Spanish is the second-most-spoken language in Nashville, but it’s just one of many represented in Davidson County, which has seen a significant rise in its multicultural population in recent years…
Nashville Scene. Room for Interpretation: How Nashville Could Better Serve Its Multilingual Community
…From the Uzbek cuisine at Osh to the city’s burgeoning Latin music scene, Nashville’s diversity enriches its character, offering multifarious perspectives, ideas and cultural identities. Plenty of research shows that diversity, in all its forms, enhances economic and social development across sectors.
Nashville’s rapidly growing cultural diversity is its strength. The vibrant mix of backgrounds can enrich the lives of every resident.
La diversidad multicultural aquí en Nashville es su fortaleza. La mezcla vibrante de fondos puede enriquecer la vida de todos los residentes.
¿Quién está aprendiendo español aquí en Nashville?
Who is learning Spanish here in Nashville?
Curtis
Paraprofessional, Metro Nashville Public Schools
I’m learning Spanish—aprendo español—porque—because I want to be able to communicate with people in different languages, especially their own languages. And not just with the students, but with other people in the neighborhood and community—to be able to communicate with them and go to their restaurants and different places that they shop. It’s better for them and for me to learn how to talk to new people.
Nichole
Spanish Heritage Speaker
I lovingly call myself a ‘no sabo’ kid sometimes, which is a joke in our Latino community based on a frequent mistake that people make in Spanish. I am the Latina who grew up in the States, but didn’t learn Spanish the way that some of my peers did.
Sally
School Counselor
Hola mi nombre es Sally, una de las consejeras de la escuela. I am learning Spanish because I want to be able to interact with my Spanish-speaking students more often.
I’ve had more students this year than ever before that speak Spanish that actually need counseling services. And so rather than have a third-party translator it would be nice to communicate a little bit more to see how they’re feeling and what their story is.
According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, only 5.5% of psychologists in the U.S. report being able to offer services in Spanish.
Brandi
Operations Director at Nashville Diaper Connection
We work with a lot of cultures and lot of different people and it’s nice to be able to go out and converse with people in a way that they are comfortable instead of trying to force what we are confortable with on to other people. We generally have interpreters, but we can’t always do that. And at the same time it’s different when someone else is translating for me because I don’t get to become apart of that relationship.
The Latino population here in Nashville has grown by 60% in the past decade.
La población latino de Nashville ha crecido por 60% en la última decada.
1 in 4 students in the Metro Nashville Public School system has limited English proficiency. As our city grows, speaking a second language becomes an asset to anyone working in education.
Nashville schools, business, hospitals, banks, and social services need bilingual staff in order to thrive, and Nashvillians need to speak more than one language to stay competitive in the job market.
Nashville’s Latino community is projected to represent 34 percent of the population by 2040. This change is bringing new cultural and social opportunities to the city’s residents.