I’ll probably be tarred and feathered for this but 'tis the holiday season so perhaps you’ll go easy on me…
A friend of mine (from Montreal) and I were having a discussion about second languages etc… For the record, I speak 2 fluently and a third at a very basic level. My friend speaks 3 fluently. None of the languages we speak happen to be Spanish.
So the crux of the discussion was, “Why are children in the US required to speak Spanish?” To compare and contrast, as Quebec residents with an 80% population who’s mother tongue is French and given the historic settlement of Lower Canada by the French, and particularly because French is the official language of the Province and business is regularly conducted in French… I can certainly see the need for English Canadians residing in the province of Quebec to have a command of the French language.
Applying that argument to the US: though there is significant history of Spanish settlers comming to (what is now) Mexico and southern US states, though there is a significantly large Spanish speaking population (and continuing growth thereof), though learning a second language never hurt anybody… Spanish is not the official second language of the US in the way that French is in Canada. As far as I (and my friend) have experienced while living in the US (including California) these many years, Spanish only comes in handy if I’m trying to get a burger at a popular chain of fast food restaurants or get directions to the washroom from a clerk at WalMart.
Though instructions on how to replace batteries in a toy are supplied in English and Spanish, Spanish does not seem to be the language of day to day business in any US corporation - at least not the way French is in Quebec.
To further that question, wouldn’t American kids and Americans in general be better off learning French, or German or even Chinese? Might bring us closer towards cultural understanding with Europe (yes, I know about Spain), particularly France and Germany… two of the leading economic powers.
Or… are Americans counting so heavily on our trade with Mexico, Cental America and South America that those cultural ties are more important right now? If so, how come we’re leaving Brazil out, linguistically speaking?
I know of no school district in the U.S. that requires Spanish as a second language. (Far too many school districts seem to be abandoning foreign languages as any sort of requirement.)
At my high school we could choose Latin, French, or Spanish.
At my kids’ school, they can choose Spanish, French, German, Latin (I think), and Russian.
Where did you get the idea that Spanish is required?
They aren’t. I would wager most (certainly not all but a majority) people in the U.S. only speak English unless they are foreign-born. Your experience while visiting is insufficient to ascertain the usefulness of Spanish language skills, though. Throughout much of South Texas and the Southwest, speaking Spanish is a almost necessity. Further if population trends continue, Hispanic folks will soon make up the largest minority group in the country. Hispanics and Latinos already make up about 13% of the population and in some places, such as San Antonio, they are a majority.
I think we’re already there, although different people might disagree as to how one defines who is Hispanic and who isn’t. IIRC, we crossed that line a few years ago with Hispanics outnumbering Blacks now.
Prhaps it’s my lack of understanding on the subject but from personal experience…
Both of my children are required to study spanish in school. One is in public while the other is in private. The Spanish teacher in the private school is excellent and is a linguist. In addition to Spanish (her mother tongue) she speaks French beautifully as well as German and Italian. If Spanish is not required, why not teach one of the other languages? Is it perhaps because the parents have not given it much thought or made the request?
My child in public school studies Spanish. AFAIK we don’t have an option to request a different language. Furthermore, if we wanted her to learn French, we’d have to enroll her in a French Immersion program at a public school that is outside our school district.
I suppose it helps when your going to speak to your Nanny :eek:
Spanish is the most spoken after english in the US itself… and the number of imigrants only grows. So spanish seems to be potentially more useful to regular americans who don’t travel very far in their miserably short vacations. Mexico and Cancun are “closer”.
I think it makes sense to learn spanish for americans… though about other languages the OP is correct.
“Required to speak Spanish” should be “Required to study Spanish”
I understand that most kids coming out of high school, though having gone through many years of Spanish language instruction, are far from being fluent or even modestly capable of speaking the language. Again, I compare/contrast this with students graduating predominantly English speaking schools in Quebec.
It’s also important to notice that the US doesn’t have an official language.
Given time, I think Spanish is going to be a very large influence on US English, and frankly, if you’re gonna learn one Romance language as a 2nd language in the US, Spanish makes the most sense.
I think there are around 37 million Hispanics in the US. To confuse things, are are of course black Hispanics too, around 1.7 million.
No idea where you are getting the idea that Spanish is required for anything…be it study or to speak it. Its not ‘required’…though as someone pointed out earlier in the thread a foriegn language is often required in High School…and if your kids HS only offers Spanish I can see how you could be a bit confused.
I’m from Mexico, so obviously I speak spanish as my first language. However, my children, born in the US, don’t speak spanish at all (well, they speak a little and understand a bit more). We live in the south west (New Mexico), and while learning spanish is an asset out here, my oldest son took Latin in high school…he didn’t take spanish at all. My oldest daughter is currently taking French in high school.
Bottom line is…if its not required in New Mexico, its not going to be required ANYWHERE in the US as we have one of the highest hispanic populations percentage wise of any state in the union.
BTW, to answer the OP…Spanish is not only NOT an official second language, but English isn’t even an official FIRST language. We don’t HAVE an official language (though obviously its wise to know english if one is going to live in the US ).
There is no “official” language in the US.
English is predominantly spoken and taught in schools.
Spanish is taught by default because of the relatively high Latin population and proximity to Cancun.
There is no national (or state?) requirement to study a second language but the curriculums in most schools require a second language (predominantly Spanish) to be taught and passed by the student.
Have any of you tried to order food in South Florida lately? Fill a prescription in Miami-Dade County?
As a Floridian, I can’t imagine why anyone would bother to learn French or German, unless it’s to wait tables, serving French and German tourists visiting Disney.
Perspective. It’s all about perspective… :rolleyes:
If an elemetary school is going to teach a foreign language, I’d bet that Spanish is chosen at least 90% of the tiime. And this makes sense since it’s the most widely spoken 2nd language and it’s also probably easiest to find qualified speakers of that language. At any rate, they’ll always have the chance to choose other languages once they reach high school.
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