The Business of Language and the Lack Thereof by Alexis Cummings

You have a 4.0, they have a 3.1. You were the president of all the Honor Societies, they participated in one club. You won numerous awards for academic success, they won none. You dedicated hours of your time to complete volunteer work, they did not.

So who gets the job? They do, of course.

But wait, how can that be? You were obviously the better candidate. So why wasn’t the job given to you?

The answer is simple, really–your competition had a trait that you didn’t. Your competition could speak three languages while you were only able to speak one. Though many choose to believe that language learning is an unnecessary skill, the rapid globalization of the American economy is creating a greater demand for bilingual workers. In fact, recent statistics show that 9 out of 10 job recruiters agree that being bilingual is critical for success in today’s business world.

However, bilingualism isn’t just a skill needed to be successful in the business field alone. Various fields, from health-care to law enforcement, require this skill to fulfill daily tasks. This is because it’s bilingualism that builds the bridge of communication. It’s bilingualism that builds the bridge of comprehension. It’s bilingualism that builds the bridge of understanding.

Despite this, come December, when you receive your yellow schedule papers from Guidance, many of you will make the decision to discontinue taking a foreign language. In its place will be courses like Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology–the fun electives that everyone is dying to take.  As a junior myself, I know 11th grade is stressful enough with the countless AP exams and the tedious standard testing we are forced to endure. After having to deal with all of that, I know many of you may want to take a class that you don’t have to stress out in.

However, this doesn’t mean you should cut out language completely. There are ways you can balance a language while still taking that captivating elective you’ve been meaning to take since freshman year. One way to do this is to simply take a half-year language course that you can alternate with an elective of your choosing. Using this method, you can continue to develop your language skills while still allowing yourself to take a fun elective.

The benefits of bilingualism are incredibly vast and advantageous. But just like how a child needs nurturing and care to grow, language speaking skills must also nurtured in order for your skills to develop further. Bilingualism is a vital skill that opens the door to various opportunities. Despite this, we often find ourselves standing in the way of gaining access to these opportunities. And for what? Because learning a language is too hard? Too time-consuming? Well, if you think sociology is going to prepare you for the future more than a foreign language, you are sadly mistaken.

But students alone aren’t to blame for the lack of emphasis on foreign language. For years, our school has poured thousands of dollars into sports equipment and dozens of new, shiny tablets, but has failed to spend a penny of that money bettering the foreign language department. Although the district has a dual language program functioning, few parents actually enroll their children in this program. This leaves the children who were not enrolled in these programs learning the same vocabulary and grammar year-after-year.

So the question is, how can we fix this problem? It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible, either. I propose that the school makes dual language mandatory for all students. As students get older, all language learning should be immersive. Using this method, language learning would be taught in an engaging manner in which students become immersed in the culture of that particular language. Teachers and peers would quickly replace textbooks as the sole learning tool in the classroom. Although this method would prove to be very expensive, the cost will be worth the results of a bilingual Whitman.