Many benefits to becoming a bilingual state – Gonsalves

Vincentians are being urged to move towards becoming a bilingual society, in order to upgrade the country’s tourism sector.

Speaking at a farewell ceremony for the first cohort of Ecuadorean students who participated in the ‘Learning and Perfection of the English language’ programme recently,{{more}} then Minister of Foreign Affairs Camillo Gonsalves stated ““We have to lift our game in becoming a bilingual society, because this country is going to be benefiting more and more from our stronger relationships with Central and South America and we will remember this day as an important day in that relationship.”

According to Gonsalves, all of the growth areas in our hemisphere are in Latin America.

“The new tourist class is in Latin America,” he stated, adding that “The hotel chain with which the prime minister has signed an agreement to develop Mount Wynne and Peter’s Hope is essentially a Mexican hotel chain that’s investing billions of dollars in the region and they are going to be having Spanish speaking guests.”

He further revealed that the Ecuadoreans are paying rent in St Vincent and the Grenadines to the tune of US $500 to $600 a month and “if you do that math, you’re close to a quarter million dollars EC a year in rent alone,” before transportation and groceries.

“It is incredible when we talk about ways in which we’ll boost the economy and we talk about tourism and stay over visitors, that we are going to have in this country 50-100 Ecuadoreans consistently going forward and there is a huge economic benefit to their presence,” the minister added.

In his remarks Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nathaniel Williams called on civil servants and Vincentians on a whole to embrace the Ecuadoreans and not see them as strangers, but as persons who want to understand Vincentians.

“The agreement is Ecuador would be sending approximately 25 diplomats into St Vincent and the Grenadines over a period of about two and a half years. They will be stationed in the ministry and they will be working with our staff and at the same time they will be learning English,” revealed Williams.

Additionally, Gonsalves made a call to all dual language Vincentians who want to certify themselves in the proper ways of instructing English.

“There is work for you in the instruction of English,” he stated.

“If you are interested in teaching English, that is a growth area in this country, because not only does Ecuador want to send more students, Nicaragua wants to send students, Bolivia wants to send students, Venezuela wants to send students and the only limitation is our own capacity.

“Those of you who have apartments and you have been making money renting to the growing medical student community in this country, there will be an even faster growing English language constituency,” he said, encouraging persons in the business or thinking of getting into it to do so “because your apartment will be rented.”

Gonsalves said that the relationship between Ecuador and St Vincent and the Grenadines five years ago was a very formalistic one. However, “now we have real connections with people and we have faces and we have names and we have experiences.”

Williams stated that Ecuador, a few years ago, may have been a name with bad taste in the mouths of Vincentians; however, today the name is synonymous with friendship, partnership and commitment and there as been a significant change in the manner in which we look at each other.

In 2014, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves visited the Republic of Ecuador and because of the friendship between him and President Rafael Correa, the exchange of diplomats and having Ecuadorean teachers visit SVG to learn English was formalized.(AS)