Why Should We Learn Languages?

This week, I want to talk to you about a question. The question is, “why should we learn languages?” I wanted to discuss this question because I feel like the answer, and to have a solid answer to this question, is going to help us even more than our students. It’s going to help us in the moments where we’re having a bad day, when things are not working for us.

Having a solid answer to this question is so important. I also will share with you how my answer to this question has evolved during the years, and how I share this answer with my students so that it creates an impact on them. We want to motivate them and get them inspired to learn languages!

Learning Languages is Bigger Than Ourselves

I think the answer is more important for us as language teachers than for our students.  Simon Sinek has a great book that is called Find your Way. He said this: 

“We do not necessarily find happiness in our jobs every day.”

Isn’t that the truth? We can feel fulfilled by our work every day though, and it can make us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. I think that’s why the answer to the question “why learn languages?” is so important for you, and for me, because you know how hard it is to be a language teacher.

For most of our schools, we are electives. We don’t have resources, and we have overcrowded classes. We have multiple preps. Sometimes our administrators don’t even know exactly what a language class should look like. So, it’s hard to come to a class every day with all these ideas with all this desire and finding ourselves in situations where we doubt our ability to be a teacher. Thinking that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves is so important.

Tell Students Why We Learn Languages

Of course, it’s important for our students. When they know why we learn languages, especially when you’re talking about high school students and some middle school students, they will find inspiration and motivation to go through the hard parts. Being in a language class is hard for students, whether they’re 13, 14, or 15. They’re probably going to mispronounce words. It will feel pretty uncomfortable, and it’s scary for our students to be in the class. This is why it’s important that they know the why.

How My Answer Evolved

So, let me tell you how this answer has evolved for me. At the very beginning of my career as a teacher, 17 years ago, I thought that it was important for me to share the why with my students. So, I went online found some reasons and thought they were good reasons. I think many people would.

One popular reason is that it is going to improve your standardized test. Okay, that’s important, but only for some of our students. Other reasons were that you can have better opportunities in your profession and that you will make more money in your profession. Those are pretty good reasons, but, again, only for some of our students. I didn’t relate to those reasons. Something bigger than myself wasn’t to have a better SAT score, or make more money, or being able to be in Madrid. It was hard for me to articulate my why until this February.

My Mom’s Story

In February of this year, my mom was walking in my neighborhood and fell. She was bleeding badly. A lady stopped and called 911. They took her to the hospital, but they never called me. You see, my mom doesn’t speak English. So, I didn’t know what happened to her. When I found out that she was missing, I called the police. I called my neighbors. I had all of my family and friends looking for her. It was really, really scary!

Five hours later, I found her in the hospital, and she was assigned as Jane Doe. When I went to see her, she was so scared. She said to me, “I tried”. She tried to tell them that her daughter was a Spanish teacher, but she just didn’t exactly remember my phone number. However, she knew my school’s name and tried to communicate in her language, and nobody listened.

When I was sitting with my mom at the emergency room. I understood exactly why learning languages is important. Learning languages is important because it allows us to communicate with people. It allows us to see people and connect with people. It allows us to be inclusive with people on a daily basis in our community. I think that is bigger than us. That’s why I think our job is so important.

Empowering Our Students

When we talk to our students, we can articulate this really well for them. It will motivate them. You see, it’s not about mastering the past tense or the imperfect, it’s about communicating. When we let our students know that what we’re going do in our class is giving them the tools so that they can communicate outside our world, that will be motivation enough. You’ll have moments where they’re so proud of themselves because they were at the supermarket and helped somebody that didn’t speak English or the predominant language.

Our students get excited to tell us that they were able to understand, because something happens when our students are in our classes, they become aware of other languages. When they have been in your class, in my class, for a year or even for six months, their ears become different. They become aware that there are other languages.

When we empower our learners to be able to hear those voices, to see those people, we are giving them a gift, the gift of being able to communicate. I think that’s why our jobs are super important!

How We Tell Our Students

How do we tell our students? Is there a perfect way for us to communicate this strong message? This is what I did in my class. I came to my class, and I said to my students, “raise your hand if you have somebody in your family that speaks a language different than our predominant language?”, which is English in my case. A few students raised their hands. Then I asked, “raise your hand if you have friends or family members who speak a language different than English”. A lot of them raised their hands. Finally, I said, “raise your hand if you have ever heard somebody in our community that speaks a different language other than English?” All of them raised their hand. I said, “that’s what we’re going do in this class, we’re going to give you the tools so that you can communicate with them.”

That was powerful! I think when you are learning languages, your ears change, and you can perceive when other people are speaking a different language. For example, when you are in line paying for something, and you hear somebody and turn, you have this eye contact with that person. That person is going to feel seen, and that is powerful. That’s what we’re doing daily. I hope this helps you communicate the why to your students. 

The Why of My Podcast

Part of the reason I wanted to start a podcast is to share strategies, ideas, and activities to support you. I want to invite guests who will give you tools so that we can use them in language in class to learn about each other and really empower those learners to be communicators outside of class.

Don’t forget to join my free Facebook community at Growing with CI.

Have you listened to the trailer of the Growing with Proficiency: The Podcast yet? I talk about my why on starting one. Listen to it here.