WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

It’s the American way!

On the one hand, you’ve got your “English Only” crowd.  On the other, you’ve got most everyone else in the developed world, who realize that the ability to converse on at least a rudimentary level in more than one language is a pretty useful thing. And now, one of the fastest-growing courses of study on college campuses throughout the U.S. is Spanish for Heritage Learners.  That’s exactly what it sounds like:  advanced studies in Spanish for students who grew up in households where Spanish was the primary language spoken.

 “But wait,” you might say.  “Why Spanish and not English?”  To which the answer would be, relájate, dude. These are students who already know English and Spanish, which means they’re fluent in at least one more language than most of us here in the U.S.  The concentration on the fine points of their first language, as explained in a recent story on NW Public Radio, is preparing them for potential jobs as interpreters, in business, in medicine, in law, for Spanish-speakers in the U.S. who may be or may not be bilingual, but are not fluent enough in English to carry on conversations in which specialized skills are required.

With an estimated 37 million people in the U.S. today whose native language is Spanish, but who have to navigate in a largely monolingual society, who better to serve as go-betweens than young Americans who grew up speaking Spanish at home and English at school and at play?  Those 37 million people are customers, patients, and clients.  Students in Spanish for Heritage Learners programs like the one at Yakima Valley CommunityCollege see a need, and they’re going to earn money by filling it. It’s the American way!

And thanks to legislation passed during the 2014 session, some of them might even find themselves headed right back to the classroom after they graduate.  As directed by the Legislature, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is studying the feasibility of developing a state program to train interpreters to work in Washington state’s public schools. ¡Muy bueno!