I mean the whole school I went through kept nailing in our heads how much a foreign language would benefit you. I guess this went under the noses of whoever like teaching kids to balance a checkbook.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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      2 months ago

      Quebec isn’t Canada.

      Having to get documents translated is a cost of doing business in Canada. You don’t have to speak both languages to conduct business in Canada.

        • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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          2 months ago

          But we’re talking about economic utility. Quebec isn’t Canada; it is much smaller.

          In contrast, Mexico has a GDP near Canada as a whole and there isn’t a bilingual legal framework to support business deals. Furthermore, there are more Spanish speaking countries to make deals with in the Western Hemisphere; the closest that French has is Haiti.

            • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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              2 months ago

              But if you’re looking at an American choosing a language based on potential job opportunities, Spanish is likely going to offer far more upside than French unless that American has certain ties which would make French more relevant to them. For large parts of the USA, knowing Spanish will be more locally relevant than knowing French.

              It isn’t saying that French is a bad language for Americans to learn, but that most of the country would likely see Spanish as more economically useful.