Three Reasons Why You Should Learn Spanish
Residents and tourists in states such as California, Texas, and Nevada are apt to see more ads, signs, and stores written in Spanish than they have before. There is a good reason for this – the US Census Bureau estimates that 35 million people – nearly 10 percent of our country’s population – now speaks Spanish.
The large number of people who speak Spanish isn’t just in the US – there are as many as 350 million people worldwide who speak Spanish. This vast population means that there are many opportunities for those people who do speak Spanish that aren’t there otherwise for the people who don’t. If you haven’t thought about learning Spanish before, here are three reasons why you should consider learning it:
1) Spanish is spoken throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, meaning you have a lot of places you can visit. Spanish is, of course, spoken in Spain, too, but don’t forget that their Spanish (which is called Castillian) isn’t the same as the Spanish spoken in the western hemisphere. There are so many places where Spanish is spoken, in fact, that it’s the fourth most common language in the world. Only Mandarin, English, and Hindi are spoken more than Spanish.
If you’ve ever been to Cancun or Mexico City, you probably have been fine only speaking Spanish, and this is going to be the case in many cities where there are a lot of English-speaking tourists. If you know Spanish, though, you’re not going to be limited to those locations. You’ll be able to see places and do things further into the country – where the tourists don’t go, and where English isn’t often spoken.
2) Increased employment chances. In these difficult economic times, there are a lot of people competing for a very few jobs. Having the right skills for the job market can make the difference between hearing “You’re hired!” and hearing “Thank you for applying, but”
If you live in an area where some of those 35 million Spanish speakers live, speaking Spanish might be that skill that can make the difference. Many industries – including nursing, teaching, and sales – are places where there is a high demand for people who speak Spanish and English. Plus, with the number of Spanish speakers in this country increasing on a daily basis, this job skill is one that can be useful for years to come.
3) By getting more proficient at Spanish, you can also get better at English. It may be strange to hear, but because Spanish and English are both derived (in part or whole) from Latin, there are many similarities in grammar and words that are common among the Romance languages. Once you begin learning Spanish, you may be able to see these commonalities, which in turn will help you understand the rules and nuances of English better as well.
Best of all, Spanish isn’t that hard to learn – you can pick up basic skills in the language very quickly, because of these similarities. So even if you don’t figure you’ll use it in the near future, perhaps you should learn it anyway!
I went to a spanish school here in Phoenix, Arizona. I prefer the personal contact and I always could ask my teacher and discuss the problems I had.
But learning spanish itself helped me a lot in my career and personal life.