…and Other American Linguistic Oddities“Those who seek stability in English seldom find it; those who wish for uniformity become laughingstocks.” — Richard W. Bailey “It’s good to see people trying to translate, but they should really ask for expert help.” — Mr Iorwerth, Glowg Magazine Should You Support Bilingual Education?There is a great article on Huffington Post about the benefits of bilingualism which reminded us that even though being bilingual is only a small part of becoming a professional translator, it’s still a crucial element. And we love bilingualism. And bilingual education.
There are many, many benefits of bilingualism, but we wanted to focus on just a few today. A bill in California will be put on the ballot in 2016 which will repeal proposition 227, which effectively banned bilingual education in California. For 26 years, California had been a state which guaranteed bilingual education for all its students — an ambitious idea which garnered mixed results. Many people in California were left with the idea that bilingual education itself was a bad idea, instead of focusing on how it was implemented. “The United States of America has more monolingual experts on bilingual education than any other country in the world.” We Don’t Need Bilingual Education?Oh really? You can look at the influx of native Spanish (and other) language speaking children into our schools in two ways: that they are a potential source for a future multi-lingual United States, putting us on the cutting edge for international trade, politics and industry. Or, that they are this huge hindrance to our country’s future because, you know, the whole world speaks English. It’s a Global Economy…But it’s surprising to think that huge companies (like Wal Mart) wouldn’t take the time to learn the culture of the countries they want to expand into.
More and more, companies are heeding the battle cry of overseas expansion, assuming that because of “globalization” doing business overseas is a snap. But just because you have wifi access doesn’t mean that you’re going to be well received in a new country. There are more examples of failures in overseas expansion than successes, but for whatever reason, leaders feel that since they can go overseas, they should. |
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