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For our young people of today to be competitive in today’s business market, not only do they need the properly skills in the field in which the chose whether it be in Information Technology, Finance, Education or Business Administration, they also need communication skills which will bridge the gap and break down barriers of communication. The ability to read, write and speak a foreign language is crucial to the ever changing environment we live in, and it all starts in the high school years. Learning to read, write and speak a foreign language not only exercises one’s mind more than our standard English language, but it also better prepares that individual for adulthood and being able to more effectively communicate in the business world. The skill of reading, writing and speaking another language or two also allows the person to become a much more effective communicator.

The examples in this particular paper will utilize Spanish, Polish and Italian as the foreign language. Please keep in mind there are many more languages available to learn, and picking the language must be within the individual student’s interest. It may not be necessary for a student to take four years of French or Spanish, but a combination thereof might be the winning formula. A student could take two years of Spanish and then take two years of French, have a good foundation laid out for them as to which they wish to pursue in college. Once the student enters into college, they will have a better idea of what their career field interests will be and what languages will be beneficial for that student in the field of interest.

For many years, help desk and call center environments from major corporations have been outsourcing to other countries, as the cost of labor to conduct business for these help desks and call centers is much less expensive to maintain than in the United States. The average cost to pay the employees is anywhere from ten to fifteen dollars an hour cheaper to man these call centers and help desk environments. This is due to the fact that the cost of living and then US Dollar value holds more clout than the local economy and currency. One such company utilizing this concept is International Paper. Their Information Technology help desk and second level support desk has a small crew here in the United States, but the majority of them are in Krakow, Poland. To give you an idea, one US Dollar is equivalent to three point sic Polish Zloty therefore making the US Dollar more valuable than the Zloty.

Most people who go through schools in Poland are required to learn at least one additional language aside from English. This makes their high school students and college students more marketable in the work force environment as they are able to list themselves as multilingual. By being multilingual, they have broken down the barriers of communication, worked at learning the dialect and pronunciation of words in other languages and thus elevating themselves to be a front contender for jobs in the marketplace over those who only speak English. Kat Devlin expands on this in her article, and even shows a map of European countries and which countries require no foreign language, which countries require one foreign language and which countries require 2 foreign languages. (See Appendix for map). The article goes on to state that in most of these European countries, children start to learn second languages between the ages of six to nine years old.

By having a larger portion of your immediate population, being the United States, as a bilingual or even multilingual community, you raise the awareness to the United States based businesses and corporations of the abilities of the young people. This may actually change the business world’s view on where to go to hire people for a bilingual call center or help desk. Granted, the amount each business will have to spend on salaries and benefits will be more annually, but it will also give that business the ability to employ people from within the United States instead of the need to look abroad. This will help stimulate the American economy.

It may not be as apparent, but learning another language also exercises your brain more so than simply learning how to speak your native language and that is it. For example, musicians learn the difference between the treble clef and the bass clef. They will learn how to read things such as time signatures, key signatures, notes and rests. They will learn how to interpret a piece of sheet music, and then play then on their instrument. All of these will go into memory and it has been shown to improve study skills and grades increase due to the memorization skills learned. Much is the same for learning a second or third language.

Children today are offered a music class in elementary school as early as Kindergarten, teaching the children simple items like patterns and basic notes. So why is it that these same children cannot be taught Spanish or French as early as first or second grade? The earlier these children start to learn something new, whether it is Art, Music, Spanish, French or even Sign Language, learning such new things will retain longer with them and embed in their minds. It will become second nature. In fact, in grade school this could be a rotating class. In Tennessee, the school year is divided into four grading terms. In elementary school the course work could vary per grading term between Spanish, Music, French, Sign Language, Art or whatever classes may benefit that portion of the United States. Going forward into middle school, second language could be a class all in its own. Throughout the school year, introduce the students each year to four different languages, solely based off what the high schools in the area teach for second languages. This will give the students a good foundation on why it is important to learn languages and prepare them for high school as well as assist them in picking the language they want to pursue.

In an article in the Huffington post written by a Miss Casey Miller, who was a high school student at the time, she wrote that her high school requires two years of a foreign language. She stated that most students did not particularly like this as a rule as “They don’t think they will ever use any of these languages. Excuses include that they don’t travel, don’t have international friends or family, or never talk to foreign visitors.” Casey then goes on to expand that becoming bilingual or even multilingual opens more opportunities on college applications and the aspect of being more marketable in the workforce environment.

Simply mandating that our high school youth be required to take foreign language for all four years is simply not enough. These students need to be encouraged to all the benefits they can and will receive by learning these languages and they need to see first-hand how having these skills can benefit them. As early as their eighth grade year of middle school and freshman year of high school, recruiters from colleges and universities need to be making visits to these young people and explain to them how beneficial these skills are when apply for admissions and scholarships.

During the students junior and senior years of high schools, invite local area businesses into the school to speak to these young people and talk to them on how their industry works and how being bilingual or even multilingual is beneficial to their company. Have the business explain how the chance of being hired is that much greater if one is bilingual or multilingual and the difference in pay. Most people do not realize this, but those who are bilingual typically get paid more than those who are not as it is a desirable skill, one of which companies are willing to pay extra for.

This example will help illustrate why it is so important for high school students to be required to take foreign language all four years of high school. This example is also completely fictional, but was created to prove a point. Phillip is planning to become a graphic artist with the hopes of one day working with a company such as Disney©. Phillip decides in high school to take two years of Spanish and two years of Italian. Phillip applies for college admissions to the University of Memphis. On his college applications, not only does he make it known he has played trumpet in junior high and high school and was in the school bands, but he also states her has taken guitar lessons since the age of ten and finalizes his application with stating he learned Spanish for two years and Italian for two years. He does the same with scholarship applications. Phillip’s best friend Max has all the same qualifications except the fact that he did not take any foreign languages in school at all, and they both have the same grade point average. Phillip is accepted to the University of Memphis on a full ride scholarship based on all the factors alone. His best friend Max is accepted, but only received scholarships covering approximately two years of his college career. Phillip’s ability to speak a foreign language gave him an edge over his own best friend. Phillip continues to pursue all these interests as well as taking four years of Italian while at the University of Memphis. Upon graduation, Phillip applies with Pixar© films and gets to live his dream as a graphic designer for Pixar© while living in Milan, Italy for three years working on a special project there. This example might have been taken some exceptional liberties, yet this example is also one of the real world scenarios which really happen every day. People who have the knowledge of a second or third language have many more doors of opportunity opened to then over those who only speak one language.

Learning a second or even third language while in high school should be made mandatory for all four years of high school. Whether the student studies for four years, each in a different language, for two years in one language and two in another, this should be totally up to the student and their interests, but it is proven to only help the student in the long run. Whether it be helping the student’s acceptance percentage into the college they are yearning to attend or to secure the career they long to be in, being bilingual and/or multilingual only benefits the high school student. If more high school students took the time to look at the big picture and see how it could benefit them, I am sure there would be less of them with the viewpoints Casey shared in her column. Learning at least a second language is so beneficial to our upcoming society, and we need to instill this into our children while they are still in primary schools. We should start instilling this into our children earlier than high school.

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