Have you ever gone the doctor’s office, to the grocery store, to school, or anywhere really, and run into someone that primarily spoke Spanish? Maybe, but rarely does that happen. Most Hispanics take the time to learn our language and to learn about our culture, because a majority of our population expects them to. But why? Why can’t we learn their language, or at least attempt to learn the basics? I believe that Spanish bilingualism would be an asset in the American society, due to the Spanish population is growing so rapidly. If it was reinforced in schools and colleges around the United States, we could become a more culturally diverse nation. We are already known as, “The Melting Pot,” so why not embrace that and take this opportunity to welcome legal, law-abiding citizens into our home. The counter-arguments to this could be tha
...t the Hispanic population isn’t the only one with their own language, and that we should learn all of the other languages too; but at the same time, the Hispanic population is the one that is growing so rapidly and is the second-largest in the United States.
Spanish Bilingualism would be an asset to the American society. If you are going to be in a professional field, such as a doctor, or a nurse, or even a teacher, you should have to learn Spanish.
“Bilingualism has been shown to have profound benefits such as creative thinking, cognitive flexibility, selective attention, improved memory, perseverance, multicultural perspectives, and accessibility to various people, information, and experiences.” (Maness, 2018)
The quote above is just the start of positives as to why the American society could use bilingualism. The population
is continuously growing, professionals should be able to talk to a majority of their patients/students (white and Hispanic) without the help of a translator. We go to school for years to become what we have always dreamed of being, why not tack on an extra class that helps all of us be that and much more. Spanish is only mandatory for two years in most public schools across the country. If this was changed to where Spanish was taken all four years of high school, Spanish could be a second language to so many and open so many more doors for them. To those who say that 2 years is enough, can you say a full sentence in Spanish, without making a mistake? Probably not. We would become a lot more culturally diverse. We’re all about wanting other ethnicities/cultures to learn ours, so why not take that extra step forward to meet in the middle and learn theirs as well. There are many benefits to being bilingual, not just helping them out and making the hard transition to the United States easier. A couple benefits of bilingualism are more job opportunities, higher salaries, and it is also an asset to the cognitive process.
“Physiological studies have found that speaking two or more languages is a great asset to the cognitive process. The brains of bilingual people operate differently than single language speakers, and these differences offer several mental benefits.” (Merritt, 2013)
According to Merritt, the seven cognitive benefits to being bilingual are: you become smarter, you build multitasking skills, you stave off Alzheimer’s and dementia, your memory improves, you become more perceptive, your decision making skills improve
and you improve your English. You can read more about these seven cognitive assets in her online article, “Why Learn a Foreign Language? Benefits of Bilingualism.”
There are always going to be the irrational people that say, “This isn’t Mexico, we shouldn’t have to learn their language. They need to learn ours because they’re probably illegal anyway.” Not only is that extremely racist, but it’s also wrong. A majority of the immigrants coming into the US are legal. According to Maness, only 18% of all Latinos in America are illegal. Just because they speak a different language doesn’t mean they should be shunned from the freedom of the United States. Another contrasting argument could be that there are so many other languages we could learn, why Spanish? Spanish is the second-largest racial/ethnic group in the US. According to Flores, “In 2016, Hispanics accounted for 18% of the nation’s population and were the second-largest racial or ethnic group behind whites.” If that is self-explanatory, then I don’t know how to simplify it any more than that. Spanish is a second language in the United States and we need to come to terms with this now.
No matter how many people are for it, there will always be an opposing side. Spanish-Bilingualism would be a great asset to our culture. There are so many positives to being bilingual, from the cognitive benefits, to having better job options and higher salaries. We would be more culturally diverse and fit into our so called “Melting Pot” society a lot easier. Say we start teaching more Spanish in schools, whether it be for the profession you choose or just because you want
to speak a second language, the next time you run into the rarity of someone not being able to speak any English, you can help that person instead of looking at them like they have three heads.
