It was through talking to many families this past weekend at Great Homeschool Conventions Cincinnati that I was a bit shocked to learn that not everybody views a foreign language as a critical component of their learning. Perhaps I am just a little too close to it, but I guess I figured it was well-known why it's a good idea to have at least two years of study in a given foreign language. Time to evaluate: Where are you in this thought process?
Each student's path is unique. But no matter what decisions you make for your future, I whole-heartedly believe it is important to learn at least one new language during your lifetime:
- College: Did you know that most schools expect you to have at least 2 years of a given foreign language on your high school transcript? Some actually even look for 4 years! At some colleges, it's an absolute admissions requirement while at others you can fulfill the requirement during your years there (at high tuition prices and faster paces than it is taught at the high school level).
- Global society: The Spanish language will not be exiting the U.S. culture anytime soon. In fact, I've been reading up on this for a talk I'll be doing at the Omaha Teach Them Dilligently Convention. Historically, other languages have been absorbed by English because the "subordinate" culture blends in to the "dominant." But the Spanish language is gaining, not losing momentum in this country. Cultural pride is strong. Another point to consider is the fact that in many cases, Spanish was in this country before English when much of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado were technically part of Mexico until the Treaty of Guadalupe officially signed them over to the U.S in 1848.
- Travel and missions: There are 20 countries (not including Puerto Rico since it is actually a territory of the U.S.) where Spanish is spoken as a first language. All of these except for Spain (in Europe) are in other parts of the "Americas," not far from the U.S.! With this proximity, travel to Spanish-speaking countries is so much more a convenience than many other countries in this world. Those of you doing missions work know that many of these Spanish-speaking lands are impoverished and in need of a good deal of feeding... both nutritionally and spiritually. You will be quite an asset to your mission group if you can speak Spanish! One adorable little girl I talked to in Cincinnati told me she wanted to learn Hindi. I asked, "why Hindi?" She said she wants to do mission work in India, and in India they speak Hindi. And so how could she talk to them about the gospels if she didn't speak Hindi?!?!? Touché. :) I loved it.
- Jobs, jobs jobs! Seriously. If you can call yourself fluent in Spanish, you will be opening many doors to your future career. In fact, sometimes bilingual employees get paid more which sort of makes the non-bilingual employees a little bitter. Don't be bitter!
- Brain research: There are TONS of recent studies that show that people that learn more than one language actually have more brain activity than those that don't learn languages. In fact, it has been brought to light that cases of Alzheimer's are significantly less in bilingual people or those who have studied multiple languages. That may not mean anything to you now at this young age, but trust me... you're doing your brain a world of good by learning Spanish!!! :)
-Krista
www.croghanlanguageacademy.com
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