Who: Students
What: Companies are more
likely to hire people who speak more than one language.
Why: Children need to grow
up speaking multiple languages, so they have a better chance of getting job opportunities
when they graduate.
There is a
rise of businesses and jobs in the United States that require applicants to
speak more than one language, and sometimes more than just two. The demand for
bilingual workers has doubled in the past five years. More than 70% of children
in the US don’t study foreign languages in schools compared to 8% of
children in Europe. People are trying to teach their kids more languages in the
first years of life because that’s when the brain retains the most information
in which their career in the future could further.
Testing
the who: There are more people who have this need as adults may want to get new
jobs that require a second language.
Testing
the what: Not only just English-speaking students need a second language but
also, students that come from different countries and need to learn English.
Testing
the why: Speaking another language doesn’t only help you get better jobs and
internships but also can help you communicate with people all around the world.
If you like to travel then knowing more than one language will help you when
you decide to go abroad.
The five
people I interviewed were a student who grew up in another country, a student
who only speaks English, a director of a preschool, a parent who raises a bilingual
child, and the director of Baby Gator. These five interviews taught me that
being bilingual while finding a job anywhere in the world is very important. It
can help with critical thinking, decision making, and increases reading
comprehension. Having multilingualism lack in US education is not giving us
the best shot at becoming successful. One of the students pointed out that they
applied for a job and did not receive it due to the fact that he did not speak
a second language. The directors of the preschools said that people take in the
most information from the ages 2-6 so it is important to start teaching them a
second language young.
Hello Erika,
ReplyDeleteI am not a part of your group, but I am commenting in order to get ahead. Overall, I completely agree that the US needs to spend more time on other languages, and I love the idea of doing that through entrepreneurship, but I struggle to see a product or service that would be competitive with current options, that are simple enough to justify the effort, and are able to integrated at the school level. If those issues can be surmounted, then is idea would absolutely take off!
Hey Erika,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post. In my opinion, the U.S needs to encourage and maybe even demand students to study more than one language. I'm currently in Spain and it's amazing how most people in Europe dominate english. I've spoken to a couple kids and they tell me that in some of their countries, it's mandatory to learn English or Spanish. I think that by doing this the U.S population would open doors to so many opportunities.
Hey Erika,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you. I'm from Germany, and I learned 3 languages in school, so I speak 4 languages. All my friends here only speak one language, English. They always say that they don’t need more because it's the world language because everyone should speak it, but I disagree with this opinion. I agree with you that we just learn multiple languages because it's wrong to assume that everyone can speak English. My parents never learned English in school, they learned Russian instead, and they can't communicate with them.
They should just realise that English is not enough nowadays.
Erika,
ReplyDeleteAs a child who had grown up attempting to learn multiple languages, I can assure you this is not for everyone. However, I also understand and engage in the opportunities it may provide for the future of the children. I also really enjoyed the wide scope that you have chosen for your pool of interviewees! The various groups represented surely enhanced this post!
Hey Erika. This is a great opportunity about which you are hypothesizing. Speaking more than one language has so many benefits on a global scale; when more people can communicate directly with one another, more ideas and potential opportunities are uncovered. Additionally, people who speak more than one language are really training their brain to adapt constantly to new language and culture. It constantly keeps you engaged.
ReplyDelete