Park participates in the Minnesota Bilingual Seals as well as the Global Seal of Biliteracy certification, where juniors and seniors receive their certification reflecting their proficiency in two or more languages. These were awarded in C350 May 22.
According to Spanish teacher and event coordinator Hanna Anderson, the ceremony is an opportunity to give students recognition. She said it helps students use this for recognition of their second language, even if they don’t learn it in school for college credit or job/college applications.
“For me, it’s become an opportunity to give students the recognition they deserve. After either having studied a second language for years, or after speaking the language and using the language at home, being heritage speakers,” Anderson said. “Having a second language at home and then getting that recognition so they can actually get college credit, or just use that for their job applications, scholarship applications (and) college applications.”
According to junior Adin Lindell, the certification is useful to put on resumes as an official sign that you are a bilingual student. They said with or without it, they would still know the two languages, but it is helpful to apply it professionally.
“It’s a good thing to put on a resume, a college application or a job application, and it’s just helpful to have something that’s set,” Lindell said. “With or without the bilingual seal, I’m still bilingual, but it’s useful to have something that says that, that I can put on a resume, so that it’s official.”
According to senior Jasmine Henriquez, she underestimated how well she thought she did on her exams, which ultimately boosted her confidence in the language and in herself after receiving the certification. She said she sees it as an achievement and is very pleased with how she did.
“It means to me a big accomplishment that I work through a lot and that I’m good at speaking the language (that) I was trying to get the certificate for,” Henriquez said. By getting the gold one, I feel really proud of myself because I thought I was going to get a lower one, but when I saw my name on the gold seals, I said, ‘Oh, I did pretty well.’”
Henriquez said she has Spanish language in her culture from her dad being from a different country. She said working on her Spanish writing skills and learning it in school is important for her family and to make her dad proud of her.
“My dad speaks Spanish, so I (speak) it mostly at home all the time, but then I decided to take it at school because the teacher was fun, and it seemed like a really good opportunity for me to know how to write it because I have some difficulties on that,” Henriquez said. “It reminds me a lot of my culture because my dad is from a different country, and me speaking Spanish makes him proud to know that I’m also following his steps on knowing a different language.”
Lindell said it’s significant because it is proof of the learning process for a foreign language. They said it allows them to speak to more people in the world with the additional language knowledge.
“It’s meaningful because it’s tangible and represents the work that I’ve been through to learn the language, and also it’s kind of just part of the world to be able to do more things, talk to more people and have more experiences now,” Lindell said.
Anderson said that with AI (artificial intelligence) and computers, it stops the ability to communicate with people in person in their preferred language. She said language skills are important, no matter what your job is, to make connections and relationships, and to be able to communicate in real time.
“In a world of AI, sometimes people think, ‘I don’t need to speak another language, I can just put this in Google Translate and it will be translated for me.’ But nothing beats the ability to be able to communicate in another language in real time,” Anderson said. “Whether you are a lawyer and need to speak to a client, or) if you are a nurse and need to work with a patient and address their needs in the moment. If you do customer service, if you can actually talk to a person in the language of their preference, that can do wonders. So you can not only make more money, but (you can) establish connections and relationships, and they just do a better job in the first place, but also be able to connect with more people.”
