Learning Language in a Multilingual World :

All right, so I have to admit: Spanish was not the language I tried to learn in high school or college, and now I feel pretty far behind. So many job postings require that their workers learn Spanish; reviews around the entire web give tons of resources for me to learn more, though, thankfully. In an ever more multilingual world, we'll need them.

Sites like Rocket Spanish actually offer many levels of Spanish-learning software and, unlike lots of other competitors, allow for nice deals on free trials so that the novice-to-medium-level Spanish learner can tell whether the techniques they use to teach work well for them. I would need the ultra-basic stuff, as the extent of my personal knowledge of Spanish only extends as far as bilingual signs in el and subway stations.

The Spanish language has been growing at an exponential rate in this country for at least the last twenty years. Some people have gotten fairly confrontational about wanting to make sure that everyone who applies for work in the US learns English. That world view is not only antithetical to authentic American values-- the ones that say that, wherever you were born and whoever your parents were, you're perfectly welcome to come here and try to make your way in this country. In that vein, it's incumbent upon those of us who were too lazy to learn a second language in grammar school to try and do so now. Thankfully, places like Rocket provide us with at least a beginning way to get that goal accomplished.

I was a French student in high school and in college, and even that has waned in the last few years. In order to truly master a language, it has to be constantly reviewed and used. Skills are like muscles: they atrophy if not used. So it only behooves those of us who have the time to do so (and, let's face it, with this job market, most of us have nothing but time on our hands right now,) we might as well spend it being productive. Seeing how the engine of any economy-- one that's faltering like ours is, or thriving as it will be again-- is ensuring that the people who work in it have the requisite skills to keep it going. Now, more than ever, is an opportune time to begin learning the sorts of language skills today that can help us ensure our future.