What are the Pros and Cons of a bilingual society?

[mactbone]

I'm asking this because in my mind it seems that this will be the case in the U.S. if the current trends continue. I'm not going to say it's a bad thing that many advertisements and products now are in Spanish as well as English, it's their job to make money and if people only speak Spanish then you have to reach them. At the same time I think that it could hurt the integration of Spanish speaking people into mainstream American culture. While that may not be a bad thing per se it probably won't help Spanish speaking people get jobs in this country*. I also wonder if it's a feasible option to have Spanish speaking public education in certain areas.

*What I'm saying is that most companies don't want to hire someone who can't speak the same language as them, meaning that eventually enough business owners may be speaking Spanish and hire Spanish speaking people, but until that happens the corporate culture is in English.

[KrazyHorse]

I've worked in a bilingual environment (duh)

As long as there's a fair degree of bilingualism in the society everything works...

[Tuberski]

There are more and more job openings, where being bi lingual is preferred.

ACK!

[mactbone]

Yes, I can see that it's possible to work but is it more expensive for schools? Are there people that only speak one of the languages? Does the government have a hard time filling positions with qualified bilingual applicants? Does this make it easier or harder for trade and business in general?

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by MacTBone
Yes, I can see that it's possible to work but is it more expensive for schools? Are there people that only speak one of the languages? Does the government have a hard time filling positions with qualified bilingual applicants? Does this make it easier or harder for trade and business in general?

I don't see how it would be much more expensive for schools, they all teach English. However requiring at least one semester of spanish wouldn't hurt.

ACK!

[KrazyHorse]

More expensive? Why?

Kids don't learn very much in elementary school anyway. Teaching them a second language with some time that would have been thrown away on some other crap anyway is a pretty good use of their time in my books.

There are a great deal of "unilinguals" in Quebec...but they're not on the island of Montreal. There used to be a significant number of English unilinguals on the island (and some French ones) but ever since the linguistic ghettoisation has started to disappear the kids have started becoming proficient in both, of course.

There's a great wealth of bilingualism in Quebec as compared to the rest of Canada...well, minus New Brunswick. That's why a lot of the federal civil service posts (many of which require bilingualism) are filled by Quebecers.

Bilingualism doesn't hurt, in general. As long as it's normal for people to speak both languages then things work. If there are two linguistic groups living side by side who refuse to learn each other's language then there can be problems.

[KrazyHorse]

However requiring at least one semester of spanish wouldn't hurt.

One semester?

Eek. One semester won't teach you anything. In addition to having an hour of French class every day from the age of 5 to the age of 18, grades 4,5,6,7 and 8 were spent in French immersion (basically every class except English taught in French).

And I'm still not as bilingual as I could be.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: What are the Pros and Cons of a bilingual society?

Originally posted by MacTBone
At the same time I think that it could hurt the integration of Spanish speaking people into mainstream American culture.

That's the old "Melting Pot" theory, which seems to be a bit outdated by now. A modern society is now thought to be more akin to a mosaic, which each group of people retaining their own cultural identity.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Frogger

However requiring at least one semester of spanish wouldn't hurt.

One semester?

Eek. One semester won't teach you anything. In addition to having an hour of French class every day from the age of 5 to the age of 18, grades 4,5,6,7 and 8 were spent in French immersion (basically every class except English taught in French).

And I'm still not as bilingual as I could be.

True, but those who like the class will continue it, those who don't, won't learn anything even if forced to continue it.

ACK!

[mindseye]

In this era of globalization, the enormous benefits of multiliguism overwhelmingly outweigh the relatively minor costs. Being unilingual will increasingly become a serious disadvantage in many areas.

I also wonder if it's a feasible option to have Spanish speaking public education in certain areas.

Even better if the public school system required second language study [default language: Spanish] for grades 1 - 12. The next generation will thank us for our foresight.

[Spiffor]

Isn't it mandatory to learn a foreign language at school, in the US ?

[mactbone]

Yep, well at least I needed three years of it to have an Academic Honors Dimploma (which basically gives you automatic admission to all the State Schools). The options at our school, which as I understand it are about average, were German, Spanish and French. In the first couple of my years in High School, Spanish enrollment was #1, then French and German after a pretty wide margin. By the end of High School, German was close to overtaking French, mainly because of a decline in French enrollment and a lack of a smiliar decline in German. Our school also had an ESL (English as a Second Language) class.

I would think it would be more expensive because we would be importing teachers from other countries (if we're talking pure Spanish speakers) and if we use bilingual teachers, they would expect and deserve a higher salary.

I also assume it would cost more to bilingualize the government - did funding significantly change in Canada when that Quebec-bilingual thing happened?

[MRT144]

con: white ignorant conservative americans wont know what to do and will get violent

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by MRT144
con: white ignorant conservative americans wont know what to do and will get violent

Not all white men are ignorant conservatives, nor are all conservative ignorant.

Look at Dubya, he sounds more fluent in Spanish than he does in English.

ACK!

[alva]

This board would be very boring if people wouldn't learn others lingo's

american: I'm pro war !!!
English: Me too !!
American: Good!!!
English: Yeah...

j/k