Should We Learn Spanish Because the Hispanic Population is Growing?
The numbers read that over 400 million Spanish speakers are in the world. Therefore, Spanish is the fourth most commonly spoken language right under English, Chinese and Hindustani. Additionally, now that Hispanic commerce is booming in North America, it is important for business competitors all over the world to find some way to keep up.
Most people don’t know that over 91% of fortune 500 companies and forbes international 800 companies cannot meet the needs of people who speak a foreign language because they do not have the ability to respond correctly to a foreign language.
Since learning Spanish would increase the general ability to communicate with the large amount of immigrants that come into the country each year, some wonder if requiring Americans to learn Spanish would be the solution to keeping up with the increasing needs of the Hispanic culture.
There are two different sides to this issue. Some believe that Americans should learn Spanish because if Americans learn Spanish, they would mostly help themselves in the long run. When people learn Spanish, they are able to have a more competitive resume when they move into the work force. Such an edge in the job market would then allow Spanish learners to demand higher pay than other job searchers who can only speak English. Furthermore, if fortune 500 companies are not able to satisfy the needs of Spanish speakers, the Americans who learn Spanish will become like precious jewels among these types of companies.
Also, when people learn Spanish, they learn about another culture. Learning about other cultures decreases the likelihood of discrimination not only in relation to the Spanish culture, but other cultures in general. People will become more aware that other types of people exist, and that these people have needs and wants that may be different from their own. An increase in cultural awareness cannot help but be beneficial to the general mindset of Americans.
On the other hand, many people believe that since the amount of Hispanic immigrants is so large, Hispanics often get very comfortable when they come to the U.S., and often they don’t feel that they have to learn English. It is not rare for immigrants in the United States to either never learn English or remain in America for many years without even trying to learn the language.
It seems that if Americans were required to learn Spanish whether by their jobs or schools, Hispanic immigrants would find even greater comfort and feel that they do not have to learn English. Americans that learn Spanish would continue to experience all of the benefits of the language. However, Hispanics would experience many negatives.
A Hispanic living in the US who does not learn to speak English would experience a lack in the number of jobs they are eligible for. Therefore, such a person may experience high levels of unemployment or poverty and may only be able to obtain jobs that require manual labor. Other workers will be able to pick and choose where they would like to be employed.
With the increase in Hispanic businesses many companies may push their employees to learn Spanish. However, it does not look like it will be a requirement any time in the near future.
