I bet everyone of you has complained about having to take Spanish in middle school, right? Trevor, and Blake I’m talking about you. But do any of you know how many people speak spanish in the united States? According to The huffington post 33 million people can or are speaking spanish right now. Can you believe that? 33 million people in the united states speak spanish, wouldn’t you want to learn a second language, at that rate a language that almost the whole world knows how to speak and understands? Many people will argue with me asking ‘why would you want to learn an language that almost all the united states knows? But the real question is why wouldn't you? I mean be smart pick a language that is going to help you in life. First reason
Teachers are forcing kids away from taking specific classes due to bias opinions, which is why for many schools in the United States language is not looked at as a priority. Picture growing up in a small town, in Maine, which in the data table from Shin and Kominski’s report showed to be a state with the least amount of citizens that spoke a language other than English as their primary language, shows that for some people language is hard to see has being important. In High School some have found a passion in language but don’t receive the proper curriculum that would allow them to succeed. Instead of introducing language in High School, our school systems should focus on adding it into the curriculum that is taught in elementary school and middle school. By starting when you are young, the time you are graduating high school you can speak at least one other language and classify yourself as bilingual. Dianne Steinbach explained it as, “Something that many of us took for granted when we were younger people is now disappearing” (First Speakers:Restoring). Since there is such a large increase in language diversity
Many Americans believe their is no point to learning a second language, as they believe english will soon be the world's only language (Johnson). According to Betty Birner of PBS:
It seems like it is the “normal” language for most people, but, there are many who think differently. To these people Spanish is the “normal” language. Even though this language is difficult, the need to learn it to be successful in America. As it has been shown, learning how to understand, speak, read and write English is an essential thing today in the United States. If these people get a hand from another Hispanic, they could receive the motivation they need to want to learn this foreign language. Maybe all they need is someone to help them study weekly, somebody who is determined to teach them little by little. It will not be an easy task, but it will be worth the hard work and effort to help these people learn English. It will change their social life, it will help their children receive a better education, and will make them mentally feel good about themselves. There is a duty for every bilingual Hispanic to help the other out. To support each other like a
Go West, Young People! And East! By: Nicholas Kristof inspired students to learn a second or third language. He makes the argument that all young people need to learn a second or third language, the language Kristof mentions is spanish. “All young americans should learn spanish” (P3). His stand for this is most retiring elderly people are going to move to these other countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru. His argument also is that learning a second language is good for the brain. Kristof mentioned in (P3) that it doesn’t make sense to take a spanish speaking class on campus but to rather move to said country and fall in love with one of the locals and experience learning that second or third language that way. The author also mentions in (P1) that “more than 130 different languages are spoken daily in commerce in
Spanish is the most common second language in the world and the most popular language taught in the United States schools. One reason it seems Spanish is the most popular second language, is over 20 countries claim it as their first language and over 400 million people speak it. More people on earth today speak two or more languages. With numbers like that it seems we all should learn a little bit of this popular language.
“Language is power. If you cannot understand or be understood you have no power. You are at the mercy of everyone.” – (Rudat, 1994, Stow, Dodd 356) Should Americans be required to learn Spanish as a second language? The construction of our nation stands on documents written in English, however English is not our official language nor has it ever been. America is a “melting pot” in which English is the most prominent language, followed closely by Spanish. Requiring Americans to learn Spanish is a great controversy; I strongly believe that it should be a requirement, because it improves academic achievements, career success, and cultural and social understanding. The controversy has great counter arguments such as the double standard Americans are held to, and further division of the country. Regarding the counterarguments, I still firmly believe that it should be a requirement because the integration of a second language in our schools is more beneficial to our country’s success as a whole.
I am very fluent in Spanish now and I my young children are as well. So even speaking another language is helping us grow. Diversity in society helps us grow as individuals and opens our minds to different ways of life.
Language is an important part of our lives. I remember when I arrived to USA I could speak a little English. I went to school to improve my language, reading and writing skills; even now I am learning my second language, without English I cannot survive in this new environment. Now I am raising my own kids and I want them to have this important skill, this privilege of knowing a second language, language of their parents and grandparents. By looking at studies of bilingual children, research shows how important it is for a child to learn a second language. Raising a bilingual child is a benefit because it improves social skills, academic proficiency, introduces child to a different culture, and prepares for the future.
Many people in the United States have a sense of comfort with their own culture and language to the point where they will not abandon those things in order to pick up a new language and lifestyle. In the article named, “Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public,” written by Myriam Marquez, she explains how her family continues to use the Spanish in public in the United States, even though they have lived in the United States for over 40 years. Marquez explains, “For me and most of the bilingual people I know, it’s a matter of respect for our parents and comfort in our cultural roots” (542). People are simply not going to change who they are and where they come from just so they can conform to the normal population of the United States. For the most part, people who come the United States are happy that the country has not implemented a national language law because the people who come here can
In the United States, it is important for a person to speak English fluently because it is the official language in America and everybody communicates in English. Many people believe that English should be the only language in America and that sometimes people may face prejudice when they speak English with an accent. For some parents, the fear of prejudice makes them decided not to teach their children their native tongue. On the other hand, there are many other reasons why some parents want to teach their children their native tongue. Gabriela Kuntz explains in My Spanish Standoff why she did not allow her children to speak Spanish at home. Kuntz’s explanations are acceptable, but some research studies reveal that most young children can
The number of Languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a few languages are for wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world 's approximately 200 countries recognize two or more official languages, with a mere handful recognizing more than two. Despite there being lots of bilinguals and multilinguals, there is also a bunch of monolingual people in the world. The adult population is allowing their children not to learn a foreign language, drastically underfunding language courses in middle to high school level classes. Because they think it 's not necessary in this century, thinking they don 't require communication with other people from other countries. But the truth is that it can actually benefit in more ways than people think. The United States school system has started to not require foreign language class for graduation requirements, this places the U.S at a disadvantage in the world scene.
Children gain great academics from learning Spanish in school. Many people are to limit what young non graduated students learn and impede them from being capable of learning Spanish. Why would they stop them from learning? Parents think that America should be an English only speaking country and wouldn’t appreciate a foreign language to be involved. I believe it makes you more intelligent in various ways. I say that for the sake of children learning Spanish at such a young age gives them a huge advantage in college. “ Studies on language development, however, show that the more exposure young children have to all languages actually gives them a distinct
Why should people nowadays see languages as a big prize? A person speaks more languages have more opportunities are skewed to him because he benefits the profit comparing to a person who speaks only one standard language. It is time for globalization and its effects on children for speaking other languages as a must. In two articles “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez and “Whose Voice Is It Anyway?” by Victor Villanueva, the two authors both expressed their opinions on native language and how the assimilation impacts a child. However, Rodriguez believed that the assimilation was beneficial for him as he had grown up in the English-speaking world and he disliked bilingual education which created many controversy.
A survey done by the Center for Applied Linguistics in 2008 found that "The findings indicate a serious disconnect between the national call to educate world citizens with high-level language skills and the current state of foreign language instruction in schools across the country"(Cal:Research). This is concerning as all of the competition for the U.S. is gaining a step and we 're doing nothing . If the U.S. expects to continue to be competitive in the global market we need to have bilingual citizens. In order to ensure this, we must require a foreign language be learned in high school.
How many languages is there in the world? And how many languages are there to be learned? On an average count of people, two language is the most that someone has knowledge of, making them bilingual. However, it is not easy to learn a language that is native to them. Some take most interest in learning, but some are required to learn by taking a language class in high school. Besides learning a different language, what about learning a language that is native to you? Just because a language is native to you, does not mean you know the aspect, detail and branch of it. Learning how to speak a new language is not the same as reading a book. Learning how to talk is a norm, it 's something you experience and hear everyday. While speech is a skill that comes natural in life, reading and writing is a skill that needs to be learned. It 's a challenge for everyone to exceed this skill but sooner or later, at different rates, everyone will succeed. For Malcolm X, he exceeded that skill in an environment much contrasting than a school as well as in a much further time in his life. In his essay, “Homemade Education,” he explains his struggle of his education transformation while being convicted. For Christine Marin, a Mexican-American, she perfected her first language, English. She was not fluent in her native language, Spanish. Even though she was raised without learning her native tongue, she overcame her American side and became a very successful women, but there is no escaping her