Article Review

Recently, after reading The Keystone Newspaper, I came across an article on page 5 titled “Why students should learn Spanish.”  The article explained that the percentage of Latino/Hispanic people that live in Berks County is 18.1 percent, and that Spanish is a growing language, not only in Berks County, but also in the United States. 

I found the article clearly biased because of the fact that the author is trying to convince her audience to learn Spanish.  My question is, why does the author only want us to learn Spanish?  A more appropriate title for this article should be “Why students should consider being bilingual.”  In the article, the author explains that if we know another language then we will benefit from the following: gaining better understanding of other cultures, being able to find a job easier than the person who does not speak another language, helping the company expand internationally, and gaining a better pay rate, according to salary.com, between “5 to 20 percent hour more than the position’s base rate.”    

Although I do agree with the author’s reasoning, I do not agree with her conclusion of just learning Spanish.  Yes, Spanish is a growing language in America but the above is also true if you are able to speak any language.  For example, I am learning German, not only for the above reasons, but also because I want to gain better knowledge of my ancestors.  The author explains that if we know other languages besides English then we will be losing insight of our own culture here in America, when in reality that is the total opposite.  America wasn’t around forever.  America didn’t just come to be one day.  It took many people from other cultures to create America, and by knowing those cultures and their languages will we then be able to better understand our country.   

Another reason why this article is biased is because the author claims that we live in an English-speaking country, when in reality America does not have an official language.  To think that most Americans only speak English is ignorance.  The author also goes on explaining her shocked reaction about people in Spain not only speaking Spanish, but also speaking a good amount of English, German, and Latin.  Most countries in Europe teach their students different languages at young ages.  And some countries in Europe even have more than one official language.