I grew up speaking Spanish, but, because I lived on the border with the U.S., I picked up English pretty easily at a young age. I've been bilingual for a very long time. However, because I've been living in the U.S. for such a long time, writing and speaking English almost 24/7, my Spanish is now less than adequate. At least that's the way I feel. Just the other day, I was talking to some friends in Mexico, and they noticed, as well as I did, that I could not conjugate the verbs too well. In fact, the Spanish word "de", meaning "of", will often end up being "the" when I am writing Spanish fast. I try to read Mexican newspapers and listen to radio in Spanish, but English has definitely become my main form of communication.
This is not a "sad" or a "bad" thing. Almost all business in the U.S. is conducted in English. Furthermore, a ton of people I know don't have the grasp of their own language as I do. Nevertheless, I don't want to lose my ability to read, write, and speak in Spanish. In fact, it is something that I want to pass on to my children at some point. The benefits of being bilingual are huge in this world from a social and biological point of view.
Estimates put Spanish as the third or fourth language with the most native speakers in the world (after Chinese, English, and maybe Arabic). So folks who speak it are able to get around and befriend or do business with people in a lot of corners of the world. In Mexico alone there are over 120 million people ready and able to work with you. And the Hispanic population in the U.S., even with their broken Spanish, are also a good resource. There is also all of South America and far Western Europe. Knowing Spanish even helps deal with people in Italian, French, and Portuguese.
From a biological standpoint, being bilingual stimulates parts of the brain that would otherwise go dormant. (This is why older people have a harder time learning a different language.) Children in particular are the most benefited by learning another language. It opens their young, plastic minds to another level of learning, another world. And it prepares them to compete in a global economy that will most likely not go away.
This is why it troubles me a lot when I hear parents and educators (and a lot of policymakers) denounce and put down the idea of teaching children another language. The argument that "English is the official language of the United States of America" is not only false but full of unintended consequences. The U.S. does not have an "official" language. That is, there is no Federal law calling for English only proceedings, documents, etc. Doing so would go against the equal protection of people in this country who do not speak English. Second, the children who only speak English will be a minority in a world where everyone is learning about everyone else. They will not be able to compete for jobs with multinational corporations. Heck, now knowing Spanish puts you at the back of the line in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
So I'll be passing on my love of all things related to other languages, not just Spanish, to my children, my students, and my peers. There is really no excuse why we should not allow children to learn another language and experience other culture. No excuse.
This is not a "sad" or a "bad" thing. Almost all business in the U.S. is conducted in English. Furthermore, a ton of people I know don't have the grasp of their own language as I do. Nevertheless, I don't want to lose my ability to read, write, and speak in Spanish. In fact, it is something that I want to pass on to my children at some point. The benefits of being bilingual are huge in this world from a social and biological point of view.
Estimates put Spanish as the third or fourth language with the most native speakers in the world (after Chinese, English, and maybe Arabic). So folks who speak it are able to get around and befriend or do business with people in a lot of corners of the world. In Mexico alone there are over 120 million people ready and able to work with you. And the Hispanic population in the U.S., even with their broken Spanish, are also a good resource. There is also all of South America and far Western Europe. Knowing Spanish even helps deal with people in Italian, French, and Portuguese.
From a biological standpoint, being bilingual stimulates parts of the brain that would otherwise go dormant. (This is why older people have a harder time learning a different language.) Children in particular are the most benefited by learning another language. It opens their young, plastic minds to another level of learning, another world. And it prepares them to compete in a global economy that will most likely not go away.
This is why it troubles me a lot when I hear parents and educators (and a lot of policymakers) denounce and put down the idea of teaching children another language. The argument that "English is the official language of the United States of America" is not only false but full of unintended consequences. The U.S. does not have an "official" language. That is, there is no Federal law calling for English only proceedings, documents, etc. Doing so would go against the equal protection of people in this country who do not speak English. Second, the children who only speak English will be a minority in a world where everyone is learning about everyone else. They will not be able to compete for jobs with multinational corporations. Heck, now knowing Spanish puts you at the back of the line in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
So I'll be passing on my love of all things related to other languages, not just Spanish, to my children, my students, and my peers. There is really no excuse why we should not allow children to learn another language and experience other culture. No excuse.
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