Dear Board of Education,
It has been brought to the attention of many schools in the district that there are some parents, teachers, and administrators that do not believe two years of foreign language is necessary in schools today. As a student, first and foremost, I believe that foreign language is absolutely necessary in our ever-changing, diverse society. Foreign language builds connections with the community at a local, national, and global level; facilitates students to use their skills for a better chance at success in their career field of choice; and helps the United States stay on par with the rest of the world as far as the use of foreign languages.
Every day, immigrants come and go to and from the United States, constantly changing the culture little by little. In many schools, there is a high percentage of Hispanic youth that know Spanish, or come from families that know Spanish. Locally, it is imperative that connections are made between different social groups in order to build a strong community. Through language communication, people can be brought together, ideas can be shared, and innovations to the community can be made. Nationally, Spanish and other languages can help
unite our nation because there genuinely are so many different cultures in the
United States. Furthermore, not even learning just the language, but also the
culture, will really give students a different outlook on their lives and the
lives of others in the United States. Students will also have a better concept
of different cultures throughout the world, and how people live differently in
different countries. Knowing a second language opens up opportunities to study,
or just travel, abroad to countries that may have been previously too
intimidating to travel to.
Language is also extremely useful now in the job
market. As I mentioned before, our constantly changing society deals with a lot
of diversity, so those students that have experienced different cultures and
that can speak different languages are far more desirable in the workplace. Not
only is it useful for employers, but also the customers/consumers that don't
speak English as a first language. To be able to communicate with non-english
speakers makes those non-native English speakers feel more comfortable and
secure living in the United States. These connections can lead to the United
States being more globally recognized with proficiency in language.
In a recent speech by our president Barrack Obama,
he said something paraphrased to the extent that our country is falling behind
with world languages. We shouldn't be so concerned with getting immigrants to
speak English as much as we should be concerned with teaching ourselves these
foreign languages. Many countries, especially in Europe, have students learn
foreign languages at an early age through intensive programs. By the time many
students are in college, they can proficiently speak several languages
including German, English, Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese, and
many other important languages. By knowing all of these languages, people can
connect and share ideas, as said before. Our goal now should be to get on par
with the rest of the world so that we may be a communicative force among other
countries throughout the rest of the world.
Hi Brad,
ReplyDeleteYour post brought up an issue I also find important, and reading what you said in your last paragraph made me want to investigate more.
You talk about how The United States is falling behind in language knowledge compared to the rest of the world. If we are a mixing pot of cultures, then why are we just expecting people here to know English and just that? Isn't it important to connect with other cultures, assuring citizens here that we aren't better or worse than anyone else?
Anyway, I looked up the "languages spoken" information from the Census Bureau. Apparently in 2007 it was found that out of the population of the U.S. (over 5 years old) was 280,950,438. Out of that, 55,444,485 people speak a language other than English at home. And out of that, 34,547,077 people speak Spanish (or Spanish creole). I thought that statistic was really important to show how many people in the United States normally speak a different language. And yet we only teach English-- and not even grammatical English, but mostly literature!
Therefore, we aren't just falling behind other countries in languages taught, but we're falling behind our own citizens! We need people who are knowledgable about the world, and like you said, to be able to get jobs and connect with other people.
To sum it up, Brad, I enjoyed and agreed a lot with your post. One question that came up while I was reading was what languages you would choose, if any, to teach to students growing up in the United States? And which do you view as most important, if you have that bias?
Thanks Brad and great letter.
See you Wednesday,
Caitlin
Here is the source for the Census information:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/ACS-12.pdf
That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Responding to your last questions, I think Spanish is definitely the most important, then probably Mandarin, German/French, then Portugese/Japanese. We have a lot of Spanish speakers in our country, as well as German and French, so it is nice to know all of those languages, or at least a little. Also, language is very important in global communication and trade. Most of our trading is with China, Germany, Japan, and some Spanish speaking countries, so it is important to be able to create educated people that can communicate with the rest of the world. It's a struggle to maintain our cultures, but through some work with language, it will be much easier for the whole world.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete