Oh No, Gotta Go: Spanish Language In America
Communication is vital. Sometimes, this refers to communication between friends, family, and spouses. Other times, this refers to simply being able to talk to someone. If communication is not possible, the spread of ideas can never happen. In order to communicate, two people must be able to use and understand the same medium of communication. For example, if one person has a cell phone, and another person does not, the two cannot talk. In the same way, a person who speaks only English cannot speak with a person who only speaks Spanish. In America, this happens far too often. The rising volume of Spanish-speaking immigrants into the United States makes it necessary for Americans to learn Spanish. Susan Middleton Elya wrote Oh No, Gotta Go! to promote learning the Spanish language at a young age, which is greatly beneficial in modern America.
Oh No, Gotta Go! is a children’s book written by Susan Middleton Elya for the purpose of introducing Spanish to kids. To do this, it uses a short, fun story about a girl who needs to use the bathroom and uses Spanish and English to find one. The story effectively keeps children engaged because kids can both relate to and find humor in needing to use the bathroom. Elya also uses simple rhythm and rhyme to make the story easier to read and fun to listen to. The primary method used to teach Spanish in the book is vocabulary, which is primarily used at the end of lines in rhymes. This puts focus on the Spanish vocabulary; when reading rhymes aloud, natural emphasis is placed on the last word in the line. This emphasis being placed on the Spanish words leads the child to remember them effectively. Illustrator G. Brian Karas uses fun drawings with a clear subject to help kids draw a connection between a word and an object. When kids make a mental connection between a basic Spanish word and an item they see regularly, they remember what the word means. This plants a firm foundation for learning Spanish early, which is absolutely vital. According to a TIME Magazine article from 2018 written by Jamie Ducharme, the brain’s language-learning ability begins to decline at ten years old. It is much easier to learn a second language as a child than it is as an adult.
Taking advantage of a child’s learning ability is smart, especially if they learn an incredibly useful language such as Spanish. United States Census research from 2009 says that out of over 285 million Americans over the age of five years old, 35 million of them (approximately 12%) speak Spanish at home. That number has increased by 219% since 1980, while the American population as a whole has only increased 35% in the same time frame. This leads one to believe that Spanish is a rapidly expanding language in America, and if the trend continues, Spanish could potentially rival English as the dominant American language. Going forward, learning Spanish will become more and more important. As the American population becomes more diverse linguistically, speaking only English will be a huge disadvantage. Being bilingual will become less of a unique advantage in the workplace and more of an expected skill. Monolingual workers will be far behind the crowd in the job market. If Spanish is taught to children at a young age, the United States will have a much more skilled, valuable workforce.
Susan Middleton Elya wrote Oh No, Gotta Go! to introduce basic Spanish vocabulary to children. Her goal was to plant seeds early in life that could grow into an interest in learning Spanish. She targeted children as her audience because learning languages is easier to do at a young age. Spanish is spreading quickly in America, and in order to keep up with an evolving culture, future generations will need to be able to communicate with Spanish speakers; starting to learn early leads to great advantages later in life.
