Why My Push For Spanish?

[Jangle]

[QUOTE=Historian;n27511][FONT=Verdana]Look at the newspaper article below. Now, see why I

[Jangle]

In keeping with Vision 2030 Jamaica, which seeks to position the country to achieve developed country status by 2030, with the hope of making the country the place of choice to live, work, study, raise families, and do business, it is imperative that the development of second language learning continues in schools across the country.

Having bilingual citizens will create more job opportunities and attract investors to our country. Several countries within the European Union as well as the Nordic region have implemented targeted strategies to assist their students with second language acquisition, and they have witnessed great successes in their workforce. The time is now for us to adopt these techniques that will further enhance our students' language skills, prepare them to compete globally in a multicultural context, and promote internationalisation.

As a result of the interconnectedness of our societies, the need for second language mastery is of paramount importance. Due to globalisation, it is necessary for our students to at least be fluent in one other language. This can be a reality if our educators continue to implement effective teaching strategies in their classrooms in order to develop students' language skills and cultural and intercultural awareness and dispositions.

In 2016, the Ministry of Education implemented the National Standards Curriculum with an aim to, among other things, expose students to Spanish and French from the primary level. However, the paucity of trained teachers of foreign languages to undertake the tasks remain an elusive goal. Having pursued and obtained formal training at the university level, as a teacher of second language learning for over approximately a decade with teaching experiences in Colombia, Jamaica, and the USA, I have come to the realisation that there is a need to provide students with the opportunities and tools to hone their second language skills. Therefore, administrators, teachers, and students have to first see the relevance of studying a second language and make the necessary investments accordingly.

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colu...r-vision-2030/

[Jangle]

Two weeks ago I vacationed in the Dominica Republic at the Riu Resort in Puerto Plata. It was my first time there, and I was disappointed with my first sights of the island - the airport. It was a very tiny airport which fits the stereotypical small island look that you see in American made movies. The 40 minute drive from the airport to the hotel did not do much much to improve my perception of the island either. The place looked pretty run-down and impoverish. Of course, I was comparing it to Jamaica. It was like any rural Jamaican town, but a little worse. Maybe I am being biased when I compare it to Jamaica because I am going off my memories of sweet Jamaica.

The resort itself was nice; similar to say, Sandals Ocho Rios. The thing that impressed me the most, was that even though Spanish is the national language spoken there, the hotel staff were fluent in several languages - German, French, English, Dutch and some Italian. I made friends with one of the staff there, and she told me that the hotel was about 65% full. The majority of their guest came from Europe. Actually, at the time, there were only a few guests there from the USA. While most of their guests came from Spain (which is understandable), Germany, France and Italy, a good portion also came from the UK. Now that bit of information piqued my interest. I wanted to know why would a Brit want to travel all the way across the Atlantic to vacation in a Spanish speaking country when you have the rest of the English speaking Caribbean to go to? The Dominica Republic certainly does not have more or even half of the activities that jamaica has to offer, outside of the sun, sand and sea. The water was actually cold and the beach rocky to the point where I could not venture out into the sea more that about 5 to 10 feet. I was on the Atlantic side of the island.

According to the Dominica Republic Central Bank, in 2008, the breakdown of tourist arrivals by air were as follows:

Canada - 634,937
USA - 1,091,813
Mexico - 25,195
Cental America & the Caribbean - 119,809 (56,649 from Puerto Rico)
South America - 203,810
Asia - 14,642
Europe - 1,353,230
Germany - 207,893
Spain - 239,493
Italy - 133,319
France - 291,466
England - 216,130

These are some very big numbers by any count. Here I was thinking that outside of the Bahamas, Jamaica had this tourism thing on lock. We are joking. We need to shift our focus from the USA and push more into the European and Asian markets. Everybody in the Caribbean has the same three S's, and for someone coming from a cold climate, some don't know the difference in the better quality of beaches that Jamaica has to offer. Casino gambling is a MUST. The single most emphasis however, has to be the safety and peace of mind that a tourist must feel when he visits our shores. Jamaica (the name) conjures up many different images for tourists. Fortunately, most images are good ones. I don't think today's hijacking incident will have too much of an adverse effect on our product. It was very good that the security force was able to resolve the issue without bloodshed. I will continue this discussion tomorrow.

.....

[Jangle]

Historian


Why My Push For Spanish?

July 18, 2009, 12:07 PM
Look at the newspaper article below. Now, see why I

[Bricktop]

my push is for a programming language...every high school student should be graduating fluent in javascript or python...