There is a story in The Modesto Bee that talks about the demand for employees who are bilingual. That doesn’t  mean someone who had four years of  Spanish or French in school. It means someone who is fluent.

I took several years of Spanish, a year of Russian and two years of French, which I passed with good grades. But fluent? Not even close. I wasn’t necessarily looking for that; I just wanted to fulfill my college entrance requirements with a little more  punch, to give me a competitive edge. Since high school,  I’ve learned a lot about the fast track to fluency. It’s immersion — complete immersion. If you have to speak the language to get something to eat, you learn fast! This is not part of the debate about bilingual education, where students speak English in school, then spend the rest of their time speaking another language at home. That’s not what I’m talking about. I mean full immersion through foreign exchange.

My family has been involved in all facets of foreign exchange for about two decades.  We have helped American  kids to study abroad; we have hosted students here from foreign countries. Here’s what we know — when they are in the country, they learn the language at rocket speed. We have seen Americans go to areas where they didn’t speak the language at all — Hungary, for example, or Flemish-speaking Belgium; Japan; Thailand; Norway; Iceland; Finland.  Students have come to us understanding almost nothing we said, even when they have studied a year or more in classes at home.

Within about three months, they are able to function very well; and compete surprisingly well against  their American counterparts in English class. In a year, they have language skills they will likely keep for  life, even without regular practice. They will also learn about the geography, the food, customs, politics, family life, humor — and even make friendships that often last for life.

Attaining foreign language fluency  in a single year may make it unnecessary to take classes every year in high  school, opening up room for other subjects in an ambitious student’s schedule.  With the universities cutting back on classes, it may be smart and cost effective to take those classes abroad.

For students who don’t want to go abroad or can’t, there is a huge advantage to having a native speaker living in the house for a school year. Native speakers help with the accent, the practice, the conversation, the slang, the culture and the customs, which can be quite helpful alongside school  language classes.

So, consider foreign exchange as student or be a host family. It doesn’t have to be a year of high school; it can be a gap year; a semester. Even a  summer can work wonders for language skills.

There are many organizations and even some universities  that offer a foreign exchange experience. We chose a nonprofit with the longest history of success, AFS USA.  Check it out. Applications are being accepted for an exchange year and host families are needed right now.