In a neighborhood in Bountiful, Utah, several typical middle-class families raised their children. Their children played night games on the street in the summer, enjoyed skiing and sledding in the nearby mountains in the winter, and studied at regular public schools. One by one, they grew up, moved away and began families of their own.
But for several of those children, one part of their growing up years was not typical or ordinary. Before beginning college and their careers, they moved to a foreign country, studied and learned a new language, and became immersed in a new culture. And when they returned home to that neighborhood in suburban Utah, they returned a group of young adults who now collectively speak Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Ilonggo and Cebuano.
Similar stories could be told about almost any other street or neighborhood in our state. It is simply remarkable that a landlocked state with no seaports within its borders or foreign countries lining its limits can claim that collectively, its residents can speak 90 percent of the world’s written languages.
Besides the obvious increased international awareness and experience it gives its residents, this trait also gives Utah’s economy a valuable boost by opening opportunities and jobs where language skills are needed. As a report from the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDC) explains, Utah’s unmatched number of bilingual residents gives its workforce “a rare and unique skill set that no other state in the country can boast.”
Utah’s unparalleled bilingual skills are largely be attributed to the presence of the LDS Church’s Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC), which offers 1,100 instructors who teach one of 48 world languages to 24,000 missionaries annually. In fact, the language training programs at the MTC have become so successful that the National Security Agency (NSA) selected Utah for its language analyst offices, commenting that Utah’s famous facility was a significant factor in its site selection process.
Many missionaries trained in the MTC return to Utah to work and go to school following their church service, contributing to Utah’s unique university student bodies. According to the EDC report, 77 percent of BYU’s 30,000 students speak a second language and 47 percent have lived outside the U.S. for at least one year. Brigham Young University (BYU) offers studies in 80+ world language courses and 85 percent of seniors reported to the ability to speak a second language. But extensive foreign language skills aren’t limited just to BYU students; the University of Utah also offers studies in 17 different world language courses and over 180 languages are spoken by its students.
In a global economy, it isn’t a surprise that graduates who can boast fluency in foreign languages, especially Spanish, French, Chinese, and even American Sign Language (also taught at the MTC), are more attractive to businesses and organizations looking to hire. In fact, a 2012 National Journal article, “Utah: An Economy Powered by Multilingual Missionaries,” attributed Utah’s low unemployment rate and growing global exports “to a state workforce that can sell goods to foreign countries- in their own languages.” According to the office of Governor Gary Herbert, Utah’s bilingual workforce was influential in persuading American companies with global reach to establish headquarters in Utah. Some of those companies include eBay, IM Flash Technologies, Twitter, Oracle, Goldman Sachs, Adobe, and Procter and Gamble. These organizations have brought thousands of jobs to Utah, and not just for our bilingual residents.
But Utahns’ linguistic abilities are no longer solely attributed to its residents who serve LDS missions. Utah elementary schools have become renowned nationwide for their foreign language immersion programs. About 80 elementary schools across the state are now participating in such programs, which devote half the school day to learning a second language.
Many children are learning Mandarin Chinese or Spanish, but other schools teach Ute, Navajo, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Hebrew and German.
Studies have shown that not only does foreign language training open doors of opportunities for our students, but that there are also other health and academic benefits as well. Recent research has shown that bilingual individuals are more efficient at multitasking, which may actually help delay the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Utah testing data also shows that students participating in the immersion program also score higher in the core subjects than kids not studying a second language.
I am proud of our state’s progress in providing opportunities for students to learn more about our world and its cultures, and I am proud of the individuals in our state who have brought opportunities to Utah through their multilingual abilities. They are certainly some of our most valuable assets. In the future, I believe that we will only see an increasing need for individuals who can reach across country lines and cross language barriers to create opportunities for growth and progress, and I see Utah leading the way.
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