“Ich gehe in Café Freizeit. Kommst du mit?”
“Was machst du in deiner Freizeit?” Jeden tag laufe ich, und ich spiele tennis am Montag und Dienstag jeden woche.”
Raise your hand if you can read those sentences without thumbing the combination of letters and umlauts into google translate. What about attempting to reply back to what the person just wrote? Can you do that?
Maybe you’re not sure what language that is, or maybe just by looking at the words and sounding it out, you know it is German. You see, I would say I can speak the language pretty well. Do I know all the slang or all the dialects? Not even close. But could I carry on a decent conversation about my day, my life and then ask about someone else’s day? I would say so. That is because out of all the languages offered at my high school, I decided to take German. Through the influence of my phenomenal teacher and the joy the class brought to me, I thought it would be really cool to minor in it in college.
Although my original plan was to minor in psych, I soon realized it is not a minor offered at the college I am attending. Though my major does not technically require a minor, my mind immediately jumped to the idea of focusing on a language. Communication is so important in this day and age, and the more you know in terms of being able to communicate with different groups, the more appealing you are to a prospective employer.
Yet when I attended my college orientation, my idea was shot down with a look of shock accompanied by a few giggles. German? What could one do with such a language? French? How petty. Italian, Russian, Persian, Arabic, Hindi, etc? Why even bother. Spanish? Now, that’s another story.
Spanish, like any other language used to communicate in society, is important, I realize. Yet, insisting that an individual is “un-employable” or “ill-prepared for the work force” is simply absurd. Despite the belief that Spanish will be THE dominating language of the world by 2020, not speaking it fluently will most likely not hinder your ability to fulfill your job responsibilities to their full potential.
Now as someone who finds enjoyment in learning about cultures and their foreign linguistics, I do have an interest in eventually learning Spanish. But what I do not particularly enjoy is the pressure put on college students to learn Spanish due to the belief that it is the only acceptable, "mandatory" language that will propel them in their careers. If that is so, what is the point of offering kids as young as five the chance to learn Italian, Polish, French or even German if the only language that will matter in the end is Spanish? Why, as someone who hopes to travel all around the world for their career, should learning a multitude of languages ever be viewed as a waste of time? That to me, just does not make sense.
As I begin my first semester of college this August, I will still be thinking about what I may want to minor in, let alone my future career goals in general. This is one of the few times in my life that I will have the ability to learn continuously, in order to better myself and grow as a person. Although the pressure put on me by my advisor to either double major or minor in Spanish constantly weights on my mind, I cannot help but think how much I crave to continue my German education--well as dabble in a few other languages of my choosing.
So Ein Mist.
