Why Learn Spanish?
It’s estimated that between 322 and 400 million people speak Spanish as their native language, meaning that after Mandarin Chinese, Spanish is the 2nd most spoken language by native speakers in the world! Combine those with non-native Spanish speakers and it is estimated that there are around 500 million people worldwide that can speak Spanish.
So if the ability to communicate with 500 million more people is not reason enough to learn Spanish here are some more great reasons to learn to speak Spanish:
1. Learn Spanish for more rewarding travel experiences.
A total of 21 nations, including the majority of Latin American countries speak Spanish as their native language. By learning Spanish you are opening up a whole world of amazing travel opportunities. Locals will appreciate the effort that you’ve made to learn Spanish and you’ll find them more friendly and welcoming if you can communicate with them in their native language.
2. Learning Spanish improves your employment opportunities.
If you learn Spanish not only will it create more employment opportunities within the UK as many employers now expect a foreign language, but it can make your dreams of working abroad finally come true. There are so many employment sectors in which learning Spanish can benefit you that you’ll be astonished at the doors it will open for you.
3. Learn to speak Spanish to aid cultural understanding.
To truly understand Spanish or Latin American cultures you need to immerse yourself in them, and to do that you need to learn to speak Spanish. Only by reading books and newspapers in Spanish and by communicating with native Spanish speakers in their own language will you learn to appreciate a different culture to your own.
4. Learning Spanish is a stepping stone to learning other languages.
Spanish evolved primarily from Latin and therefore shares many similarities to other Latin-derived languages such as Italian, French and Portuguese. Some estimates in fact calculate that the lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese is as high as 89%, and between Spanish and Italian as high as 82%. Therefore, this means that by learning Spanish you will be able to understand a great deal of Italian, French and Portuguese without ever having studied them!
Not only will learning Spanish improve your understanding of other European languages, it will also have the added benefit of enhancing your understanding of the English language. While you learn Spanish grammar you will automatically gain a better understanding of English grammar, a subject that in UK schools is often poorly taught.
5. It is easier to learn Spanish than other languages.
It’s often said that learning Spanish is easier than learning any other language. This is because Spanish is a phonetic language, meaning that words are pronounced as they are written. This allows you to learn Spanish fairly quickly and can enable you to converse simply within just a few hours! Of course fluency takes a bit longer, but is certainly achievable within a matter of months of applied study.
So what are you waiting for? Take your first steps to learn Spanish today!
For our Learn Spanish Resources directory click here.
