By Dr. Giani Clarkson

I have fortunately lived a life that is not full of a lot of regrets. However, there is still one major regret that haunts me to this day. Now here in my 40s, I reflect on this error. I have made this error, twice. It is a mistake that I made when I was 16 years old and 20 years old. Due to this miscalculation in judgment, I currently pay $11 a month to try and correct it. It is also a mistake that many parents make across the country each year in regard to their students’ education. 

Let’s begin with the origin story of my mistake.  My sophomore year I was taking Spanish I with a teacher that I did not like. I was originally excited about taking Spanish. I loved the idea of becoming bilingual and learning new things. However, I quickly fell out of love with the Romance language. My Spanish teacher operated her classroom like a gatekeeper of knowledge, instead of an ambassador to new cultures and people. As the semester progressed, I became more frustrated with the fact that I would never learn Spanish. I could not conjugate a verb, nor tell you the difference between usted or ustedes. Things began to turn for the worse inside of my high school Spanish class when my parents found out that I was failing, I knew that I was trying the best that I could, but my frustration with the language and my teacher made me not want to try as hard. So, I did with tons of students across the United States in high school foreign language classes every year – do my best to get a C, and never worry about this foreign language again.

My parents, who were fundamental in my educational development, took the stance of many parents across the country: the idea of learning a foreign language is a rite of passage that is more passage than substance. This does not make my parents wrong but their needs to be mind shift on how we view foreign language education in our country. 

When I got to college, I had to retake Spanish. Being discouraged by my previous experience in high school, I followed the same game plan yet again – do my best to get a C, and never worry about this foreign language again. However, when I left the comfy confines of academia and entered the workforce, I realized my huge mistake. I should have taken my foreign language classes a lot more seriously. That was the mistake that I had made. 

As I began to interact with more people from different parts of the world in my professional career, I realized that Spanish was a passport language that would allow me to navigate a variety of professional opportunities. I think back now and wonder how I could’ve been so foolish to miss out on a golden opportunity of learning such a valuable life skill. I immediately realized that the error was inside of secondary education.  We may offer foreign languages to students, but we do not emphasize the importance of learning a secondary language. 

An article in Forbes magazine pointed out that some high schools devalue

the idea of a foreign language class and allow their students to replace it with an additional math or English class. Some educators believe that foreign language classes do not work in the current status, because there is a very low probability of a student becoming proficient in the language. Although there may be a low probability of students becoming proficient in a foreign language, high school students in the United States need to become better global citizens. One great way for students to become global citizens is by basically becoming more familiar with their language and customs. Failing to recognize that people exist outside of the United States feeds into the narrative of the Ugly American. 

For foreign language, education to work in secondary education, there needs to be a total reboot of how it is presented to students, and how teachers present concepts to learners. This is what I believe is the schematic for success.

One easy step that parents should consider is introducing one foreign language along with English comprehension throughout their scholars’ K-12 education. Sesame Street does an amazing job of this by introducing Muppets from various backgrounds and cultures. However, as scholars get older, parents tend to shy away from foreign language development which proves to be harmful when scholars are introduced to it in a structured class. My suggestion is to parallel the learning of a foreign language so that it feels less like just something you must get through instead of a great way to increase gains in reading. Learning a foreign language early helps young readers make connections to prefixes and suffixes which date back to early forms of Latin. 

Introducing students to the various songs and food of different cultures is a great way to begin building some early vocabulary. In addition, creating a “label parade” around the house is a great way to get students to learn new words and become more interactive with their environment. By simply getting a couple of sticky notes, have your scholar label household items in the language they are learning. For example labeling the microwave in Spanish as “microonda” and desk in Spanish as “escritorio”. This activity is a great way to bring vocabulary to life for young scholars and their families. 

For elementary school scholars, parents might want to consider using bedtime stories as way to introduce foreign languages to their young ones. Take a bedtime classic that is often read by your scholar and read it in a different language. This will get scholars introduced to new words in a familiar format. Parents can ask their scholars while reading the story: “What do you think that word means? Use your context clues to figure this out.” This makes learning a new language fun and familiar for younger scholars. 

Secondary education leaders need to present foreign languages as a way for students to boost confidence and eliminate various prejudices against other races and religions. The focus of the foreign language class should be learning different languages, but a secondary concept should be introducing students to different people and their ways of life. By highlighting the different cultures, music, religion, and government practices of other countries, students will get to understand that the world is bigger than what we see inside the United States. Also, students will be able to see that through our differences we have many common grounds.

Foreign languages help students score better on standardized tests like the SAT and ACT. An article from US News discovered that students who study romance languages, like Spanish, French, and Latin scored better than their counterparts, who did not take a foreign language at all. A more in-depth study revealed that students who had taken a romance language for multiple years, were able to score better on the English vocabulary and comprehension portions of the SAT and ACT.  In addition, studying a foreign language, helps students with their memory recall of different words because of learning word origins, due to studying a romance language.

Learning a foreign language helps students with their career aspirations. An article by the Washington Technical Institute stated that 26% of the new jobs created will favor those who speak a foreign language. Career profiles have cited that candidates looking for a new job can negotiate their salary in upwards of 10 to 15% above market if they know how to speak a foreign language. Planting the seeds of a student being able to learn this important life skill in high school will set them on a great career pathway where they’re able to consistently negotiate promotions throughout their lifetime. 

Over twenty-five years later, I am realizing the mistakes that I made when sitting inside of my high school Spanish class. I should’ve had more discipline and learning something that would’ve been a great life-changing skill and the benefits of this life-changing skill should’ve been explained to me a lot better. The $11 a month that I pay goes to a foreign language app that I use to learn Spanish. Although I cannot go back in time, I do not want any other scholars to waste their time not planning for a great future.

Just by taking a romance language seriously (like Spanish and French), students can learn to fall in love with not just language but the cultures of other people. Exploring and learning different cultures does not teach our students tolerance….it teaches them acceptance…and that is more important. 

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