aokoye wrote:romeo.alpha wrote:aokoye wrote:With regards to lines of work in the US I can easily, think of a number of fields of work where spanish would be an asset (and it's not even 8am yet). Any medical field that involves communicating with patients, education (including at the administration level), culinary fields, landscaping, agriculture, various public administration jobs that are forward facing, really any customer facing job, law enforcement, journalism, and business. When push comes to shove, "learning the local language" isn't as easy I think a lot of people realize (for a whole host of reasons) and there are going to be situations where immigrants who don't speak that language are going to have to communicate with people outside of their immigrant community. It's not an simple or clear cut "well they aren't going to want to talk to you" situation.
It's not as much as you think. In the US Spanish is valued less by employers than French and German,
and this is even more pronounced in areas with many Spanish speakers.
By "an asset" I wasn't referring to it being helpful in getting a job or getting a raise. I was referring to it being helpful with regards to functioning in a job that would potentially involve being in contact with people who primarily speak Spanish. But yeah, Spanish is not really a prestige language in the US as a whole, not over French at least. I think it might become one, but I would hesitate to say that it already is.
Languages won't get you the job but in
any sector, when used right they are a great advantage in positioning and differentiating yourself, if you've also successfully trained yourself well in your competencies.
As an engineer, ex-scientist, marketeer and technical dude I've had opportunities to make the most of languages.
Spanish in the US is definitely not the prestige language that French is. I speak both with my daughters and father when we are there (French is my daughters 1st and Spanish is my fathers 1st). With one, because it is rarer, etc I get comments like "oh, I love to hear xxxx I never get to hear it." "It's beautiful that you speak xxx" with the other I get almost no comments. However, I am seeing a lot more Americans that want to practice Spanish with us, something that was really not present 10-20 years ago. It's definitely become more mainstream to interact positively as an American learner with someone speaking a foreign language. And it is lovely.
Just this last winter I had the nice experience of an American waiter in Tahoe that was learning Spanish practice with my us. I had to explain that a few of the phrases he had learned (apparently at a previous job) couldn't be used in front of my sister in law or nieces. He was definitely in love with the language and languages in general but that kind of sincere desire for Spanish just isn't as common as the spontaneous love of French, as far as I can share in my small corner of Northern California. YMMV.
At the same time, I've also seen love and fascination for ANY language in certain corners -- since we code switch a lot when my daughters and nieces are together -- we also get to be the circus freaks or performing seals when we run through our languages when someone finally asks what we are speaking and how many languages we speak all together. It makes people happy. I expect to have someone throw fish from a bucket someday. I mean that in the nicest way.
edit: That's an otter, not a seal.