This fall, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures launched a new concentration in applied professional Spanish, which focuses on providing students a higher level of language proficiency for business- and health care-related topics. The concentration is an expansion on the department’s Spanish for specific purposes certificate, launched in 2008, and its Spanish for business minor, which they began offering in 2010.
Around 55 million Hispanic people live in the United States, and the U.S. Census Bureau projects that Hispanic people will comprise more than 28 percent of the total population by 2060. Professor of Spanish Lourdes Sánchez-López, who directs the certificate program, says learning Spanish is a smart choice for students wanting to prepare for the future of American business.
“There are more Spanish-speaking people in the United States than there are in Spain itself or in all seven countries in Central America combined,” said Sánchez-López. Spain has around 46.5 million residents, she added, and there are more than 500 million Spanish-speakers worldwide in 22 different countries. “If students want to be proactive and competitive, they should learn Spanish.”
“Any student who would like to have a global or international career, either here in the United States or abroad, would be a perfect fit in this program.” |
Practical pioneers
When Sánchez-López joined the department in 2001, she began working to add courses that focused specifically on speaking and using Spanish in professional fields. When the certificate program and minor offering proved popular — the certificate is the first and only of its kind in the Southeast — Sánchez-López thought adding a concentration was the next logical progression, she said.
The new concentration, intended to be used alongside studies of everything from business management to education or nursing, offers classes in Spanish for health professions and business, plus interpretation and translation. In the future, Sánchez-López hopes to expand the program to include Spanish for law enforcement and legal interpretation.
Professor of Spanish Lourdes Sánchez-López
Courses for the applied professional Spanish (APS) program begin at the 200 level with intermediate and advanced courses; students can take SPA 101, 102 and 201 alongside traditional Spanish majors.
“We have been pioneers in the country,” Sánchez-López said. “Any student who would like to have a global or international career, either here in the United States or abroad, would be a perfect fit in this program.”
Global competitors
In the nearly two decades Sánchez-López has been at UAB, she has worked to foster community partnerships across Birmingham — partnerships that will come in handy when APS students need to earn their internship or service-learning credit through the program’s capstone course, Spanish for Leadership at the Workplace.
The main objective of the course is to transform the linguistic landscape of Birmingham, Sánchez-López says, and make public spaces in Birmingham more inclusive to the Latino community.
“Students will work directly with community partners in the health care, business and nonprofit sectors that cater to the Latino community,” Sánchez-López said.
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“There are more Spanish-speaking people in the United States. than there are in Spain itself or in all seven countries in Central America combined. If students want to be proactive and competitive, they should learn Spanish.” |
By enabling the students to do hands-on work in Birmingham, Sánchez-López says UAB will solidify in them qualities that make them unique in the job market.
“They will be better able to adapt to complex problems, be more flexible in diverse environments, more amenable to working with diverse teams in the workplace,” Sánchez-López said. “They become more empathetic, more aware of the ‘other’ in terms of international relations. They won’t need anyone to help them navigate a conversation if they are a nurse or other health care provider or even a police officer.”
The United States is one of few countries that, in general, does not require students to be bilingual from a young age, Sánchez-López says. On the linguistic front, international students are often more prepared for and competitive in the global job market.
“We’re going to get our students to that same level,” Sánchez-López said.
