Breaking Barriers by Torri

Breaking Barriers by Torri - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

Our world is vast, diverse and enriched in various cultures. This nation of such diversity has run into many barriers and inequalities between the different races and cultures. From the civil war, the civil rights movement and immigration reform our nation has gone to great links to break down these barriers between cultures, but there is always room for improvement.
One major issue that has yet to be properly addressed is the language barrier between citizens of our nation and others. Language is one of the most essential forms of communication between yourself and those who are different from you. This is the key to establishing relationships between several different cultures and dissolving the lines that separate us. All too often people are ignored or treated differently simply because they are misunderstood due to the language barrier. We have attempted to solve this problem by offering foreign language classes in high schools and colleges across the nation but we have made little progress in this attempt. The classes are not challenging enough and are far too brief to effectively teach someone to speak the language. The only way to truly begin to learn a language and adapt to it is to be immersed in the culture around it and those who speak it.Opportunities to study abroad can give students the ability to learn a language different than their own. The minimum foreign language credit requirements in schools simply isn’t enough to truly teach a language.
As of my senior year of high school I will have taken Spanish class every year since 8th grade, while many of you would think I would be fluent by now this is unfortunately not the case. As a result of my five years as a Spanish student I can now manage to string together an elementary level sentence and ask where the ”baño” is, but real world communication with a native Spanish speaker is next to impossible for me and all too often becomes a reality. Since I have entered the work force I have encountered many occasions where a costumer that spoke little English would come into my job with an apprehensive look on their face, that mirrored mine, knowing we were going to have trouble communicating. I always felt embarrassed and ashamed that I could not help the customer as effectively as I could of if I spoke their language. This is a scenario that happens all too often in America. We are supposed to be ‘the melting pot’ of the world yet we can’t effectively communicate with the 74% of Hispanic Americans who speak little to no English.
If we don’t effectively teach foreign language then we will never get past our racial and cultural differences. The only way to solve this problem is to require that colleges make study abroad programs a core part of the curriculum. This can give students the opportunity to learn other languages and cultures that they otherwise would not be exposed to. If we can effectively execute this plan than we can finally be able to be a united nation of diversity and acceptance.