a general attitude among many U.S. citizens that anything foreign should be questioned,”  LaBelle said.

For foreign and non-native English speaking students, however, the importance of language is a little more pronounced. Samah Ali, an international student who studied at Marquette last fall, is a native English speaker, despite being born in the Philippines and a resident of the Arabic speaking country of Bahrain.

Ali attended an English school, and at home she speaks Arabic and English between her parents.

“The schools were English-based, you don’t even think about it; it’s all in English. You learn Arabic because it’s integrated there just by speaking with people,” Ali said.

While Ali agrees her language skills will help her land a job after finishing school, the most important thing language gives her is a connection to her family, which is why she hopes to one day learn Tagalog, the Filipino language her mother’s side of the family speaks.

Daniela Castillo-Perez, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, believes languages keep her connected to her past. She was born in Guatemala and learned English as a second language.

“I love having the connection to my cultural roots,” Perez said. “The way I was immersed in American culture when I was young, it didn’t leave room to learn about my own cultural history. Knowing Spanish, I still have some of that.”

Beyond the cultural connection, knowledge of a foreign language is something that stands out on a job application, said Matt Myers, a career counselor in the Career Services Center.

“It shows you have that ability to connect with people,” Myers said. “And if you can showcase that you have that language ability, it can only help you.”

With his graduation fast approaching, Brigman is confident his language ability will remain an important part of his life throughout his career.

“I have an open road ahead, and many opportunities,” he said. “I greatly anticipate that my languages will be a crucial part of my career.”