You never know where life will take you… as an adult, teenager, or even a little kid. You could stay in the same country, state, and city for your whole life, or you may move somewhere else later in life.  Or, you may be a world traveler, a military brat, a 3rd culture kid, a missionary, or just someone who lives somewhere, moves somewhere else, and then returns to your previous location. Life is full of possibilities and surprises. You always want to be prepared for “if or when” you move somewhere else. It may be a different country, different state, maybe even a different continent.  If you move to a different country, possibly in a different continent, the people there may most likely speak a different language than the one you know, or a different variation of it. That’s where my story begins to take shape. Through sharing my story with you, I hope you will be able to see what I went through as a person who was a single language speaker, and understand the troubles I encountered because of it when I moved abroad,  and finally convince you why all students in the U.S. should be required to learn a second language - fluently. 

In July 2012, I moved to Ecuador, a small country in South America, with my parents.  I was twelve years old at the time.  My parents, who are both teachers, had accepted teaching positions at a school there. They thought it would be a good cultural experience for our family and it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.  I was excited about the move, but a little apprehensive too. After all, the people speak Spanish there, and very little, if any English. We had been practicing our Spanish a little bit before we moved, but we were not at all prepared for what we were getting ourselves into! The Spanish CD’s we had been using to help us learn some basic words really did not help much. Within our first few days my parents and I came to the realization that we needed to learn the basics of the Spanish language real quick in order for us to be able to get around in taxi’s, go to the store, and get other things we needed. I was so happy that I was able to attend the school my parents were working at, because if I had to attend one of the local schools there it would have been very tough for me since they only speak Spanish 100% of the time.  The school I attended was an international school. It was just like any other school campus, with a basketball court, soccer field, classrooms, library, and a pool. The only differences were that there were palm trees, beautiful tropical flowers, and iguanas all around campus. Another difference was that it was hot weather all year long! Yes, I said all year. Everyday there was a repeat of the previous day’s weather. I also had to wear school uniforms which really was not that bad. I wore shorts and a white polo shirt every single school day and all my friends wore the same. Since the school was an international school, every student that goes there must speak English while in classes because it is all American curriculum taught in English.  I didn’t have the enormous struggle of needing to talk to people in Spanish because most everyone in the school already knew English.  But, when it came to time out of class, such as lunch time, passing time between classes, sports and Spanish class, Spanish was the primary language spoken and I had no idea what anyone was saying.  It took me a good half-year to actually be able to engage people in conversation, even though it was very little.

         The next year, I was able to speak a bit more Spanish, and communicate with locals whenever we went to the beach or into town. One thing that made it a lot harder that year was that my Spanish teacher, Ms. Lombeida, who was Ecuadorian, spoke very little English. She was a really nice teacher, and she made the class fun at times, after-all she was a clown! Literally, she was a clown. When she was not teaching she dressed up like a clown and she performed places with a whole group of clowns. Anyhow, our class was small, only five of us, so we received a lot of one-on-one help when needed.  Although I often questioned… “How am I supposed to learn Spanish from a teacher who hardly speaks any English?”,  eventually, my Spanish speaking got much better, and I was able to communicate with my teacher and classmates better.  It was still an issue for the rest of the year; it just became easier the more I learned.

I feel like most of my issues in Ecuador could have been avoided had I of been able to communicate better from the start.  Although we practiced Spanish a little bit before we went, it did not help much when you are totally immersed into the culture. I really feel strongly that if elementary schools were required to start teaching students a second language (the language being selected by the student’s parent’s) at an early age, such as 1st or 2nd grade, that it would be a huge benefit to those students. If I would have started learning Spanish when I was learning English, it could have been second nature to me, and I wouldn’t of had any problems. Many people say that young children learn other languages easier than adults. I think that is true. I saw young kids come to my school in Ecuador who did not know Spanish at all, and within a couple months they were speaking it better than me after a year!

Some people would be against that idea, because they probably don’t want their child coming home speaking some language they don’t know how to speak. In my opinion, that would help so many kids, especially with getting into college or a good job In the future.  At my school in Ecuador there were 26 different nationalities of students there with most of them speaking Spanish as their primary language. I knew people who knew 4 or 5 different languages! Most of them knew multiple languages  because of their family, their various cultures, travels and places they have lived and where they’re from.  So many students at the school in Ecuador knew 3 or more languages, which included English and Spanish. I learned that most countries have their primary language (such as Spanish) and most schools require students to learn English as well as another language (depending on the country) such as French, German, Italian or Japanese for instance. The United States is one of the few countries that only speaks one language.  Spanish is spoken all over the world!  Why isn’t the U.S. teaching their children a 2nd language?

In conclusion, I feel like elementary schools need to start teaching second languages as the students are learning their native language of the country they are living in. It would of helped me so much through those two years living in Ecuador. For those parents who want their children to succeed in school, college, and life, you should agree with me. There are far more reasons why elementary schools should do this versus not!