Why do schools in the USA feel the need to teach Spanish?

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I can understand the "logic" (if you want to use that term) behind both sides of the arguement over teaching foreign languages in schools (especially Spanish). Some feel it is indoctrination (but isn't forcing people to learn English indoctrination as well?) and a sort of permissiveness of illegal immigration, while others see it as a means of acquiring important knowledge that can have real-world benefits (especially in the face of an ever-increasing trend towards globalization) and making the US look slightly more intelligent to other countries. I personally have no problem with teaching foreign languages in schools. In fact, I think it would be of great benefit if there were specialized academy-type schools that held lessons exclusively in a specific language (immersion is one of the most, if not the most, effective ways to learn a language). For example, if you want to learn Spanish, you should be able to go to a school that only teaches in Spanish. Similarly, if a student has to fulfil their required foreign language cours(es), they should get the opportunity to attend an "immersion school," receiving an extre credit upon successful completion of the education at the immersion school.

By the way, I'm not sure if these academies already exist or not.

I think it would be better for globalization if schools would quit teaching foreign language & instead started all offering the same one language & we could gradually move towards having all the world speak the same language instead of having lots of different 1s. But inventing universal translators like on Star Trek would be better

I think everyone in the entire world should learn Faroese.

I don't know. I never took Spanish - never had an interest to learn it, even if I need two foreign language classes for college.

I'm taking American Sign Language instead.

I think most of you will find that a lot of our educational curriculum in the USA is determined by economic usefulness though. For example, geography was taught in schools 50 years ago (before my time), but is not anymore because America is more powerful now than it was then. We don't have to worry about communist attacks anymore, so geography isn't that important, according to education "experts". I think it's a terrible waste though that most Americans nowadays don't know the first thing about geography. That isn't a generalization I make frivolously. In fact, I wish geography could be taught instead of Spanish or any foreign languages. The schools also ought to be more worried that most teens in high school still haven't mastered proper spelling and grammar in English, anyway...

I had the option of learning Spanish, French or German at my schools. I chose French because I'd already learned a lot of it from listening to my mom's operas and reading the librettos.

In Sweden we choose between learning Spanish, German and French in school.

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My high-school only offered French & Spanish. Luckily foreign languages weren't required because I struggled a lot in English class so I probably would of failed or had my grade curved in foreign language classes since I could barely pass my classes for language I learned to speak in & was exposed to all my life.

Spanish is very important. English and Spanish are the most widely spoken languages in the Western Hemisphere, except Brazil where Portuguese is spoken. San Antonio, Texas is the largest Hispanic city north of the Rio Grande. I believe that Spanish will eventually die in the US. Their children and grandchildren will eventually forget Spanish and speak only English. Really, no one speaks German, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Greek, or Italian much in America anymore.

I live in Michigan, and despite that, I used Spanish today, listening to a recipe from a Hispanic woman at the grocery store in the nearest largish city. (Adrian MI, for those interested). I think it's really a shame that most schools focus on grammar instead of fluency and understanding.

It's useful.. especially if you are a nurse, in some places I've known nurses who've had issues getting jobs in some places because they don't speak spanish,


Personally they tried teaching it to me in middle school and failed miserably.. though I've found myself learning Russian kinda quickly but I think the difference is when in school the only other person I heard speaking spanish was the teacher, but I now I work weekends at a hotel with many russian speakers so I hear them talking all the time so between their help, studying myself and hearing native speakers yelling at each other all day things are actually sticking.

I think it's all relational. US does have a lot of Spanish speaking immigrants and not all schools only offer Spanish as a choice for second language. My High School offered Spanish, Italian and French. There were also other school districts that offered Chinese, Korean or Russian. Many countries speak Spanish and it's useful to know since it's widely used.