by Ji’Asia Anderson

The Department of Labor estimates that almost 25,000 jobs are expected to open up for “interpreters (who focus on spoken language) and translators (who focus on written language), between 2010 and 2020,” as reported by money.cnn.com.

People who can speak more than one language earn between 5 and 20 percent more per hour than those who only speak one language, according to Salary.com.

The school offers Spanish classes, but dean Erie Lugo said that the school would bring back French if there was enough student interest.

“Spanish is the fastest growing language, and [knowing more than one language] can be useful for college and careers,” Lugo said.

Biology teacher Kenneth Dorman, who speaks only English, said that the school should have more language classes.

“[It would be] great to give students the option to learn other languages,” Dorman said. “It would give them some background on other languages for businesses, schools, etc.”

Spanish teacher Anais Ortega said that knowing Spanish helped her get her job. She said she believes that it is good to have Spanish classes at the school, since it’s the most spoken language other than English in the United States, she said.

“[Knowing another language] helps people communicate with other people and gives others the chance to have better careers,” Ortega said.

Lugo, who speaks both Spanish and English, said most countries speak more than one language: their native language and English, while America only has English as its primary language.

According to a 2014 American Community Survey, fourteen percent of Americans speak Spanish at home, while 78 percent speak English at home, as reported by washingtonpost.com.

The second most common spoken language in the U.S. is Spanish and there are 37 million native people who speak Spanish, according to infoplease.com.

When the school offered French classes, few students wanted to take the class, Lugo said, but if 15-20 students want to learn French, he would try to bring back French I.

“Learning a language from 6-10 years old is easier [than as a teenager],” Lugo said. “The earlier you learn, the better off you are to learn [a language].”

Assistant dean Sean Sawyer, who speaks only English, said that a disadvantage that comes with knowing only one language is that is hard to understand people when traveling to foreign countries.

“[It] would be great to bring back French and maybe add an Asian language like Japanese; it would be interesting to challenge students,” Sawyer said.

Sophomore Esteven Severino, who speaks both English and Spanish, said that sometimes he gets messed up with his English, but knowing two languages will help him get a good paying job in the future. He said it would be good to have another language class in the school.

“I know Spanish already, there would be something new to learn,” Severino said.

Sophomore Claire Carter said she would like to have French or Chinese taught at the school.

“There’s a whole bunch of other languages in this world [other than] Spanish; there’s so much to learn,” Carter said.

Mathematics teacher Fanta William speaks four different languages: English, French, Ouolof from her mother who was born in Senegal, and Bambaia from her father who was born in Mali. William said she thinks that there is “no disadvantage to knowing more than one language.”

“People are flexible, open-minded, they know different cultures, they can communicate when traveling, and [have] the ability to use different tools.”