There are millions of Reasons to Learn Spanish
For English speakers, especially those in the United States, being able to speak Spanish provides many benefits. Here are a few to consider:
Spanish is spoken by approximately 400 million people in the world today.
It is personally enriching to be able to think, speak, understand and write any foreign language. Learning the new language is like being able to travel instantly to another culture, another way at looking at life.
You’ll be able to enjoy literary works written in Spanish and delight in seeing Spanish language films which continue to receive praise from the film industry and viewers.
It expands your horizons, stimulates the mind and feeds curiosity.
Travel to Spanish speaking countries becomes a richer, more satisfying experience.
Studies have shown that our own communicative abilities in our first language improve after learning a second language. Evidence also suggests that speaking a second language enhances creative thinking and improves our ability to solve complex problems.
Research Shows Benenfits to Children Who Learn a Foreign Language
Here are some results of research (by Masciantonio, Rafferty, Rattle and others) on children who study a foreign language in elementary school. These students:
- achieve expected gains and have even higher scores on standardized tests in reading, language
arts, and mathematics than those who have not;
- show greater cognitive development in such areas as mental flexibility, creativity, divergent
thinking, and higher-order thinking skills;
- have an improved self-concept and sense of achievement in school; and
- can transfer their language learning skills in subsequent foreign language study in high school
and college.
- foreign language study has been shown to enhance listening skills and memory, and the development of second language skills can contribute a significant additional dimension to the concept of communication.
Being able to communicate with any of the hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers in the world allows us to have a deeper understanding of the changing world we live in.
Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world.
It is the official language of 21 countries.
The Spanish and Portuguese speaking population of North and South America numbers some 500 million people.
This world of Spanish speakers increasingly includes the United States, Canada’s chief trading partner, to which Canada sends 85% of its exports, and Canada itself, where Spanish is the fastest growing language, according to statistics of the Instituto Cervantes.
According to the U.S. Census of 2000, Spanish speakers are the largest minority in the U.S. There are more than 36 million Spanish speakers in the U.S (an increase of 13 million between 1990 and 2000).
Before 2050 they will make up 25% of the U.S. population, potentially tripling the current number.
In global terms, Spanish speakers in the U.S. will only be surpassed in number by those in Mexico (currently Mexico has a population of 97 million).
More university students in the U.S. study Spanish than all of the other languages combined.
Because of its Latin roots, nearly identical alphabet and pronunciation rules, Spanish is one of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn.
California alone has more than 7 million Spanish speakers.
By 2005 more than a third of all Californians are projected to be Hispanic.
By the year 2020, Hispanics will be the majority in California.
Being able to speak Spanish can open up job and business opportunities
Multilingual skills are prized by high-level executives in global companies.
In a search of the Career Mosaic on-line help-wanted database for the word "fluent" or "fluency," 208 jobs contained one of those words. Of those, 115 were seeking (either preferred or required) fluency in a language.
Spanish-speakers were, by a wide margin, the most-pursued language users by corporations. 47 out of 115 were seeking Spanish; the next highest after that was Chinese, sought by 14 corporations.
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