Connection Through Language

The world is changing. The 21st Century has seen an unprecedented level of interconnection between every country in the world, and with this, new skills are becoming more valuable. Along with various technological talents the ability to speak a foreign language, especially Spanish in the United States, is extremely preferable. With widespread immigration of Spanish-speaking peoples to the U.S., one is much more likely to have to use Spanish in an everyday situation such as going to the grocery store or having a meal at a restaurant. Even more importantly, the talent of knowing how to speak any language, not just Spanish, can increase test grades in school and give an individual a better chance of obtaining a job against someone who cannot speak a second language. Despite all the benefits, many schools have not created mandatory participation in Spanish courses from grades K-12, which I believe is a policy schools should enforce.

Yes I know, this is the United States of America, and many patriotic citizens of the nation will argue that students should not be made to take Spanish since, darn it, you should be able to speak English if you come to America anyways, so what’s the point? For starters, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the the U.S. after English with approximately 38.3 million speakers over age five, a statistic that has more than doubled since 1990. With the population of the U.S. being 317 million, that’s a pretty significant chunk of people who speak Spanish! So even if you stumble across someone who can’t speak English well but is simply trying to get directions somewhere, wouldn’t it be nice to help them out? Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. If all you wanted to do was find out where the closest supermarket or mall was yet you couldn’t speak the local language well, wouldn’t it be helpful to find someone who could help you out? Most likely.In addition, many Spanish-speakers from Central and South America tend to settle in rural areas to find work. If one decided to stay in a small, rural town much like Weedsport, there’s a good chance that your neighbor could be a native Spanish-speaker!

Aside from just everyday situations, the ability to speak a second language can improve academic performance and increase one’s chances of being employed for work in nearly any field. A study conducted by P.W. Armstrong and J.D. Rogers in 1997 found that after studying Spanish only three times per week for 30 minutes over the course of one semester, students had much higher SAT and ACT scores and had better overall school averages than their peers who spoke only English. All three grades, among others are what determines one’s acceptance into nearly every college in the country, so why not take only an hour and a half out of your entire week to learn a foreign language? After college while seeking a job, a 2007 study found that an individual is 73% more likely to receive a job over people competing for the same position if the person is bilingual. With all these positive aspects of learning a language, why aren’t more schools making students learn to speak a language like Spanish?

The world is so much more complex and competitive nowadays, and students are very likely to forget even the basics of a language once they graduate high school. One can say that simply the stubbornness of Americans is to blame for our unwillingness to learn something like Spanish. We don’t want to sacrifice our uniqueness and individuality, possibly. Many also don’t understand the huge amount of benefits that come with being bilingual. If anything, schools enforcing Spanish courses for grades K-12 could make the U.S. even more successful than it already is since our ability to communicate with other countries would be greatly increased. If we can teach our students to appreciate language and the cultures that come along with it, maybe then the level of understanding among different peoples in the U.S. will be stronger. We need to break down the walls between the ethnic groups of the U.S., and learning different languages is a way to make this happen. The positives of knowing a foreign language are too numerous and important to ignore.