Is learning Spanish important to the youths of America?

Answer 1

Yes, very much so!

The Hispanic or part-Hispanic population living in the United States is projected to double by 2050, mostly due to the current population of Hispanic people living here having children, with either other Hispanic people or non-Hispanic people.

This projection is actually lower than it used to be, because many Hispanic people have been leaving the United States over the last couple of decades.

Regardless, it's a big number, and that means even more people living here who will want services offered in Spanish rather than English. Even though not many of them will necessarily need them in Spanish, since most will be fully bilingual in English, since they will be raised in the United States, many would still like to be able to speak in Spanish if they choose, or they might want their parents or grandparents to be able to have services offered in Spanish.

Additionally, the United States is increasingly becoming involved politically with Spanish-speaking nations, which often both is caused by and results in immigration from Spanish-speaking nations to the United States (and not just Mexico!). So, we will need people who are fully fluent in Spanish and English more and more in the United States, especially in the fields of Education, Medicine, Customer Service, and Emergency Services.

But if a certain young person does not want to learn Spanish, that's fine too! Just as long as they learn any other second language! The United States is one of the most linguistically-diverse countries in the world, but most of its non-English bilingual speakers are either immigrants or children of immigrants.

American-born English speakers would benefit greatly by learning any second language, not just Spanish! Learning any second language other than English is extremely likely to increase a young person's:

1. Job prospects directly out of high school or college
2. Chances of getting into college, graduate school, and professional school
3. Chances of winning scholarships
4. Starting salary once they do land their first job
5. Ability to help people who wouldn't otherwise be helped by a monolingual English-speaker
6. Likelihood of making new friends with whom they may otherwise not have connected

So, yes, learning Spanish is important to the youths of America, but so is learning any other language!

Maybe you or a young person you know could try for learning more than one extra language? I speak three!

Answer 2

Apart from needing to speak with others from around the globe, there are now hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers living in the U.S. From a business perspective in all industries, bilingual employees are simply more marketable, and therefore can make more money, than those who only speak English. Youth should make the most of the education opportunities they have now, which includes learning Spanish, to increase their abiality to work and provide for their own families in the future.