Hi! I’m José Tamez, instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington where I have taught Spanish since 2002. I am coordinator of the IBSP program in the Department of Modern languages. There I teach, among many courses, Spanish 4334 (Globalization of the Hispanic world) and 4335 (Business Spanish) to majors in the field of International Business Spanish.
My research interest is the study of Latin-American migration patterns to United States and Spain. These movements increase the importance of teaching Spanish and increase the prestige of Spanish as a world language. Migration patterns are what I consider the most important aspect of culture to study in order to understand language destiny.
Choose a category to the right to view posts===============================================>
Size of the U.S.-Language hindrance?
We are not Europe. Our experience is not one of independent kingdoms which developed their own language. We are a young nation and a language experiment. Today, English has become the lingua franca and this is mostly due to the financial clout of the United States. We have land, we have resources and we have workers. But, how did the U.S. become a world power by the early 20th century, within 150 years of its inception? We achieved this through our one language stance…we became one culture and sacrificed our foreign identity. For the United States to have grown economically as fast as it did, the newcomers must have learned English and assimilated “American” culture in order to have integrated and taken advantage of the financial opportunties available in it. And, this is indeed what happened.
At the inception of this country, our founding fathers didn’t know in which language to write the Constitution as many languages were spoken freely aside from English (in contrast to today), they were, after all, recent immigrants and isolated in their communities. There was no push to assimilate the newcomers. So, the decision to use English as a common language was almost arbitrary. But, this decision has had a far-reaching impact on language maintenance and death in the United States an throughout the world.
In the quest of our predecessors to have access to two oceans (manifest destiny), we overcame obstacles and traversed thousands of miles by foot. A great price was paid and now we possess the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada. But, how could a nation of that dimension prosper with so much land mass to inhabit and being a nation of immigrants? Clearly, in order to prosper commercially as a nation, we had to communicate. Therein, the English-only movement began.
In our quest to maintain united, we have taken an English only posture. Unfortunately, if we want to eat bananas or get Brazilian ethanol, we must be able to communicate with them. It’s ironic to want the product but not the producer? unlike the European Union which commerce among each other and open their border. But, if we want to receive those goods, we must be able to commerce with people around the globe, especially with Mexico and the rest of Latin-America since they are our greatest trading partner due to proximity. Globalization is changing our language experience. It requires us to become multi-lilngual. Now English only is not enough. The European language reality helps us to understand the benefits and pitfalls of an English-only stance.
Why are Europeans famous for speaking multiple languages and not us? Well, the answer is simple. They have always been fragmented kingdoms and still are even if they did adopt a single currency. The countries or kingdoms are much smaller than the United States. As a matter of fact, all of the European Union’s combined 27 nations are still less than half the size of the United States.
Let’s suppose that we live in France, it’s very easy to be exposed to German as it is on its northern border. So, I could practice German on the weekends and eventually, with the help of a friend, master the language. I could then continue with my Italian as it also lies on the French border. And, Spanish would follow, etc. The countries are so small by contrast to the U.S., (France is about the same size of Texas), that they have an opportunity to travel without a visa to any country and improve their language base with minimal effort. There are, after all, 23 official languages within the European union. Many to choose from. The United States, by contrast, is so massive that it literally takes days to travel to any of our borders, north to Canada where a dialect of French can be learned, or Mexico our greatest Spanish-speaking trading partner (NAFTA). In contrast, you can traverse France easily within 10 hours to any border. Our size complicates language learning.
So, in order to grow financially and maintain order, we have encouraged the use of one language. Nevertheless, in a globalized world, the English only posture is absurd and unrealistic, especially if we intend to keep competitive.
But, our southern border is fading. This is the factor which greatly impacts language learning in the U.S. Latin-american immigration is changing our linguistic reality. The Hispanic population is the fastest growing in the country. With this continuous immigration from our southern trade partners (Latin-America), the value of speaking Spanish and the ease to practice and therefore learn it, will improve. Americans will no longer have our size and isolation as an excuse for being English-only.
