As I said, Spanish is spoken in more countries than Chinese. Chinese is a regional language.
Spanish makes much more sense for Americans to learn and speak.
Agreed.
The question is (questions are)
1.) Would the Spanish-speaking population of America be better served if we required all teachers to speak Spanish as a second language.
The answer is: No it would not. However since all teachers are already required to take six credits of foreign languages in college, I see little harm in increasing that to 12 credits. (12 credits is normally considered “proficient in a foreign language” provided one does not let one’s language skills atrophy.)
2.) Would the US be better served by such a requirement.
The correct answer is absolutely not.
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The point isn’t to make it easier for native Spanish speakers in the US but to empower Americans that speak English.
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Spanish has very easy to understand grammatical rules. English breaks all its rules.
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The answer is yes.
English isn’t like French, Arabic or Russian, either, yet it isn’t assumed native speakers need extra help learning English.
English isn’t tonal like Chinese or Vietnamese, either—for example the monosyllabic ma may have one of several meanings depending on tone of voice.
It can be horse, linen, mother or an exclamation.
Yet it isn’t assumed native Cantonese—nine tones— or Vietnamese speakers need extra help learning English.
I think it condescending to assume any immigrants will struggle more to learn English when most manage to learn it.
18% and climbing of the population doesn’t speak those languages,; they speak Spanish.
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yes…
I would say “operate” in primary school. Coding can be learned in trade school.
National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) was developed (circa 2001-2005) by the (1) The Defense Department and (2) the Director of National Intelligence to address an issue they had identified long ago. The US military, intelligence and diplomatic communities are hog-tied by a critical shortage of people who can pass US security clearance and speak any one of 15 “Critical languages.”
We cannot fight wars properly, gyther or disseminate intelligence properly nor engage properly engage in diplomacy because we lack people who can speak any one of the languages listed below. (Note spanish is not on the list).
Instead of imagining that there might be a problem that might be solved by fording teachers in Idaho and in Chinatown and Brighton Beach and little Pakistan to learn Spanish we should instead focus our language education efforts on the not-imaginary problems that we know we have.
The lacking-languages that are lacking in a way that actually creates an identifiable problem in the US are
Arabic,
Azerbaijani,
Bengali,
Chinese,
Hindi,
Indonesian,
Japanese,
Korean,
Persian,
Portuguese,
Punjabi,
Russian,
Swahili,
Turkish and
Urdu.
For further information use the search terms “critical languages” and ask yourself why they are called "critical
and not just “Important.”
Thank you.
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This thread is about better educating children, not spooks from the CIA.
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The only way to do what you are suggesting is to channel (force) education majors in Americas colleges to study Spanish as a foreign language. The US is already the laughing stock of foreign language education.
Whatever resources we divert into increasing language study should be focused on teaching the languages American college students actually SHOULD be studying. Spanish is not one of those languages.
Resources? What resources?
Every year, America’s colleges and universities hand out 83,900 bachelors degrees in education. (Source Below)
Right now (already) getting a teacher certificate requires studying 6 credits in any foreign language.
- Teachers heading to upstate NY and VT (near Quebec) study French.
- Teachers heading to Brighton Beach study Russian.
- Teachers heading to any of a dozen Chinatowns study Chinese,
- etc…
Nuts-and-bolts, the only way your idea works is if we require every education major to DOUBLE (to 12 credits) their foreign language requirement PLUS require they make Spanish their language of choice. (Doesn’t do much good in Idaho or Chinatown, but big government solutions are always bad solutions.)
Doing what you propose would cost a lot of money in an area that already needs money diverted to non-Spanish.
No it wouldn’t. Just make it a requirement. Wouldn’t cost me anything.
I didn’t say they had to get a degree in Spanish.
Not a degree in Spanish, an ability to speak it.
Teachers already need a degree. That degree already includes 6 credits in foreign language study (well actually some of them learn sign language.)
How on earth are you gonna teach Spanish to 83,900 people a year (future teachers) for free?
Nuts-and-bolts the only way to accomplish what you propose is that, while still in college, each year’s cohort of 83,900 graduating education majors must
1.) take an additional 6 credits in language study
– and –
2.) choose Spanish, not French, not sign language, not Chinese not Hebrew as their language of choice.
How are children better educated by teachers speaking Spanish?
Latino children tend to learn English quickly as is.
The idea that they will struggle more than anyone else is insulting to them.
Why would you want almost all of your teachers to be from spanish speaking countries? That would be the result. Thus limiting children access to real American culture.
“The US is already the laughing stock of foreign language education.”
I agree.
We’re too busy teaching nonsense like GLBTQ history and preferred gender pronouns.
I’d rather be told my high school student needs a third language like Mandarin than know my tax dollars are paying for this nonsense.
What is “real American culture”?
