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

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[quote=Anonymous][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]

I’m the first pp. I’m in DC. Yes, we are a multilingual city and I have to use the language line for Amharic, Russian, French, Swahili etc from time to time but Spanish is all day every day, baby! And speaking the language makes an ongoing relationship with a healthcare provider much smoother than using some phone line...[/quote]

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