What’s the importance of being bilingual? I’ve often thought about my answer to that question and have had discussions about it.
To me personally, being Mexican-American and bilingual is extremely important. Knowing the Spanish language is what allows me to communicate with my family. I can communicate with not only my parents, but my aunts and uncles. I can’t imagine visiting Mexico when I was younger to meet my grandparents for the first time and not being able to communicate with them if I wasn’t bilingual. I wouldn’t have been able to understand or talk to my grandmother as we used a desgranador to desgranar maízto then grind and make tortillas. We wouldn’t have understood a thing as we were being taught how to milk a cow very early in the morning. It’s all those moments that I still remember today and feel like we would have missed out on if there would have been a language barrier. Fortunately, there wasn’t.
I’m glad that my mom was very adamant about my siblings and I learning Spanish in order to make sure that there wasn’t that language barrier for us. Because being bilingual, aside from being able to communicate with family, is also a very important connection to your roots and who you are. Recently there’s been a push to downplay the importance of the Spanish language, not only on the political side of things but also within the community. With younger generations not being completely fluent or bilingual, there’s a push to sell the idea that not knowing Spanish doesn’t mean that you are not Latino or Hispanic. Here’s my hot take on that; I’m about to get controversial: Yes, it does.* And I include an asterisk at the end of my hot take because I think that in regards to one specific type of group. In my opinion, I think that the idea of diminishing the importance of the Spanish language to being a Latino and within the Latino community is being perpetuated by those that don’t speak the language AND don’t care to learn it. There are many reasons why someone may not have learned Spanish as a Latino growing up: they were adopted, their parents didn’t take the time to teach them Spanish, their parents perhaps didn’t know Spanish themselves, or any myriad of reasons as to why they don’t speak Spanish. That is very understandable and out of their control. But I think there comes a time when you can take that control back, give the Spanish language the importance it deserves as an important part of the culture, and learn Spanish. To simply diminish the importance of the language because you don’t know it and don’t care to learn is a cop out. Props to those who choose to learn Spanish (Latino or not), struggle with it, and keep going (if you need someone to practice your Spanish with, insert hand raising emoji here). So yes, in my opinion, knowing Spanish is a very important part of being Latino because it’s one of the distinguishing aspects of the community. The language allows us to connect to family, to others in the community, and even enjoy really great music and TV. So let’s use it before we lose it.
Finally, one setting that I really experienced the importance of being bilingual, outside of my home and community, was in the classroom. More often than not, students that are new to the country are not struggling because they don’t grasp the educational concept being taught, but simply are struggling with the new language. I’ve been in classrooms, where I’ve had to translate for students when I noticed that they looked lost. I quickly realized that it wasn’t the concept that was the issue, but instead the language in which the instructions were given. After translating, the students were able to do the math problems the teacher gave the class. Some students even mentioned that the work was easy, once I had translated. It’s situations like that which makes me happy that I know Spanish and am able to help, simply with my use of it.
Being bilingual or multilingual opens many doors to other people, places, and experiences. So learn a new language!
Know someone who would like to learn to use 7 Gen Blocks, but would benefit from a Spanish tutorial on how to use the platform? Then we have you covered! Check out our Spanish pre-recorded webinar on how to use 7 Gen Blocks. Learn at your own pace and in a language you’re more comfortable with.