English Country Converts to Spanish

You’d think they had it all: beaches, calypso and English.

Think again.

Trinidad and Tobago wants the entire country to learn Spanish by 2020. « If the government did not take this step, to ensure our nationals are not left behind this global trend of bi-lingualism, our nationals would not be competitive in the global marketplaces of tomorrow« , reads the website of the The Secretariat for The Implementation of Spanish.

Latin America is expected to be one of the booming economies of the next century. Demographically Spanish is on the rise all over the continent(s), including in the United States where Hispanics are now the most important minority. Brazil requires all schools to offer Spanish classes and encourages students to pick it as a second language instead of English.

The capital of Trinidad and Tobago, Port of Spain, is actively campaigning to be the seat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The challenger is Miami, the unofficial capital of the Hispanic USA.

Should French and English-Canadians still spend all their resources on learning each others languages or is not time for us to learn our own continent’s common language?

Discuss.