Reply to Why are so many families interested in Dual Language?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

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! [/quote]

I don't even know why I'm bothering jumping in on this bc OP seems to just be bored and kind of trying to stoke the fire at a time of heightened anxiety for parents with kids entering the lottery, but FWIW there are lots of jobs where being bilingual English/Spanish pays more and opens up opportunities. I'm in healthcare. It's a premium. As if making more money is the only value added of learning another language that a large portion of your population speaks...but you can't really argue that it isn't valuable in business in the US. Not everybody is going into trade opportunities with China, OP [/quote]

+1000.   I am also in healthcare and huge advantage and more opportunities. But most importantly, it would make my job easier and things don’t get lost in translation thru a phone interpreter.  I have been in healthcare for over 15 years.  I can count on 1 hand how many times I needed an Mandarin interpreter.  I have lost track of the hundreds and hundreds of times I needed a Spanish interpreter.

Knowing what I know now, wished I had taken Spanish instead of French from middle school thru high school.

I would think in any service oriented field in this country with direct interaction with people - medicine/healthcare, law, marketing, business, etc..- knowing Spanish would be a very helpful skill to have.[/quote]

Huh.  I wonder where you two PPs live?   I used to think like you do, that as a healthcare provider in Montgomery County, I had a responsibility to learn Spanish so I could communicate with patients.  Because, hey, 4 zillion people in the US speak Spanish, right? It would be a no-brainer to take Spanish For Healthcare, at a minimum.

But a funny thing happened as the years went by.  [b]Every single week[/b], I have to communicate with patients/families who speak neither Spanish nor English.  Greek, Cantonese, Korean, Arabic, French, Vietnamese, Creole/pidgin/patois/French are the most common.  Occasionally I'll get a Russian-only speaker.

I have no desire to learn 8 languages in order to do my job seamlessly.  Translator phone it is!  [/quote]

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