The National Imperative for Language Learning

Are you aware that "International business leaders are warning that American graduates may be technically competent but are increasingly culturally deprived and linguistically illiterate compared with graduates from other countries competing for the same jobs"?


Today, by way of The Center for Applied Second Language Study, I was directed to an excellent article in Education Week, "The National Imperative for Language Learning."  You can click there to see the whole article, but what impressed me most was how rare it is to hear people within the U.S. recognize that our supposed linguistic dominance (i.e. English becoming the world language), is actually depriving our children of opportunities.

Whatever your opinions are on learning languages, I hope you would consider reading this article.  It makes a good case for the need to continue promoting multi-lingualism here in the U.S.  And at a time when language programs are being cut left and right due to budget limitations, it's important to make your opinions known if you value language education for your child.

Any thoughts?

4 Reasons Why Every Child in the U.S. Should Speak Spanish

I was just introduced to a great blog--Spanglish Baby through an article sent to me by a local bilingual parenting program.  Entitled, 4 Reasons Why Every Child in the U.S. Should Speak Spanish.  Now as a Spanish teacher, I am always thrilled when someone else tries to encourage people to learn Spanish, and it's also great because in the article, they refer to the trend of learning Chinese as the next up and coming world language.  But I love how the authors say that "Chinese makes a great addition to Spanish, but not a substitute."  Imagine that--learning more than two languages!  I love it!  My other favorite quote was, "I really hope there comes a day when it will be absurd to write a post listing reasons, as if convincing people, about the need to learn Spanish at an early age.  I know that if you are reading this you probably have more personal reasons–such as heritage, family connections, academic benefits, etc–to teach your child Spanish."

Check out the article to find out their top 4 reasons for learning Spanish--and share it with a friend or two or three!