The Benefits of Learning a Second Language

The Hispanic community is the majority minority in Rhode Island and across the United States. With Spanish becoming prevalent in everyday life – from public signs to product instructions – it’s hard to ignore its impact.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, over 130,000 Rhode Islanders speak Spanish, making it the most common non-English language spoken in the state.
When Lilly Ngolvorarath ’21 was growing up, she heard two languages spoken at home, “my two sisters are older, so they would take care of me and speak English, and my parents would speak Lao when they were home.” 
“My mom speaks Lao, Cantonese and Mandarin. She learned a little bit of French in school since Laos was colonized by the French, and she also knows a little bit of Japanese – enough to get by,” says Ngolvorarath.
“As a kid, I met a group of Spanish speakers who took me in as their friend, making me like the culture and the language much more. I started taking Spanish in sixth grade. Over time, I realized that I wanted to teach it.” 
Stories like Ngolvorarath’s are common among immigrant households in the United States. There are also stories like Laura Faria-Tancinco’s, coordinator of the ESL Intensive Program and Project ExCEL at RIC, who learned Spanish in her 20s only after she graduated college.
For Faria-Tancinco, being bilingual has helped her professional life. “It would not be possible to do the job I do here at RIC, if I were not bilingual or at least spoke another language like Spanish,” she says.  On a daily basis, she reads and responds to emails in Spanish and develops connections with Spanish-speaking students in and outside of the college.
“Being bilingual in the United States allows you to reach out to clients in ways that wouldn’t be possible if you only spoke one language. Especially if you are in the business of serving people rather than selling products,” says Faria-Tancinco.
Ngolvorarath recalls the benefits of being bilingual during the seven years she worked for Providence courts and the Pawtucket and Cranston probation offices. Not only did her Spanish improve, but she was able to change people’s lives. 
“I will never forget the surprised smile that appeared on people’s faces and the sense of comfort they had when I spoke to them in Spanish,” she says. “There’s a switch that turns on in their brain that says, ‘Oh, there’s someone who can help me.’ At that point, people are more forthcoming.”  

Though the language-learning journey was not the same for these two professionals and began at different ages, each one believes that speaking more than one language has been beneficial to their social, professional and personal lives.

“At the most basic level, speaking another language expands the possibilities of the people you can meet, the places you can visit, the food you can eat, the TV shows and music you can enjoy,” says Faria-Tancinco. “I listen exclusively to music in Spanish. I don’t know why, but it calls my attention more than music in English. That is a part of me that changed forever.”

She notes that many of her bilingual adult learners with children are in the dilemma of which language to use in their home, whether to speak in their native language or just in English. 

“I explain to them that kids will learn English in school or out of the house,” she says. “But at home, your job is to be a parent. If you can parent in English, great. But if you are a better parent in your native language, you should use it.” 

Speaking in one’s native language helps the children “create strong and lasting roots in their culture, heritage and identity,” she says, “and helps them build stronger connections with family members – grandparents, aunts and uncles – who speak the family’s native language.”

“As a teacher, I want to expose young children to a world they might not have known and get them to see language not as a barrier between people but as an instrument to connect with others,” says Ngolvorarath. “If given the right tools, resources and support, they learn to love languages. As a result, the entire community is much richer and much more connected.”  

Faria-Tancinco says the opportunity to listen to and speak other languages is “the beauty of America.”