¿Tu Hablas Espanol?
Submitted by Betsey on Fri, 07/02/2010 - 12:30
As surprising as it might seem, America has no official language. English is obviously the main language spoken within the country (seeing as how you are reading this article right now), but it is not official on any kind of federal level. Various proposals have been made throughout the years to make English the official language of the U.S. but none have become law. I would like to make a proposal of me own: to make America officially bilingual.
Growing up in school we could pick either Spanish or French to learn as a foreign language. We took half a semester of each and then chose from that very limited exposure. Seeing as how I grew up in Maine- which is much closer to Québec than to Mexico- my twelve-year-old self chose to learn French. I then proceeded to practice speaking through my nose for the next ten years.
I do not regret learning French as it has allowed me to read some wonderful books, to study abroad in Paris, and to understand the plaques under the pictures at the Louvre. It has also greatly improved my odds of pronouncing things on a menu correctly. But other than helping with the superficial- and dare I say it, bourgeois- aspects of life, I have yet to use my French with someone outside of France who does not also speak (at least passable) English. And this is not for a lack of trying. I've looked. Trust me.
On the other hand, if my twelve-year-old self had made the decision based upon pragmatic rather than geographical factors, I would be able to use my second language daily. Approximately sixty percent of my co-workers were raised either as Spanish speakers or bilingually. If I were to go for a walk right now, I would hear someone speak Spanish within at least the first block. And mind you- I live in New England.
I struggle daily at work to communicate even very simple things. And the entire time that I am using hand motions and trying to draw pictures, what I am really doing is kicking myself for making the wrong decision way back in middle school.
So I propose this: make Spanish and English classes mandatory in all classrooms in America. They are both already the two unofficial languages of this country, and I think it's high time that we begin to recognize that. I have already downloaded some Spanish podcasts to practice with and the other day I watched some of a World Cup game in Spanish. Although I know I have a long way to go before I will be able to have a conversation beyond ¿Cómo estás?, I am working on it. As should the rest of the country.
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yeah, making Spanish into one
yeah, making Spanish into one of our official languages is too extreme..People don't even want English as their official language, how are we going to make Spanish into one? But, I totally agree that knowing more than one language is useful and also pretty fun in my opinion..But even if we require students to learn Spanish in high school, I don't think it helps us become fluent. I have taken four years of Spanish and after my last class, I could understand and speak Spanish proficiently. Although I can still understand most conversational Spanish, my speaking ability is very low. I just forget a lot of the vocabulary because I don't have enough chances to speak Spanish everyday.
I think making any foreign
I think making any foreign language a requirement for students is an excellent idea. In my school district, we weren't required to take a foreign language class (or even offered one I think) until high school (and like you, we were presented with only French or Spanish, but with no introductory semester to help us choose), when we were well past the prime age for learning a new language. There are tons of benefits to learning a second language, and it's so much easier when you're young. Tons of other countries require learning English, it seems logical that our children should learn another language as well.
As for which language, since Spanish is so prominent in our country, and since many schools might be hard-pressed to find teachers of other foreign languages, I agree that Spanish would be a great choice for a language to teach young children. I'm not sure about making the official languages of America English and Spanish though. It seems like that might increase discrimination for other foreign-language speakers. But without that official designation, it might be hard to gain support for teaching kids Spanish.