Habla espanol?

Via Stace comes this article about Houston immigrants, especially business owners, learning Spanish. Stace covers the main points, to which I just have this to add:

Though there's often a push for immigrants to learn English, the growing Hispanic population is prompting many immigrants in Houston to focus equally, if not more, on their Spanish.

The changing demographics of their customers and employees make knowing Spanish a must for many immigrant business owners who often thought English would be the only new language they would have to learn.

"This is extremely common," said Betsy Gelb, a marketing professor at the University of Houston.

"What we teach is you need to be market-oriented to be successful, but how can you even find out what your customers want if you can't communicate with them? It's the first step to being market-oriented, and sometimes that means learning another language."

I took French in middle school and high school. I even briefly contemplated a minor in French after getting an A- in an advanced grammar class in my first semester of college. I came to my senses after I realized that it was all literature courses from there, but it was close. I can't say I was ever truly fluent, but if I'd spent a semester in a francophonic country right after taking that class, I'd have come home fluent.

And if I had to do it all over again, I'd take Spanish classes instead. Back then, we were somehow convinced that French was the language that everyone needed to know. (Why? Don't ask me. I say it was a conspiracy dreamed up by the French teachers' cabal.) How silly that seems now. When the time comes for Olivia to pick a language to study in school, I plan to do everything in my power to convince her to take Spanish. It just makes sense.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 03, 2007 to Society and cultcha | TrackBack