Mikaila VanderZeyde

Journalism

Mrs. Milani

5/10/18

Disadvantages of monolingual speakers

In society today, rapid changes have been performed when discussing diversity throughout the country. From rural areas to urban there is a large scale of different types of culture that run through the country. Because of this continuing movement,  monolingual English speakers are at a clear disadvantage for many reasons.Monolingual English speakers will be passed up for jobs that pay an immense amount of money that would stabilize them in life, they won’t have much knowledge about a different language that teaches them something new like tradition, religion, or culture. Interactions with others who don’t speak English will also be a major disadvantage to many monolingual English speakers.

Because of rapid changes that the world experiences day in and out, businesses have spread out and not only moved maybe across the state, but in a whole other country. Because of the changes in locations, companies look for someone who speaks more than one language to work in that area because of the diversity there. Adding on to that, the pay would be through the roof compared to if you were working the same job in the United States.  Monolingual English speakers will be passed up on the job or stay within the country where speaking one language would be justifiable. However the pay would unsatisfactory when compared to someone who speaks languages other than English. Many opportunities open up when discussing language. Being monolingual limits you to have an open mind, not seeing how others might live. Citizens who do speak more than one language have the opportunity to experience how different someone’s life compared to theirs is. If you are working for a company out of the country most of expenses would be paid for by the company in order for you to stay there.

When talking about culture and the importance in job opportunities, there comes interaction. Interaction with others in the world is something that every single human being will deal with in their lifetime. However, when it comes to language one might come in a situation where they might need to interact with someone who might not speak English. Not only can interactions with people come in handy when in a situation it could create a friendship with someone from a whole other culture, which would allow you to gain more knowledge about language. When one learns about a certain type of language they are learning about the culture of that language, beliefs, religion, and so much more like food. Knowing more about different types of language could just be for personal fulfillment that comes with many great advantages.

In today’s time the world has evolved in many ways and still continues to change. Because of this monolingual English speakers today are at a disadvantage because of certain things in the world that would highly benefit them from speaking more than English. Speaking other languages would benefit you when it came to job opportunities as well as interacting with others.