Prime Minister’s Call for Spanish as Second Language is Unworkable
Spanish as Jamaica’s Second Language Highly Unlikely
Firstly, many students in high school are not proficient in the English Language. While English was handed to us by the colonizers, it continues to baffle many whose first language is our creole “patois”.
The Prime Minister needs to get firsthand information on the exceedingly poor use of English especially in non traditional high schools and some Inner City St. Andrew high schools.
I can tell there are numerous challenges as students’ grasp of grammar and word meaning is pathetic. We have a last generation that wasn’t exposed to disciplines such as geography and lack pre-reading experiences.
It is not alarming to discover that at Grade 11, some of these children would laugh if asked to give some meanings for the word bank.
Their upbringing would only alert them to bank being used in financial circles. Many would be ignorant of the fact that bank could refer to the land beside a river or body of water.
It is therefore preposterous for the Prime Minister to think of Spanish becoming a second language. His desire is a noble one but impractical and unlikely to succeed.
What the island’s schools can do are to improve the methodology and facilities so that students can study Spanish in a more structured way and not the way it is taught currently.
Personally, I do not think making Spanish a second language would work in my life time. Our people are undisciplined and not keen on learning a new language. We rarely have patience for that. The Prime Minister must also realize that Cuba does not have a second language. It does not push English or other languages as second language. English is certainly taught in Cuban high schools as well as Russian and Ukranian. I am almost certain I heard at some point that the authorities are also looking at teaching Chinese.
Politicians love to talk, but the talk as we know it in Jamaica is rarely backed up with action. Spanish is a great language, one of the romance languages and one which I believe all of us should learn. It however will always be in back alleys of important languages because our people are still grappling between the bipolar English /Patois.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Christie
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