International City: The Importance of Language Education
Yes, Dos Centavos does read the business section of the Chronicle, and this article exhibits the importance of language education in an international city like Houston.
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.
Not to take away from the importance of English, and I do think a policy of English-Plus would be more effective, but when I first arrived in Houston in 1998 and began my first job at a telecom company in SW Houston that did business with mostly immigrant-owned convenience stores, I can tell you that many of my conversations were in Spanish and it surprised me that, whether they were Pakistani-American or Indo-American business owners, they spoke better Spanish than I! Even almost a decade ago these business owners understood the importance of being "market-oriented."
"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," said Betsy Gelb, a marketing professor at the University of Houston.
It amazes me how the right-wing is so committed to an anti-language, anti-anyone different agenda when, not only Houston, but America, is obviously a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-language nation. They get so involved in "culture" arguments and how all these "foreigners" are "taking over" "our" country. Public debates on language policy that turn to bottom of the barrel Republican rhetoric arguments affect our schoolkids and they affect our communities and neighborhoods. These types of rhetoric-filled arguments have no basis, and only have everything to do with fear. It is not healthy and this behavior (in the mental health sense) is detrimental to the success of businesses and individuals, alike.
Should we be learning English? Of course! But let's face it, the vast majority of Americans, including our president, have a lot of trouble speaking English correctly. Obviously, the rest of us aren't learning it effectively and we continue to think of the English language as anything that isn't foreign, but that just sounds "American." (And let's not get started with "foreign" accents; although, some East Texas accents sound more foreign than "foreign" accents!) But the bottom line is, we all have a responsibility to learn (and our government has a responsibility to effectively teach) the language, but with every cut in education in favor of big business and the wealthy, we fail undereducated Americans--adults and children. I'd like to see any given pre-TAKS high school graduate (perhaps the overwhelming number of non-college grads that seem to line up with any given right-wing member of Congress so easily in this debate) take the test to see how they score. Heck, I wonder if they could pass the US Citizenship exam--the "easier" one and the new "tougher" replacement.
Lately, I've seen some stickers in my neck of the woods that say, "Why should I have to press 1 for English?" and other anti-multiculturalism rhetoric. Why should we press "1"? Because this is our America. America has never been a unicultural, uni-language nation--from the beginning. Even after such violent attempts at genocide, such as the Trail of Tears, Manifest Destiny and the colonization of Texas, multiple languages have remained. Do we honestly think that a divisive debate and targeted Republican policies will put a stop to this "rampant" multiculturalism?
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.
Not to take away from the importance of English, and I do think a policy of English-Plus would be more effective, but when I first arrived in Houston in 1998 and began my first job at a telecom company in SW Houston that did business with mostly immigrant-owned convenience stores, I can tell you that many of my conversations were in Spanish and it surprised me that, whether they were Pakistani-American or Indo-American business owners, they spoke better Spanish than I! Even almost a decade ago these business owners understood the importance of being "market-oriented."
"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," said Betsy Gelb, a marketing professor at the University of Houston.
It amazes me how the right-wing is so committed to an anti-language, anti-anyone different agenda when, not only Houston, but America, is obviously a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-language nation. They get so involved in "culture" arguments and how all these "foreigners" are "taking over" "our" country. Public debates on language policy that turn to bottom of the barrel Republican rhetoric arguments affect our schoolkids and they affect our communities and neighborhoods. These types of rhetoric-filled arguments have no basis, and only have everything to do with fear. It is not healthy and this behavior (in the mental health sense) is detrimental to the success of businesses and individuals, alike.
Should we be learning English? Of course! But let's face it, the vast majority of Americans, including our president, have a lot of trouble speaking English correctly. Obviously, the rest of us aren't learning it effectively and we continue to think of the English language as anything that isn't foreign, but that just sounds "American." (And let's not get started with "foreign" accents; although, some East Texas accents sound more foreign than "foreign" accents!) But the bottom line is, we all have a responsibility to learn (and our government has a responsibility to effectively teach) the language, but with every cut in education in favor of big business and the wealthy, we fail undereducated Americans--adults and children. I'd like to see any given pre-TAKS high school graduate (perhaps the overwhelming number of non-college grads that seem to line up with any given right-wing member of Congress so easily in this debate) take the test to see how they score. Heck, I wonder if they could pass the US Citizenship exam--the "easier" one and the new "tougher" replacement.
Lately, I've seen some stickers in my neck of the woods that say, "Why should I have to press 1 for English?" and other anti-multiculturalism rhetoric. Why should we press "1"? Because this is our America. America has never been a unicultural, uni-language nation--from the beginning. Even after such violent attempts at genocide, such as the Trail of Tears, Manifest Destiny and the colonization of Texas, multiple languages have remained. Do we honestly think that a divisive debate and targeted Republican policies will put a stop to this "rampant" multiculturalism?
posted by Dos Centavos at 8:00 AM
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