Move over Snoop Dogg – yours is not the language of the future.
That’s right. As the demographics of this country change, Spanish is becoming the language of choice for many. Grammar school kids, college students and career executives are learning the “de facto” language, the second most spoken language in the country.
And for good reason. The most recent census data showed a surprising boom in the number of Hispanics; Baton Rouge itself got almost a 30 percent jolt in the Spanish-speaking population between 1990 and 2000, according to media reports.
Many of those immigrants found jobs in places like the neighboring Ascension Parish, which saw its Hispanic population more than double, The Advocate reported last month.
Our chances of encountering Spanish in everyday life are growing. And if we, like so many Louisiana college students, plan to take our well-educated minds elsewhere after graduation, those chances could further increase.
Hispanics are now the largest minority group in 23 of the 50 states, and officials expect them to be the largest minority group in the country by 2015.
What does this mean for us? We should start taking notice of the language being spoken around us and do our best to educate ourselves. No, I’m not just trying to impress my professor and get an “A” in my Spanish literature class. People across the country are scrambling to learn the language.
More college students take Spanish than all other languages combined, according to the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages. And business executives, doctors, lawyers, advertisers and others are learning that a knowledge of Spanish will help them to better serve people.
Job recruiters say being able put fluency in Spanish under the “Special Skills” portion of your resumé is a major bonus. One internship recruiter from The Dallas Morning News told me last year my Spanish-speaking skills put my application on top of the stack at his paper. Dallas is feeling the Hispanic boom more than most, and reporters who can interview people in Spanish are invaluable.
Speaking Spanish will also help us understand the country as it changes around us. The cultures of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and other Latino groups are becoming part of our everyday lives. And the language is a big part of that culture.
I’ve always been a firm believer that everyone should learn a second language. I know too many Americans who are guilty of a sort of English pride, thinking our language should be the standard, and everyone else should learn it.
Some who travel abroad expect foreigners in the service industry to speak English. Why should they? No one expects Americans to learn Spanish for that Spring Break in Cancun, or Italian for that summer in Rome.
Well, maybe travelers can get away from a language they don’t want to learn. But those with foreign language-phobia will have to face their fears. Spanish is here to stay.
And whether you learn enough to read the original “Like Water for Chocolate,” or enough to eavesdrop on the people behind you in the checkout line, you should give foreign language a try. ¿Habla español?