During a video chat with my parents, I found myself getting frustrated about 2 things that have bothered me in Rwanda about America. 1. Why did I never learn the metric system? 2. Why isn’t learning a second language required?
- Literally every other country knows and uses the metric system. Why aren’t we one of them? If any American travels anywhere else they are dropped into the world of Celsius, Kilometers, and Grams. My mom claims that I must have been taught the metric system and I forgot, but I seriously don’t think I was. And if I was, it must have been like a 2-day lesson in science class that was brushed off because it wasn’t practical to learn. You know what’s not practical to learn?! Trigonometry. (Unless you want to go into a math-related field, then more power to you).
- Since coming to Rwanda, I have made the potentially-impossible goal of raising my future children to be bilingual. Sure, schools require Spanish classes for a while and my high school required you to take a couple of language electives, but how many people really remember what they were taught in their 2 high school Spanish classes? Many of my friends in Rwanda are FLUENT in 2, 3, even 4 languages, and I’m left feeling dumb because language is not a priority in America. Rwandans are taught in French in their younger years because Rwanda is a Francophone country, and they’re taught in English later on because it is the “language of business”. Very practical. I believe it’s so important to know Spanish in America, because there are Spanish speaking people everywhere you go. When I lived in Florida, I knew as many Puerto Ricans as I did retirees. Language is a very unique and powerful way to connect with someone from a different background, so why don’t we see the importance in that?