I believe that students should learn a second language at a young age

Roshan’s this i believe

I believe that students should learn a second language at a young age.

I can relate to this belief very well. Being Swiss, my family exposed me to French at an early age. We would travel to Switzerland to visit family quite often. My grandmother told me that my first word was in French. That being said, my mother enrolled me in a French school around pre-k. We spoke English at the house but at school we would only speak French other than the two days a week when we had English class. Science was taught in French. Math was taught in French. We even learned about the history of France: all in French. It was great practice. Speaking both languages an excessive amount every day helped me become bilingual. I feel that it is important to know a second language because it promotes a sense of diversity and gives you international opportunities. Opportunities that include traveling to foreign countries where you would know their native language and blend in well. Job opportunities as well.

Leaving the French school was tough. Coming from a school where you spoke French 90% of the time to an American public school was a big change in my life. The transition may have only been from 5th grade to 6th grade but think about it… That’s elementary school to middle school! You all should know how big of a deal that was for us! My first day was rough but where I really struggled was in English class. My teacher started the class with simple grammatical exercises but to be honest, I had no idea what we were doing. I’d look around the classroom and see everyone hard at work. But then I caught the teacher’s eye. She saw the confusion on my face and knew that I was struggling. She came up to me and told me to see her after class. The bell rang and I went up to her desk. She asked me if I was the new student who came from the international school and I told her yes. She told me not to worry too much about the class but to see her for help whenever I needed it. And so I did. I went to see her several times after school for extra help and it did definitely help. But one day, I asked her when I would be able to start taking a French course. I found out that we wouldn’t be able to take another language course until 7th grade. I was in shock. I didn’t understand why we would have to wait another year to learn a second language.

Luckily, 7th grade came fast. I signed up for French 1 and could not wait for class. Once we received the first lesson, I noticed that we were learning the basics. It felt like all review for me. But for everyone else, I could hear my peers complaining about how hard it is. This is when I realized that they should’ve had the same opportunity I did and had been taught a second language earlier. It wouldn’t have been as difficult for them if that was the case.

It was easy for children at such a young age to learn English so why not add the second language? Children learn their first language during the critical learning period of their life but it is said that after learning that first language, children should have an easy time to learn a second language. Studies say that the learning of the second language occurs in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas of the brain. Speech production and language processing occurs in the Broca’s area whereas language comprehension, recognition, and interpretation occur in Wernicke’s area. Why am I giving you these facts? Because these are the locations in the brain where language is processed the most and learning this second language at a young age is quite helpful. When the brain is still forming, it would be easier for a child to develop the skills necessary to learn a second language.

This is why I believe that students should have the opportunity at every school to learn a second language at a young age.