Nicely put, JohnWicket.

We readers are not all xenophobics, some of us even appreciate English peppered with the spice of foreign phrases. I even remember the fun of being sworn at in both German and Norwegian while growing up, as I traipsed throughout neighborhood gardens. I also appreciated learning to swear in Spanish while working along side migrant workers on local farms. Learning can be fun. The beauty of our English language is the ability of it to incorporate foreign idioms and make them usefully ours, like the crayolas used in a coloring book. Frankly, I also believe that chopped liver can be fine when prepared with enough sweet onions and seared to perfection. We can even actually learn to eat liver. And when we were babies, wasn't everything once "foreign" to us?

One or two more thoughts: I'm not saying that "foreign" MUST be used every time we refer to a language that is different from our mother tongue. "Another language" or "a different language" are perfectly understandable, no? But in school, we need a term to refer to non-English languages. I've used the term "foreign language" all my life without being damaged by that usage, I believe, so why oh why do they have to keep changing things?
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Educators have a problem communicating with the public, which can become a source of resentment, justified or not. I spend a lot of time translating educators' words into something most people can understand. I believe educators can and must find better ways to communicate to the general public. They can use all the jargon they want when communicating with each other, but when talking to the public, they need a different kind of language. Ideas may be complex, but the language does not have to be.

Some will disagree, but the conversation is not offensive to me, so far. I have always been fascinated by the feelings emac seems to feel, about being offended or inconvenienced by having to listen to another language. Some think there's a fear behind those feelings, a fear of the stranger, of the foreigner. I don't think that's always true, but I'm sure it's true in some cases. Even so, there's nothing offensive in having those feelings. I may believe they're wrongheaded, but I'd rather know what other people are thinking than to block out what they have to say. One should not be automatically offended when encountering an opinion one disagrees with.
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Many of you will be familiar with the fact that many other countries do a better job of teaching foreign languages than we do here in the U.S.A. Like most issues of this sort, it's complicated, but I believe, having lived with a foreign-language teacher for several decades, that one of our problems is that our kids are rarely exposed to people speaking other languages, so they don't feel any pressure to learn another language, and when they become adults, they expect a world that is all English, all the time, and they don't know how to handle an encounter with someone speaking another language, emotionally or intellectually.
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That said, one thing we'll never be able to do, even if we make English the official language of the U.S.A., is to ensure that no one has to ever hear another language. Ain't gonna happen. Get over it, get used to it, and teach your kids about other countries and cultures, is my advice. They will live in a very interconnected world.
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NVgrf, yeah, I did write this at the end of a long week, so nerves may have been a bit raw, but I've been harboring a resentment of the term "world languages" for quite a long while. I just happened to encounter it again last week.
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Just because one prefers "foreign" to "world" does not mean one thinks foreigners are somehow not as good as Americans or tinged with evil or whatever it is that bureaucrats fear we will think. For me, foreigners are people who live in countries that are not my country. It's a perfectly fine word when used with that meaning.

Northman says, "English is the language we speak here" Your provincial attitude says it all. I am starting to believe that you really do live in fantasy land.

they are foreign languages. I am a big opponent of the politically correct movement. Oversensitivity is not part of the solution, it is part of the problem. words are only derogatory in the context that they are used.

emac, I am so sorry you cannot have the world exactly the way you would like it for your personal comfort. I am sure that having to listen to a telephone prompt is an enormous burden for you.

Snorting in derision at Frank's threat to the haters. Only when it suits you, eh?

I just wish English was the official language of the United States. I am for one am extremely tired of having to listen to prompt after prompt anywhere I call just to converse in English.

English is the language we speak here, so other languages are necessarily and quite properly, “foreign languages”. Just as people who live in other countries are “foreigners”. We could make a case that “world languages” is a bit subversive, but I think we should just stick with silly. Whatever you call it, I certainly encourage everyone to be multi-lingual, and have made it a requirement for my own kids.

Speaking of other languages, here’s a poser for you. Why do we think of the people in Germany as speaking German, while they think they are in Deutschland speaking Deutsch? The French are under the impression they are speaking française, the Spanish espanol, and so on. It’s a two way street, since most places have their own word for English. Wouldn’t it make sense to refer to foreigners the same way they refer to themselves?

I personally have never met a teacher of any discipline that would not consider English a world language.

NV...one point Frank made was that "English is not included in educators' conception of “world languages.”

Shouldn't English be a "World Language" too?

Maybe they should call the (foreign) classes "Other World Language", although that sounds kind of
sci-fi or Star Trekkie.

Frank. Are we a bit sensitive today? Have you been outside of Janesburg to a big city lately? The term "foreign" in reference to languages is absolutely no longer appropriate. I was up the hill in Vegas today, and while walking into the Aria for a poker tournament heard three groups of people all within a fifteen foot radius speaking three world languages; Spanish, Arabic, and Japanese. Languages are no longer "foreign." People are speaking these and other non-English languages all over America on a daily basis. And I am not only talking about tourists. I have three friends who speak Chinese, Italian and Spanish at home with their kids. I should add, to appease the bigots who may be reading, that they all speak perfect English at work, school and out in other areas of American society. We are a linguistically diverse society. This is part of our uniqueness and greatness at the same time.
So I certainly believe that "World Languages" is a very appropriate label for the programs within our schools.
I love your blog! You challenge your readers to think. It doesn't hurt us to do that from time to time.

Earthling: Do not tamper with our linguistic designations, lest you find yourself reassigned to a hive excrement chamber cleaning team! ☺

I wonder if the name change to "world languages is a tinge of xenophobia, or just some cheesy bureaucrat putting their "mark" on the program by renaming it to justify their job?