2.6 What’s the value of a Spanish degree?
Allison Yakel and Whitney Chappell
What’s the point in getting a degree in Spanish? As you can see below, Allison thinks it’s essential to getting a career that makes use of your language.
Transcript: “It’s crucial to have a degree in Spanish because it gives credibility to your language skills. People can say they speak Spanish and that’s one thing, but when you say you have a degree in Spanish, it lends itself to people recognizing, oh okay this person really is functional in this language, and I wouldn’t be here without my degree in Spanish.”
In other words, anyone can claim to speak some degree of Spanish, but having a degree in Spanish clearly demonstrates that you’ve taken a range of language, culture, literature, and linguistics classes. You have the language skills and cultural knowledge needed for a job like the kind Allison has, and your degree is the evidence of that.
Another important note is that opportunities in the tech industry exist for every type of Spanish-speaker; whether you are a speaker of Spanish as a learned language or a heritage speaker, the same applies. Having language skills is important, but getting a degree in Spanish helps to solidify one’s status as a competent language professional.
