The Wichitan – Herbert McCullough
“She talked about how influential Spanish is to American culture. The Spanish-speaking community in the United States dates back to the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire, the aftermath of the Mexican-American War and immigration. “Spanish is very influential if you look at the name of some of the cities in the American Southwest,” Butler said.”The Spanish colonized parts of the United States in their efforts to expand Catholicism and their wealth. Spanish culture has been a part of the United States before the birth of the United States. We have a lot of immigrants from Spanish speaking countries and we have a lot of people who lived here for a generation who are Spanish speakers.” Yvonne Frank, associate professor of German, also explained how important learning a foreign language is. She said learning a foreign language is a form of cognitive training, meaning that learning a foreign language can make a student smarter and enhance their understanding. Frank also added that those who learn a foreign language have a higher salary.”(more)