NO TO MONOLINGUALS

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Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- I have heard the expression “yo no espico inglish” far too many times already. It is a shame! It is hard to advance to a high level of life, and talk about globalization as a society, if we do not accept generation changes in existing businesses, technology, science and education. A monolingual person misses important opportunities by not learning a second language. Perhaps a second language is not as important for certain jobs, but it is important for those of us who live in a multicultural city like Puerto Vallarta, where you are constantly communicating with people from different parts of the world.

“Spanglish” exists and persists in Mexico, and we express ourselves in that frame of mind. 75 % of the music we listen in national radio is not in Spanish, 65 % of those going to movie theaters select movies with subtitles. We ask ourselves: how come only 9.5 million adult Mexicans can speak English? This is a worrisome topic. At the national level, only 19% of people younger than 30, and 6 % of adults older than 50, speak a second language; even thou Mexico has been teaching a second language for over 90 years as a public policy.

Surveys done by consultant firms and national organizations reflect an interesting fact: 38 % of BA students are fluent in a second language, while 79 % of High Schools students cannot speak a word of English. When the levels of commitment increases, the monolingual person study a second language at the university: Chinese-Mandarin, French, English, Germany, Italian or Portuguese; these allows them the chance of obtaining scholarships or joining an exchange student program. Once they graduate this knowledge and experience increments their opportunities to get a good and well paying job.

North and Central Mexico are the areas were most bilingual, trilingual or polyglots Mexicans live. Schooling, socioeconomic level, or living in the city, are factors that facilitate the access to second language studies; but in any case, those that do speak English is just a minority of people. David Calderon, General Director of Mexicans First, said that the teaching of English in our country is a “big simulation”. We mention this because we see the low level of English demonstrated by elementary and secondary students, who do not know how to read, write and much less carry on a simple conversation in English.

It is important to understand this topic and to inform ourselves correctly. They are Academies, Institutes and Specialized Language Centers that have responsible and highly qualified professionals.

Veronica Rendon, Coordinator of the Link and Extension of the Foreign Language Teacher Center of the ‘Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico’ said that “the study of another language increments metacognitive and metalinguistic abilities (metacognitive makes you aware of the way you think and metalinguistic gives you the ability to see languages as a process and as a tool). Being trilingual increases your ability to think, analyze and process information as well as to solve problems.” To excel in life and to project oneself to a modern competitive society, learning another language is almost mandatory.

As of now, this topic will be a priority to the Minister of Education and Institutions of Higher Education in our country.

[readon1 url="index.php?option=com_sobipro&pid=1&sid=703:mar&Itemid=212"]Source:www.VallartaToday.com-by MAR Translation Services[/readon1]

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