The official language in South Florida and throughout the United States is English. There is no discussion. It’s that simple, now that culturally, we find a huge Spanish-speaking community in Miami and surrounding cities that definitely impacts or influences everything else.
Something that we can say is that Miami is the capital of Spanish in the United States. It is very frequent, almost official, to see how all commercial brands make important efforts to reach this community in their language. Hispanics watch television, listen to radio and read newspapers in Spanish. And all this reminds us of the famous shirt that Juanes made fashionable: Se habla Español.
Spanish in Schools and Cultural Identity
In public schools Spanish is taught, but at such a basic level, that few learn it as a second language. Latino students prefer to communicate with their classmates in English, leaving practically Spanish as a mother tongue, which is only spoken at home. This means that many Latinos, with Latin appearance, with Latin names and surnames, do not know how to communicate in decent Spanish. And it is common, cultural drawbacks in customer service where tourists are confused with this fact. If you are going to emigrate, an important factor to consider is to teach them very well, take care of and maintain the mother tongue at home. Although for many parents it is very comfortable and practical to learn English at home with their children, with the risk that they are the ones who do not learn at all or practice Spanish. It is the parents who are forced to learn English to communicate with their children, and not the children who do the opposite. Here, what comes into discussion is the issue of cultural identity, being identified as Latino, where language is part of that identity.
Advertising speaks to us in Spanish
The advertising world knows this. It does not go unnoticed that complete sentences in Spanish are used in television commercials or radio commercials on national channels. Amen, the existence of channels like Univision and Telemundo that are entirely in Spanish. It happens the same in digital media on the internet, and in traditional ones such as print, magazines, newspapers and promotional material. It is South Florida, there is an official communication in Spanish so that it involves the private and public sector.
Other important languages in South Florida Having so much diversity in South Florida, we cannot go under the table, to a community with a very important weight, and that is the Brazilian community. Portuguese is important, and relevantly, in the labor market. Miami, is the capital of the Americas, many of the businesses, take off and land here. All types of multinational companies have their center of operations to serve Latin America, and Brazil is the colossus that dominates by the immensity of its market. It is very frequent, in all job offers of importance, the request by the employer, of the mastery of the Spanish language, and preferably, also Portuguese. As a personal anecdote, a couple of Brazilian friends were happy in South Florida, because they were not only learning English, but also Spanish. This, in case you were wondering, if it was a good idea to learn it or not. We recommend, on a professional level, to learn it. It is not mandatory, but it would be the secret weapon of your professional resume.
Influential communities with their own language
If we stick to the existence of influential communities in South Florida, and possibly focused on areas such as Aventura, or Boca Raton, we could mention that there is an important Russian community, as well as a Jewish community where Hebrew is their language of communication. Another, which does not go unnoticed, and are truly influential, is the presence of Haitians in South Florida, where Creole and French is heard among Haitian countrymen. If when you arrive in South Florida, you are employed in the service industry, hospitality, food, retail, etc., it is very likely that you have co-workers and colleagues whose native language is Spanish, Creole, Russian or Hebrew.
Between accents, idioms or dialects
Something that happens in this cultural babel is the confluence of many countries in the region. That not only happens with Spanish, in itself, it happens the same with English, the Caribbean islands, such as Jamaica, British Isles or Trinidad, all come with their accent marked, which will make you pay more attention when talking to people from the Caribbean who speak to you in English. The same happens with Spanish, as is natural with the jargon of each Latin American country, which creates great diversity, and many different ways to say the same thing.
This cultural diversity makes South Florida a very interesting meeting and melting pot of cultures, where in diversity, we all learn to live together, and above all to understand the roots of the foundation of this great nation made by immigrants.
