Don't say 'adios' to diversity in Blair's foreign language courses

In today's ever-expanding and connected society, it would be wonderful if we all could speak every single language - an impossible goal. Nevertheless, we have students who have taken it upon themselves to try, through enrolling in a variety of foreign languages. As long as the door of opportunity remains open, the appreciation for foreign languages, particularly those less commonly studied, will grow.

Unfortunately, this opportunity maybe lost if the enrollment rate is not high enough and Blair may have to cut some of these courses or the different levels may have to be merged in order to meet the quota of students required to be in each class.

Blair offers a number of foreign languages for study - Spanish, French, Latin, Arabic and Japanese. Despite the variety, mainstream languages such as Spanish and French, remain the choice of most students. According to guidance counselor Roland Hollins, Blair currently does not plan on cutting any foreign language courses from the curriculum, but has already merged different levels of the same courses into one class. "It takes 20 students to keep the subject," says Hollins, and if the enrollment rate continues to drop below 20, then the course will be cut all together.

Enrollment in language classes changes yearly due to a variety of factors. For instance, engaged and interested students may increase participation through word of mouth, motivating their peers to take on new and higher level languages. Since the introduction of Japanese, Arabic and Latin to Blair three years ago, Latin has already made waves by forming its own honor society in appreciation of the language.

The honor society tries to help increase the enrollment rates of the language by organizing events that get other students that are not currently taking the courses involved with the language, which in return might spark their interest. Also, because students are not commonly exposed to these languages in middle school, many students may try to change upon entering high school.

Although some students do take these out-of-the-box languages, they would have to start the whole process from a novice level while Spanish and French students got a head start in middle school which is why most of them go on to take the higher levels of these languages. There are very few students in the higher-level classes of non-standard languages because they have to start at a basic level in high school and many of them chose not to do so because they consider it to be a lot more work, rather than continuing a foreign language with which they are already familiar. But for the students who want to learn a whole new language, the opportunity must remain open.

According to Hollins, many students take foreign languages not only in hopes of being able to speak them, but to further communicate with students from different backgrounds and cultures and learn the development of syntax. This kind of opportunity is priceless in a diverse community such as Blair. The more knowledge students can obtain about different cultures, such as language, the easier it will be to interact with different people and make Blair a closer community.

In fact, some students aspire to become fluent in multiple languages and can also benefit from their knowledge of linguistics on standardized tests. College Board offers SAT Subject Tests in several languages, including Spanish, French, Latin and Japanese. And on the SAT Reasoning Test, knowing Latin can help with the critical reading section, according to Hollins.

Not only do these languages help with getting into college, they also help with obtaining a future career. According to Hollins and the Web site of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, there is a high demand for bilingual people in the United States work force. Since the work force of the United States consists primarily of people from different backgrounds and nationalities, employees that are bilingual are more valuable to companies because they can speak and interact with people from other companies all over the world and customers who cannot speak or understand English. This would make those employees not just employees but mediators and translators and increase the amount of their overall paycheck and in some cases less susceptible to being terminated.

Some of the languages that Blair offers, such as Latin, Japanese, and Arabic, are not all offered at other schools such as Wheaton, Northwood, Albert Einstein and John F. Kennedy who only offer one of these courses at best. This contributes to the uniqueness of the school because Blair offers a broader span of choices. Among the reasons students choose Blair is the diverse programs that it offers, particularly the versatile foreign language program. Taking away such a major part of Blair's identity would cut a fundamental part of the school's diversity.

Although enrollment for the upcoming year in languages such as Latin, Arabic and Japanese may not be high, those language classes should not be cut from Blair's courses. A diverse array of foreign languages is crucial to the community and academic environment of Blair which is why the boarding of our knowledge of different languages must continue to widen by taking advantage of the less frequently taught foreign language courses that Blair has to offer.