To the Editor:

In “Parlez-Vous Anglais? Yes, of Course” (Sunday Review, Aug. 11), Pamela Druckerman frames the surge in Europeans who speak fluent English as a threat. “ English will mu tate,” she says, and “natives are lo sing their competitive edge.”

But she falls short in exploring the primary reason this trend — which extends well beyond Europe — is most concerning: It reinforces our complacency with speaking only English.

The United States does an abysmal job of teaching foreign languages. We start too late, and typically divorce classroom learning from relevant context. A result? Less than 1 percent of adults in the United States speak a second language they learned in school.

Expecting others to learn our language isn’t just arrogant; it’s shortsighted. Bilingualism improves memory, attention and mental dexterity. And when young people learn that there is more than one word for a color, feeling or thing, they are hard-wired to know that multiple perspectives coexist.