I have a very distinct memory from my first year at Pitt, when I was attending a youth leadership conference in Jerusalem, with young people from all over the world. As an ice-breaker one afternoon, we shared which languages we could speak, and between the group of about 20 we could speak almost 20 languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, German, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, Afrikaans, and Korean. While every person could speak English, myself and the other Americans I was with were limited to only our native language.
I came to the conclusion that language proficiency is an essential skill in an increasingly globalized world, and that being an American and only speaking English is, relatively speaking, a privileged position. I decided to take Spanish language classes at Pitt for my global studies requirement because as the demographics of the United States continue to evolve, it will be very important to have Spanish proficiency in the working world – this is especially true for me as someone who plans on working in neighborhood and community development.
My four semesters of Spanish at Pitt gave me a strong backbone with the Spanish language, and although I would only consider my current skillset to be elementary or intermediate proficiency, I believe that I have developed a strong foundation that I can continue to work with as I continue to build my language skills.