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Transcript

Tonight business executives, government leaders and educators mapped out how and why a thriving multi-cultural workplace should be created. KITV4’s Paul Drewes explains. The idea of adding value to businesses by adding languages was heard tonight. Now work will begin to cultivate that concept in classrooms and workplaces of the future. nat of Hawaiian Hawaii’s native language was on display at this gathering in Manoa, but many gathered here want to see even more languages working their way into the workplace. dina@1:29 “what we have is a lot of resources that haven’t been developed, many multi-level speakers but they aren’t able to do high level work in management or marketing” students file right now, not all public school students are even required to learn a foreign language. A year-long study just completed, found the state needs to do more to stress the importance of these skills to students. gov@20:58-21:10 “unless you have more than one language you are going to find yourself disenabled from participating in the pacific century” show file of job fair Knowing more than one language can make a potential employee more appealing. school file To prepare students, Hawaii’s language roadmap calls for a shift from simply learning a wide range of vocabulary words to focusing on a work-ready vocabulary. 7:00 “students want to graduate ready to go to work, and what we’d like to offer employers students that can operate in a capacity to expand their business” workplace file The year-long study found businesses got a 5-14% boost with a multi-lingual workforce. Business leaders say there is a need for these language skills in more than just Hawaii’s visitor industry. leslie@12:58 “clearly its anchoring the visitor industry to have ML skills,. But also production of local grown products and our growing IT industry and technology base” business file Even in the middle of the pacific, many island businesses are operating in the global marketplace. file of interpretors Ramping up language learning here could also turn Hawaii’s multi-cultural society into an important EXPORT in the future. 4:30 “there is a tremendous need across the country for multi-lingual talent, its changing the face of our country” This state initiative to expand Hawaii’s language development will begin with school PSAs in the coming months, along with career day programs. Then as the legislature begins, there will be a push to change the requirements at school — so all students will learn another language.