Just last week Iread that in 2008 one in every four new American is Hispanic. At thatrate it seems that Hispanics are going to soon be a majority in thiscountry. At that rate it seems that as Americans, we have to adjustto the demographics and have to make sure that we learn Spanish toremain competitive in this landscape.



That is not to saythat this growing demographic must not learn our language andcustoms, but becoming assimilated will take time and perhaps one ortwo generations. This is no different from other cultures that havecome to America though. Anyhow, to continue to be competitive in ourcountry and more so in this global landscape we must understand thatwe have to have more focus in learning other languages and given thegrowing population, Spanish is a must.

In my travels to and Latin America, I was surprised to learn that most of thepeople I encountered were fluent in more than one language. Not onlydid they speak their native tongue, but many had mastered at leasttwo others. With my little Spanish I was out to venture on my ownwhen I wanted to visit towns outside of the capitals. In college, my friends, those who were international students, spokemore than 4 languages fluently. It made me pity my public schooleducation and country, which had taught me to speak only one languagein the wake of globalization.

But given our newmarket, do you know how much money is spent on ads? Thatshould tell you how much buying power this demographic has. We can nolonger afford saying No to Spanish if we want to land that hot shotgig or just remain competitive in this global landscape.