EDITORIAL: Barbados must become multilingual
Over the years there have been many discussions at the level of government and the society, about Barbadians needing to enhance their language skills, and the suggestion has often been touted that our people and indeed our country could benefit from becoming a multilingual society.
But, while the idea of Barbados becoming a multilingual, or at least bilingual society has been talked about, and there appeared to be a willingness to make that a reality, we have failed to actually do so, to the detriment of our people and our country.
It was therefore heartening to realise that included in the terms of reference of the recently formed Republican Status Transition Advisory Committee (RSTAC), which has as its mandate, to plan and lead the transition of the island from a monarchical system to a republic, the matter of this country’s monolingual dilemma is being addressed. According to the press release on the 10-member team, they have also been asked to examine the benefits and possibilities of Barbados becoming a multilingual country, given the fact that some of our regional neighbours speak languages other than English. Perhaps this is the first step towards correcting a problem that has long plagued our country and our people.
Now, while our children are exposed to foreign languages in the secondary school setting and in some cases, are required to do either Spanish or French at the level of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination, most learn just enough to pass the exam, and they forget what they have learnt once they are no longer studying it. This is truly unfortunate, as Barbadians reside in a region where people are fluent in Spanish, French and Portuguese.
The need to improve our language skills is even more vital as we seek to recover from the damaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we look to countries, outside of our major source markets to attract tourists from. There can be no denying that Barbados would benefit considerably from its workforce becoming bilingual or even multilingual, especially given the fact that we are a country that relies so heavily on tourism, and there is also the potential for us to attract more companies in the international business sector. Also as the world becomes even more digitally globalised, it would serve Barbadian companies well, both large and small, who are seeking to sell their goods or services to the wider world, to be able to communicate with persons whose native tongue is not English.
But, getting this country to become multilingual will not happen overnight. It will call for efforts to be made to introduce foreign languages from the nursery and primary school levels, and in a more expanded format than is currently the case, if we are to really take advantage of the opportunities that exist. The argument can be made that if we can offer language courses to children throughout the education system, starting at the nursery level, we could see the fruits of that work starting to blossom in a decade or two. We would have the opportunity to develop a generation who are at least bilingual, and hopefully multilingual.
Certainly, Spanish as a second language would serve us well, but equally important is learning other languages such as Mandarin. For example, if we acknowledge that nearly 155 million Chinese tourists travelled across the world in 2019, the Chinese tourism market is one we should be seeking to explore more when tourism rebounds. In such a case, we should ensure that there are workers not only at our ports of entry, but hotels, villas, stores and restaurants who can communicate with them in their native tongue, ensuring that there is no language barrier.