Do you ever wish your school taught more than Spanish and French? Have you ever wanted to be able to learn more unique languages that you don’t hear often such as Korean and Chinese? 91% of public schools offer foreign language classes and the majority only teach Spanish and French. In the CNUSD school district, there are fewer than 5 schools that teach any other language (mainly mandarin) other than Spanish. Schools mostly teach Spanish because there are over 440 million Spanish speakers in the world and fewer other foreign speakers.

Learning foreign languages is strongly encouraged by many colleges. The main reasons are studying a foreign language increases your chance of getting a job and helps you meet new people and have a more diverse friend group. Learning languages is important to college because of the fact that you obtain new communication skills and enhance your listening and memory skills.

According to an article by the University of North Georgia, there is a most amount of mandarin native speakers than Spanish which is the most taught language at this point in time in schools from elementary to high school. They claim that Spanish is often spoken all around the world by more of the population than any other language which is why it is taught more worldwide in schools. However, whenever you visit any other country such as any Asian country like Chinese or Korea, the majority of people will speak their native language.  

An article written by the University of the People titled The 12 Most Important Languages To Learn For Success In 2021 claims that Mandarin Chinese is the most important language to learn because of the fact that there are over one billion Mandarin speakers in the world as China is constantly growing global popularity and power.  The main factors in picking a language to learn are the number of speakers, geographic region, usability, and career opportunities. All of these depend on the person which is why limiting the number of language classes available to students is unbeneficial because everyone has their own personal interests and preferences. Another language that should be taught more in schools is French. This is because French is spoken on all five continents and is commonly believed to be the most useful language in the world for business.

Most importantly, more languages should be available for students to learn because everyone has their own culture and most schools are often very diverse, especially in America. Every student has their own culture and language spoken in their or household. Having more language classes for students to study would make learning about their culture more accessible to students who are unable to do so at home. Many students in college major in a language that gives them access to more occupation options such as teaching a language or being a business representative in other countries. There would be many people willing to teach a language at a school to students to earn money so finding people to hire shouldn’t be an issue for schools in America.