Why are so many families interested in Dual Language?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am someone who learned Spanish via immersion and am hoping to do the same for my kids if we get a good lottery pull. I am not looking at this from an employment perspective. I naively thought that my Spanish fluency would help me get a job or earn more but in reality I use it close to never in my white collar career (management consulting and then healthcare administration). I’m sad that I don’t use it more but there are just very few white collar jobs where you’ll have the opportunity to use it. I did interview for a few global roles where I’d be traveling to South America but ultimately didn’t get them because these companies were looking for native speakers (which are plentiful, by the way). That being said, learning Spanish absolutely improved my English language skills, particularly my writing, which has been invaluable. I’m seeking language immersion for my kids because I personally believe it will help them overall in language arts and provide them a more well rounded education.

White collar jobs where Spanish fluency is very helpful:

Physician
PA
Nurse
Pharmacist
Physical Therapist
Occupational Therapist
Social Worker
Principal (in a school with a sizable Spanish speaking population. See: Every major city in the US)
Teacher (“ “)
Etc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am someone who learned Spanish via immersion and am hoping to do the same for my kids if we get a good lottery pull. I am not looking at this from an employment perspective. I naively thought that my Spanish fluency would help me get a job or earn more but in reality I use it close to never in my white collar career (management consulting and then healthcare administration). I’m sad that I don’t use it more but there are just very few white collar jobs where you’ll have the opportunity to use it. I did interview for a few global roles where I’d be traveling to South America but ultimately didn’t get them because these companies were looking for native speakers (which are plentiful, by the way). That being said, learning Spanish absolutely improved my English language skills, particularly my writing, which has been invaluable. I’m seeking language immersion for my kids because I personally believe it will help them overall in language arts and provide them a more well rounded education.

White collar jobs where Spanish fluency is very helpful:

Physician
PA
Nurse
Pharmacist
Physical Therapist
Occupational Therapist
Social Worker
Principal (in a school with a sizable Spanish speaking population. See: Every major city in the US)
Teacher (“ “)
Etc...

Yep! I work in a school with a large Spanish-speaking population, and she my Spanish is pretty weak, it hurts my rapport with recent immigrants and their families. And there are a non-insignificant number of Early Intervention jobs looking for bilingual therapists.


And to add to your list, bilingual speech-language are SO helpful. They can more easily differentiate if it's a speech issue or a matter of learning a second language. I'd imagine audiologists probably belong on that list too and some other healthcare workers, but I'm not as familiar with those professions.

[Anonymous]

I'll add that as a software developer and project manager, I occasionally speak Spanish in my job when working with teams based in Latin America. Note that this is when working on purely US based projects for US clients where the interface is in English -- nothing international business or trade related. There are a number of outsourcing companies based in Latin America. They always have a project manager that speaks English, but it's frequently easier for me to work directly with the tech folks who don't speak English well, so I use Spanish.

[Anonymous]

so aside from the ignorance of OP question on the importance of the Spanish language and practical use in the world- we are raising our daughter bilingually for several reasons-
1- as her brain is forming- learning 2 languages as once will benefit the way she thinks and learns in general
2- starting this even before preschool- our goal is for her to be bilingual and biliterate. We think this will open many opportunities for her both in the US and abroad
3- my husbands native language is Spanish. It’s important to me she not only learns and appreciates his culture and language- but feels just as comfortable communicating with his side of the family as she is with mine.

Even if 3 wasn’t the case- I understand why any parent would want to offer this to their child. And DC is actually ahead of the curve in this area of education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so aside from the ignorance of OP question on the importance of the Spanish language and practical use in the world- we are raising our daughter bilingually for several reasons-
1- as her brain is forming- learning 2 languages as once will benefit the way she thinks and learns in general
2- starting this even before preschool- our goal is for her to be bilingual and biliterate. We think this will open many opportunities for her both in the US and abroad
3- my husbands native language is Spanish. It’s important to me she not only learns and appreciates his culture and language- but feels just as comfortable communicating with his side of the family as she is with mine.

Even if 3 wasn’t the case- I understand why any parent would want to offer this to their child. And DC is actually ahead of the curve in this area of education.

Yes! This is one reason I'm afraid to move away, because we likely won't find such opportunities elsewhere so easily. Even where most things about DC school system are not great, this is a huge incentive for us to stay.

[Anonymous]

Because this country is growing fastest by latinos and Spanish speaking immigrants. More and more jobs will require some level of bilingual competentcy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP is 21. Years old.

Exactly, probably best to think of her like your child rather than admonish her.

These posts about languages needed in healthcare are pretty useless. yes, we know many languages are spoken ESPECIALLY IN SILVER SPRING.

Not really — the 2nd most common rationale millennial parents use to explain why they're "immersion or bust" is how pragmatic it is to be fluent in one. specific. non-English. language. (reason #1 is > brains).

Healthcare is most often the single largest employer in any city.

So pointing out that fluency in JustOneSingleLanguage is not all that useful for the largest employment sector in the US is absolutely on point.


Employment by major industry sector
https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/employment-by-major-industry-sector.htm

[Anonymous]

In DC, dual language programs are a way of sorting schools by economic status without violating the law. It's how middle class families find one another and minimize the presence of at-risk kids.

Ick, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In DC, dual language programs are a way of sorting schools by economic status without violating the law. It's how middle class families find one another and minimize the presence of at-risk kids.

Ick, right?

This is hilarious. Sure, let’s go dual language because everyone wants to avoid at risk kids. Of course that’s everyone’s top priority. It can’t be that it’s important to be bilingual in today’s diverse society and for all the reasons previous posters have stated. No, no way are those the reason.......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see people are going to be stuck on Spanish.
For future readers of this post, there’s nothing wrong with Spanish! My school always uses me as the ‘Spanish Translator’ all the time, it’s very helpful with some parents.
It’s helpful in Spain too, which is one of my favorite countries in Europe. Mexico is also pretty great too, and the rest I have yet to venture to.

The point was will I get paid a lot more for knowing Spanish? No, even if I were to change my profession.
Some people really take things so personally. I’m seriously only wondering why DC parents literally go crazy for dual language!

In my line of work (healthcare) speaking Spanish is a huge plus!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In DC, dual language programs are a way of sorting schools by economic status without violating the law. It's how middle class families find one another and minimize the presence of at-risk kids.

Ick, right?

This is hilarious. Sure, let’s go dual language because everyone wants to avoid at risk kids. Of course that’s everyone’s top priority. It can’t be that it’s important to be bilingual in today’s diverse society and for all the reasons previous posters have stated. No, no way are those the reason.......

It's virtue signalling for sure, and many old school DC (read black) families aren't interested in languages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In DC, dual language programs are a way of sorting schools by economic status without violating the law. It's how middle class families find one another and minimize the presence of at-risk kids.

Ick, right?

This is hilarious. Sure, let’s go dual language because everyone wants to avoid at risk kids. Of course that’s everyone’s top priority. It can’t be that it’s important to be bilingual in today’s diverse society and for all the reasons previous posters have stated. No, no way are those the reason.......

It's virtue signalling for sure, and many old school DC (read black) families aren't interested in languages.

You sound like an unrepentant idiot. Please leave Black people out of your nonsensical posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really get it. I happened to grow up bilingual (English/Japanese) and I know the research in terms of benefits for the mind. However Spanish? It’s not even the language of business. It’s also not like the US majority will be dominant Spanish in this lifetime. Mandarin I can kinda see why since it can be very lucrative and it’s a tough language. Spanish I picked up in middle school-HS (started classes in 6th) but I am from CA and had plenty of friends to practice with. So I am trilingual.

Not a parent yet, but 21y/o teacher and my fiancé is already talking about this dual language business. Haha. I had no formal teaching in Japanese, yet I am fluent. Idk I’d rather go Montessori.

I also used to be a para at a school in DC w/dual language and the PK-K teachers were undoubtedly excellent....the rest pretty mediocre. Parents do not get to see the drama a school really has...I’ve seen this school mentioned and I always want to scream, waaaaiiiit. Perhaps my upbringing and experience at a school has caused me some bias lol.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I agree with the pp about greater English skills. There are so many Latin cognates that a Spanish speaker will intuitively know the meanings to more obscure words in literature or technical/medical jargon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In DC, dual language programs are a way of sorting schools by economic status without violating the law. It's how middle class families find one another and minimize the presence of at-risk kids.

Ick, right?

This is hilarious. Sure, let’s go dual language because everyone wants to avoid at risk kids. Of course that’s everyone’s top priority. It can’t be that it’s important to be bilingual in today’s diverse society and for all the reasons previous posters have stated. No, no way are those the reason.......

LOL! You are funny. Sure, I see parent wall the time encouraging their kids and learning. The language right along with them so their child can actually become fluent.

Yes parents use dual language as a way to escape low rates schools with high FARMS. And school districts know this and use it as a carrot to get UMC parents. Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax all do it. These poor rich white parents lost their mind this past fall when their immersion school was moved and some of the kids would have to go back to their local elementary school. The horror of it all!