I remember the first Spanish class I took in middle school. The teachers gave us a handout outlining the benefits of learning a foreign language. Enhancing memory, preventing cognitive decline, and improving job prospects were all listed on the sheet. Determined to learn something useful, I felt eager to learn Spanish, my first acquired language that wasn’t native, after Urdu and English. In reality, I was enticed to learn a new language primarily for the sake of advancing my own prospects. I’m sure I wasn’t alone. When this happens, it isn’t the learner who is to blame. Certain approaches to foreign language instruction are in fact based on principles of cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation is the adoption of another culture’s elements, practices, or customs in the absence of an understanding of the context behind them and with the intent of benefiting an interest that is often unconnected with the culture. We’ve seen cultural appropriation before. Take Beyoncé and Coldplay’s music video “Hymn for the Weekend,” a clip that depicts India as an exotic land and features Beyoncé appropriating traditional Indian dance moves while dressed in Indian-style garments. Produced more for revenue than for spreading cultural awareness, the video takes advantage of another culture and uses it to attract more video views. It also demonstrates a lack of understanding of Indian culture by trading on stereotypes in the form of levitating holy men and people dancing in the streets.

Though acquiring a new language is advertised as the key to connecting with people from other cultures, cultural appropriation occupies this domain too, and its claims are just as seductive. That middle school handout reappeared again when I was taking Spanish in eleventh grade and yet again in twelfth grade. These constant invitations to learn a language for solipsistic benefits, a passport to personal advancement, prompt the question, are we really teaching students how to understand and appreciate other cultures? Or are we encouraging them to take advantage of another culture and language in order to flaunt multilingualism on a résumé?

Emphasis on learning a language solely to enhance one’s prospects isn’t the only way cultural appropriation can affect teaching approaches. Any pedagogy that devalues the relationship between culture and language in the service of some other goal is evidence of cultural appropriation as well. In early March, April Rose, a state delegate in Maryland, proposed a bill authorizing county boards of education to allow computer programming to fulfill students’ foreign language graduation requirements. Rose told the Carroll County Times that allowing computer programming to satisfy foreign language requirements would “provide more access to … classes that really provide true workforce skills.” While coding does involve gaining fluency in programming vocabulary and syntax, it doesn’t replace learning about another human culture. Languages are not just for communicating; they are also for understanding. Stripping students of exposure to another form of human connection gives the impression that it’s not necessary to learn how to exchange ideas with people from other cultures. Furthermore, while learning to code may prepare students for getting a job after they complete their education, there’s no guarantee that they will thrive in that workplace if they do not know how to establish relationships with people from other cultures.

Does this mean that all foreign language instruction programs are guilty of cultural appropriation? Not necessarily. Programs that teach learners to appreciate the cultures associated with a language are not examples of cultural appropriation; on the contrary, they incorporate forms of cultural education in order to teach language. It isn’t enough to simply learn the vocabulary and grammar rules of a language; it’s also essential to learn cultural context. Take the “you” pronoun in Urdu, a language commonly spoken in Pakistan, as well as parts of India, Bangladesh, and the Middle East. In Urdu, there are three forms of “you” — one extremely informal form reserved for animals or those who are “inferior”, another relatively informal form used to address children or close members of a family, and a very formal form that signifies respect. A speaker ignorant of the cultural context denoting when to use each form could easily misuse it and offend someone.

Promoting cultural education goes quite naturally with teaching a language. Teaching students about the countries a language is spoken in, incorporating literature and film into instruction, and offering travel experiences are all ways that foreign language programs can help learners appreciate and acknowledge the culture of the language they are trying to learn. This value and respect for other cultures is what will enable them to more easily connect with others, understand and accept cultural differences and become global citizens.