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Why learn Spanish?
10 great reasons why you should start learning Spanish today
So you already have some perfectly good reasons for learning Spanish
... Maybe you want to be able to communicate with relatives, or to travel
to Mexico, South or Central America, or Spain during your summer break,
or prepare yourself for study in a Spanish-speaking country. Maybe a
Spanish-speaking exchange student sparked your interest, or you have
a friend who recommended it, or you just like the way the language sounds.
Just in case you need some reassurance in your decision or the final
push toward taking the plunge, here are 10 more solid reasons why learning
Spanish may be a good choice for you.
If you first need to be convinced that you should learn a language,
then read why
everyone should learn a language.
Reasons #1-5 to learn Spanish
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1. Communicate with 350 million native Spanish speakers worldwide.
Spanish is spoken by at least an estimated 350 million people around
the world and is currently the 4th most commonly spoken language worldwide.
Geographically, a large number of countries have Spanish as a dominant
language: Spain, the United States, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Equatorial
Guinea, the Philippines, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico,
Panama, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Knowing Spanish
opens the door for you to communicate with 1/3 of a billion speakers
worldwide!
2. Communicate with Spanish-speaking people at home.
If you live in the US, it is possible to maintain almost daily contact
with native Spanish speakers in many cities or even in rural areas.
This is certainly the case in the many states bordering Mexico, or
such states as Florida and New York where many immigrants of Cuban
ancestry reside. Even if your home state is not located in one of
these areas, there is still a great likelihood of finding Spanish-speakers
close to where you live. As of 1995, 10% of all people living in the
US were of Hispanic descent. In the past 10 years, this number has
continued to increase.
Perhaps this is why 53% of students learning languages in US colleges
and universities are learning Spanish over languages. You have the
opportunity to use your language skills right at home.
3. Learn Spanish to enhance your travel experiences.
If you've ever dreamed of visiting far-off, exotic, tropical places,
you don't have far to look when you consider the great number of Spanish-speaking
countries that fit this description. Wherever you decide to go, be
it to Central America, or to Spain, the mother-country of the Spanish
language, knowing the language will get you far.
Knowing the language and culture of the land you visit will give you
insights into the people and culture that a non-Spanish speaker would
never have access to. Knowing even a little Spanish ahead of time
helps travelers communicate more successfully, especially considering
that a great number of Spanish speakers do not know English. Whether
giving an address in a taxi, making reservations in a hotel, ordering
food or drinks in a restaurant, or meeting the locals at the main
hang-out, your travel experience will be much smoother and more enjoyable
when you can communicate.
If you take a little time to learn some of the Spanish language before
heading off to distant lands, your understanding and appreciation
for the places you visit will be improved tremendously.
4. Use Spanish to improve your employment potential.
Know a second language? Great, you're hired! If you have proven yourself
to be a capable employee with just the right job skills AND you speak
a foreign language such as Spanish, you are much more likely to land
that job of your dreams than if you are monolingual. In fact, many
jobs today require a minimum of basic proficiency in another language.
With the world becoming ever more global, contact with people of other
countries has increased tremendously in recent decades. Just having
a basic knowledge may be all it takes to separate yourself from the
crowd of applicants for the job you are pursuing. With the rapidly
increasing Hispanic population, there are a multitude of career fields
in the US that need Spanish speakers. Among them are nurses, social
workers, teachers, salespeople, translators, and many more.
Internationally, people who speak Spanish often have opportunities
to work in trade or business fields. Other options include diplomacy,
interpretation, and security applications, which all require a sensitivity
and proficiency of another language. And did you know that bilingual
employees often receive a larger salary than their non-Spanish speaking
counterparts?
If the chance to show off your skills and be more competitive on the
job market doesn't interest you in studying Spanish, perhaps the extra
cash will!
5. Learn Spanish to improve your knowledge of your own language.
Spanish is from the Romance language family of languages, its roots
coming primarily from Latin, the language spoken by the Romans. As
you might know, English, too has many words of Latin origin. Because
of this, knowing Spanish helps speakers of English (as well as some
other European languages) broaden their vocabulary in their native
language. Often times, these same Latin roots are at the base of many
sophisticated words in English, so Spanish learners can also become
more proficient in English.
In addition, a recognition and understanding of these words of Latin
origin is especially helpful in certain professions in science, medicine,
law, and many others with specialized vocabulary, as the many centuries
of Roman rule left their mark linguistically in these and other modern
scientific and professional fields.
More reasons to learn Spanish | 6-10>>>
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