Here at DeMatha Catholic High School, the languages offered to students are Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Latin. The majority of students at DeMatha take Spanish as their language course, which is why there are six teachers dedicated to it.
Spanish is most likely the most popular language learned because there are so many people of Hispanic descent in the DMV, and most students learned Spanish in elementary and middle school and decided to stick with it through high school.
Mrs. Barreto, one of the Spanish teachers at DeMatha, says her journey to teaching Spanish was unplanned. “I first taught ESL (English as a Second Language) after I graduated from college,” Mrs. Baretto said. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after college; teaching kind of just landed in my lap. I saw an announcement ‘Teachers needed’ and that’s how I began teaching.”
It is important for non-Spanish speakers to learn Spanish, according to Mrs. Baretto. “Bad Bunny came out and said, ‘Hey, you have to learn Spanish prior to my Super Bowl Halftime Show,’ and so I’m starting to see a lot of people starting to learn Spanish now.” Non-Spanish speakers are learning how to speak Spanish to get involved with the culture, just like what people are doing prior to Bad Bunny’s halftime show.
There are lots of reasons for people to learn Spanish, but understanding the culture is arguably the most important one.
