If you visit any of the scores of language immersion programs in Latin America, you’d think that Americans are thrilled to learn Spanish. And anyone who attended a four year college or university probably had a least a few friends who spent a semester in Spain, Guatemala, or Argentina.
But set foot in the United States and you’ll find a different sentiment about learning another language, especially if it’s Spanish. For every newspaper article about the need to hire more bilingual police officers or court interpreters providing their services, you’ll find a litany of the same complaints. These include: my grandma came from Italy and she learned English so Hispanics better too; why are my tax dollars paying police a salary differential for speaking the language of the illegals?; and if you don’t learn English, go back to your country?
Why is going abroad and learning some Spanish celebrated as a way to expand your mind, learn about a new culture, put some “Latin flavor” in your life, and add a new experience to your resume but the moment you reward someone for speaking Spanish in the States you are pandering to the “illegals” and eroding the fabric of America? Do the benefits of flexing your linguistic muscles disappear once you’re Stateside?
There will always be people who become enraged if the cashier at McDonald’s has a thick accent or immediately assumes that if your English is flawed or you speak Spanish to your partner you are an illegal alien. And people will continue to battle against bilingual education even as their little American child holds hands with another child from Mexico, singing and chattering in English and in Spanish.
But for those who are intrigued about learning Spanish, even as you worry that the face of America is changing into something you don’t recognize, take some small steps toward learning about the varied facets of Latino culture and see if it still scares you. Download some Marco Antonio Solis. Learn to make chimichurri. Watch the actors on a telenovela and see if you can follow the story through their gestures.
Next time you’re in line behind a Spanish-speaking family in Walmart, maybe you won’t think to yourself: “Why don’t they just go back to their country if they don’t speak English?”
The answer for most of the questions is: Prejudice.
People who think that Spanish-speaking citizens in the US should be forced to speak only English or leave the country simply have prejudice against any differences. I’m sure they would have the same prejudice against other populations: Japanes speaking people, Arabic speaking people, and so on.
What’s behind this attitude of prejudice is two things:
1) Fear of losing a way of life they enjoy
2) Beeing insecure about their own value, having low self-esteem. To reinforce what they think it’s their strenghts they try to highlight what they consider other peoples weakness.
In many countries parents are discovering the benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism for their children’s intelligence and social skills. People all over the workd are interested in learning other languages and cultures. Why should americans deny this reality?
So, I think americans “shouldn’t learn Spanish”. They should be open to other cultures, planguages and people, and choose if they’re willing to learn more about them. Even if they choose not to, they must think better about their personal reasons against bilingualism and multiculturalism, developing a democratic view of the world.
Best regards,
Selma Moura
Brazilian, living in Brasil.
Visit my blog: http://educacaobilingue.blogspot.com
Learning Spanish or any language will definitely improve your personality development. When you learn a second language you will be able to educate yourself about other cultures, either while traveling or communicating with people from different countries.
I’m Belgian and do speak 5 languages. So where ever i go, i can express myself and communicate with other people.
Learning a language should never be regarded as “loosing your own way of live” 🙂
Regarding spanish: i learned it in Spain. i went to a nice and friendly Spanish language school in Nerja,Málaga, Southern Spain. I can recommend it 100%. So anybody who’s planning to have vacation ánd learn Spanish at the same time, i give you the url of this school: http://www.quorumspain.com
Best regards,
Marc
I believe that the issue with learning Spanish or being required to do to to work in this country, isn’t a matter of prejudice, at least not against Spanish Speaking people. You say, prejudice against arabic speaking or japanese or….etc, but how often do you read over a job that says ‘Must speak Arabic. Must speak Japanese.’
I want to get a job as a secretary. I’ve been trying for quite some time, and I find it very difficult to get one because I don’t speak Spanish. Although the U.S. is a big melting pot of different cultures, fifteen years ago, you wouldn’t see ‘must speak Spanish’ on hardly any jobs. Now that more people, who speak spanish, are in the States, the people in the states, or who have been in the states, are being forced to conform in order to get a job. Now I see people say, Hey, just go learn spanish. That would be a very large percentage of people in the states. Wouldn’t you say that ‘hey, go learn English’ would be be the same, if not better, considering this, or at least was, a primary English speaking country?
You don’t go to germany and expect to get many jobs if you can’t speak German, or even to Mexico and expect to get far not speaking their language.
I don’t believe I should have to be bilingual to have a job, just as I don’t believe that a spanish speaking person shouldn’t to get one.
I don’t consider myself prejudiced. I love all the cultures, learning about them and understanding the ways of the world, but at the same time, I find that I’m very frustrated because someone who doesn’t speak english, gets my job, because I don’t speak spanish. It’s not a 50-50 split. It’s..learn spanish, or be unemployed in a primarily English speaking country.
If I could afford to go to Mexico or Spain and immerse myself so that I can learn in optimal conditions, I would. But how can I even take a class at a school if I can’t get a job to pay for it?
Maybe the job people who require you to have languages should be responsible for educating their employees, much in the way that they further your education of their techniques, onces you’re on the payroll.
Its not prejudice, its because it affects the lives of regular americans, this only happens in the United States, because the United States has no law that says that people have to learn english to live in America.Many countries around the world have laws that say, if you want to live in their country you have to learn their langauge, So spanish people come to the US, some learn english,
Which is fine, but alot don’t, because their are Spanish news papers and TV stations provided to them, so they have kids, some speak english and spanish,alot speak Spanish, many spanish people have an attitude, they go to stores, and say “Speak Spanish” or ” I want A habla espanol person” so stores and city departments want people who speak Spanish, this then makes it hard for Americans and some of the few Latinos who don’t speak Spanish like myself, to find jobs, I have no problem with learning another language, for instance, I learned Japanese because I love that culture, and Anime, I learned some Mandarin Chinese to communicate with a Chinese girl who I though was cute, but being forced to learn a language just to get a job is upsetting and frustrating.
Many Americans are not prejudiced against spanish people, its because they are being forced to learn a hard language just to get jobs and survive, for spanish people, what if it happened to you, imagine if you were living in your country and suddenly their was a huge influx of Indian people moving into your country, they didn’t want to learn spanish, they wanted to just speak Hindi, so they start moving in, getting everything in Hindi, they want Hindi speaking employees, so you who just speaks spanish, gets turned down for Jobs,because employers want Hindi speaking employees, you and your family and people can’t find work, and you see Indian people everywhere, raising their families in Hindi, I think you would be upset and say ” They are in our country, they should learn Spanish” then you would understand why Americans are upset about so any Spanish people who don’t learn english and want everything in Spanish.