Thread: Fla. must speak globally!

To compete, Florida must speak globally
Palm Beach Post Commentary

Sunday, November 19, 2006

By MARK B. ROSENBERG

When U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that she was commissioning a comprehensive study of higher education in America, she sent shock waves throughout the nation's universities. Another federal study? More Washington intrusion? What would be the focus? What changes would the study recommend?




The worries were unjustified. The recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education were released Sept. 26, and they are good. They address needed reforms and, in the case of Florida's public universities, they align with changes already under way.

The findings deal with a number of key areas - affordability, for example, and assessment of student achievement, access and accountability. All are important to the continued success of Florida's state university system.

The commission also weighed in on international education - which is of special concern to the citizens of this state. Florida is an international state - we conduct billions of dollars in trade beyond our borders every year. This makes international studies - encouraging graduate students from other nations to come to Florida to study, and making it easier for Florida students to study abroad - a priority.

Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat made it clear that most policymakers underestimate the rapid rate of globalization of the American economy. The marketplace has already gone worldwide and is pulling each of us along with it.

Perhaps some of us - those of us near to retirement, or those of us in jobs that cannot be commodified in a global sense - can continue as we have. If you mow lawns or paint houses, your job is secure. If you deal with trade or information or many other services - design, accounting or engineering, for example - you are being globalized, whether you know it or not.

Globalization brings with it tremendous opportunities, especially for Florida, which is comfortable doing business with various peoples, languages and cultures. Florida is already a financial center for Latin America. It can become a trade center for the entire East Coast - if it prepares for that future.

This means our higher education system needs to change, as the Commission on the Future of Higher Education suggests. We need to change dramatically. We need to transform our state universities into the training grounds for global engagement. We must prepare students today for the cultural, ethical and economic challenges of a truly international marketplace.

Our plan would focus on two strategies: Improving our contact with other nations, through expansion of international education and study abroad, and improving our ability to communicate, through establishment of foreign-language programs that take advantage of new technologies.

To compete in the new economy - an economy not just of global trade but of global exchange of ideas and innovations - we must build our comfort level and understanding of the world's cultures and their economies. This understanding starts with language.

Our universities have, for years, taught languages - French, German, and, of course, Spanish. These languages, however, don't open up the opportunities they did in the past. China is a rising power - we need to speak the languages of China, yet they are not offered at every university. Brazil is Florida's largest trade partner - but not every university offers courses in Portuguese. Moreover, studies in Arabic, Farsi, Korean and even Japanese can be hard to find.

This must change. To engage the world, we have to speak the languages of the world. This is why I am proposing the establishment of a Virtual Language Institute to facilitate the study of critical languages.

The Virtual Language Institute would be a cooperative effort of all 11 public universities in Florida. Using distance learning techniques and technology, students from any university can study and earn credit for languages taught elsewhere.

In addition, the Virtual Language Institute will explore tapping into the language expertise in universities throughout the South - and even abroad. I want to give Florida's students maximum exposure to the greatest variety of languages - be it Kurdish, Korean or Kazakh.

The state university system would offer the institute's expertise as a service to Florida's business community. If a Florida company secured a foothold in China, then the Virtual Language Institute could offer a condensed course in the appropriate language, the culture and the economy. This could be an asset for Florida companies establishing international operations.

Language is the key to the gate of global opportunities. But there is more to understanding a nation and a culture than speaking the language. Our students must immerse themselves in these cultures to be fully conversant. This means bringing students from abroad into our campuses, and sending our students over there.

I have asked our experts in international study to examine this issue and help me draft a strategy for expanding these opportunities. In keeping with recommendations of the Spellings commission, I want to increase the enrollment of foreign students in our 11 state universities, and I want to expand the number of students studying abroad.

The hands-on knowledge such cultural contact provides is invaluable. It is vital to our security and to our success.

We live in a global environment - that is undeniable. But will we thrive? Yes, if we prepare now for the changes that are rushing to meet us. I believe this plan - more robust opportunities for language study and greater exposure to other nations and their peoples - is how Florida's universities can best prepare our citizens for that future.Mark B. Rosenberg is chancellor of the State University System of Florida.

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I went to Florida International University and found that they did teach Portuguese. The German class was very small. As for some of the other languages mentioned they would also not be popular. They offered Russian for only one or two semesters and that was it.
As for the Latin businesses it is a well known fact that they hire their own. In fact there was even an article in the Miami Herald business section about the discrimination among Hispanics from different countries. I have personally seen and heard it. One group thinks that they are the brightest and others are peasants and won't hire them for more than janitorial work.

UH! I really need to get out of Florida. I was born and raised here and the changes over my lifetime have been enormous most not for the better.

We are thinking of Tennessee. Anyone from Tennessee that can give information.

If you mow lawns or paint houses, your job is secure.

The illegal aliens among us will certainly be glad to hear that!

This would seem to make Florida a separate country. The last time I was in Miami I thought I had walked into a third world airport, I can completely agree with Tancredo's assessment.

This statement is just annoying.

Globalization brings with it tremendous opportunities, especially for Florida, which is comfortable doing business with various peoples, languages and cultures. Florida is already a financial center for Latin America. It can become a trade center for the entire East Coast - if it prepares for that future.

Thank you Newmexican. Its nice to see you agree as well. I have read the Hispanic's comments in the editorial section and the media's comments trying to hide reality. One non Hispanic wrote in and said that if they spoke English we wouldn't find it a third world country.
Florida will never be a truly global but rather Hispanic. The many of the Hispanics don't want learn English and/or assimilate. Many have no respect for Americans or other ethnics but only care for their political agendas. I see this often as when I hear them speak Spanish my daughter and I speak Russian and you should see how many dirty looks we get. When I first moved to Florida I respected them but many have since lost my respect due to their attitudes. What they don't realize is that South Florida is loosing many snowbirds (people from up north and Canada who spend winters down here). They are fed up with the lack of English spoken down here. I have had people tell me that where they come from there other ethnics such as Italians who spoke English in public. When the housing market was hot many of these snowbirds sold their properties and may come back for a week or two. There goes all the money that would have remained in the state as they drive cars, pay property taxes, buy groceries and go out.

I lived in Pompano Beach many years ago, Florida was not a Hispanic Nation!!!! It was full of Snowbirds that had LOTS of money.
My niece lives near Ft. Lauderdale and works in the mortgage business but is moving from there very soon. She tells me that the Haitian gangs are a problem and many are illegal. When I was there late this summer, I flew into the Miami Airport and left from the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. Miami had all of the announcements in Spanish and the airport looked dirty It appears that tourism is not a goal for Miami anymore, at least not English speaking American tourists, and not families.
Keep up the Russian, Swatchick!! I am surprised that many Cubans don't speak Russian since they have had a long association with Russia and Cuba is a tourist destination for Russians. I think that the Mexicans will learn Arabic soon since they signed a big tourism agreement with Iran and they are not trying to culturally conquer the middle east.

Cubans can't even speak properly Spanish, according to Venezuelans, Peruvians and Colombians with who I work at the Bank. They dislike cubans but I also noticed that when they are in their group/community, they prefer to speak Spanish, because that makes them feel Home. They just don't care at all about other people who don't understand their language and refuse to speak English. The Cubans had a bad name and now they think they are king and created the new Miami. Miami Int. Airport is like Barajas in Madrid what we Northern Europeans call a chicken hole, not that Fort Lauderdale is better. Miami will never become the largest Banking city in the nation, for two reasons: the patriot act is killing us. Latin Americans are going to Europe where they don't ask questions but just follow the money. second, Large banking institutes like Bank of America and Wachovia are busy to outsource it's operations to India and Bangladesh. So if you have account there, you need a copy of your statement, it's by internet or a by calling to and Indian with a fake name like Johnson who is trying hard to speak american english to you. If you press 2 for Spanish, you will talk to someone in Mexico or Costa Rica. The free trade agreements are nothing more than outsourcing agreements to cheap foreign labor markets. How in the world can an American who earn $50 an hour against the cheapest foreign labor market China where a person earns less than $5 an hour. Yep call that Free Trade. The next step is when you need an operation, they might send you to India. Wow, I saw it nightline. What's next? Fire the legal Burger King employer and hire every three months a Mexican or Central American employer by paying them on their standards from where they are from? Gosh, what's over for us..fishing?

Oh well, about Miami, I still remember the nice and organized Miami with English Americans when I came here in the 90's for vacation. I'm 26 years old now and I don't recognize it anymore. Miami beach is fun, but for opportunities it's nothing. It's pure a vacation city. My aunt lived here, and it was completely different. Kendall was full of strawberries fields and you could leave the door unlocked till you got to bed. Now, not anymore. Hurricane Andrew changed everything. In the Miami Herald, I could only read 3 Hispanics bashing Tom Tancredo and 1 English American in Miami with the same view as what I have and 1 English American with same view as what I have but than from NC. For me it was that the Miami Herald enjoyed it to bash Tom Tancredo and they enjoy when Andres Oppenheimer the latin american correspodent who is confusing it's hispanic readers who like to read it in english and no brainer english american readers with calling illegal immigrants simple immigrants. Oh yes, they are buying it..amazing. There is a liberal bias.

Oh I forgot the Mexicans and Central Americans. Yes, majority are from the west coast and they are illegal and live in Homestead. There they bought homes after hurricane andrew or build their homes with a federal program. They have to build their home theirself. Great huh, to be illegal here. My wife told me how other teachers told her during conventions for teachers what kind a mess it is and how scared they are after school. It's full of Mexican 18th street Gangs, Central American MS 13, white trash skinheads and Black gangs. Homestead wasn't like that, but more with farmers and strawberries field, countryside. Amazing how it changed that quick into a nightmare scenario.

Many of the Hispanic gangs such as MS 13 that are in Homestead is due to all the illegals. I spoke with a Border Patrol Agent yesterday and he told me how ICE desparately needs more agents in Miami as the County and municipal police departments and Border Patrol agents are forced to do the job of ICE. ICE from what I know focuses on those gang members and other violent illegal offenders and then they go after other illegals.
My condo complex is now full of illegals with 6 or more people living in one unit. They are turning belconies into bedrooms. Since they have arrived the amount of police calls to the complex has increased, people have been urinating in the stairwells, garbage has not been disposed of properly and now we have rats in the laundry room on my floor as well as other floors and there are enormous cockroaches on the first floor. Some of those people also regularly sift through the garbage dumpsters. These people do not care to follow any rules. I put notices up in English reagrding the problems in my building. No one attempted to remove it or deface it but when the woman in the office translated it in Spanish and hung it up they tried removing it and wrote comments on it in Spanish.