Compelling Reasons to Study Spanish
By Julio Foppoli
Summary
This article shows some compelling reasons and facts on the importance of studying Spanish at present.
Compelling Reasons to Study Spanish
Today I would like to write about a recurrent question I get in my website from many different users worldwide. They hear time and again of the importance of speaking Spanish fluently to be prepared. What they should they be prepared for? Many already know the answer to this, namely businessmen, men of vision and professionals in specific fields. However, some users still do not see why they should learn to speak Spanish.
And it may be true. Some people may not think of this language as so important to their immediate reality right now. After all, they get by using their native language or maybe a second language and they are quite successful in their lives and careers even without knowing how to say “hello” in Spanish. I fully understand their feeling. When I was a child, back home in Argentina, for many people, learning English was regarded as something “important” for the future, but not “essential” or requiring immediate attention.
Around 30 years ago, many of my friends’s parents had that idea and decided not to send their young children to learn the language. After all, they would say, “everyone speaks Spanish here. And English, well, it’s okay if you are planning to travel but that is not in our minds for a long, long time. It may never happen.”
And they were right at that moment, they did NOT need it for their immediate communicative purposes. However, in less than 3 decades the global picture has changed dramatically. Globalization has become parts of our lives; English has become the lingua-franca of the moment, followed closely by Spanish.
Most of my childhood friends graduated from pretigious universities, got very good jobs and have been quite successful so far. However, the fact that many of them did not have a good command of English has closed many doors right in front of their faces, caused lots of frustration to them and prevented them from reaching hierarchical positions within their companies for a very long time_many still haven’t and have had to put up with seeing some peers as qualified as they are rise faster in the company just for having an outstanding command of the English language Some of them could not progress professionally until they decided to take the bull by its horns and start to study the language.
Nowadays it is impossible to imagine worldwide communications and business transactions without English, just as it was over 30 years ago (in Argentina and many other countries) for many people to envision a world in which English would be not a commodity but a necessity. The mere idea of it would seem ludicrous.
At present, again, we are surrounded by world facts and trends that are just screaming in front of our faces, just as it was the case with my friends’s parents over 30 years ago. The cold facts clearly show that English as a language for international communications is followed closely by Spanish, and choosing not to consider this fact could be something we may regret in the not so distant future.
“When there is smoke, there is fire,” they say. Let’s see some facts that will hopefully show you why learning Spanish is important for you TODAY.
* Over 500 million people speak Spanish – How many doors could this fact alone open to you? How many more employment options?
* At the end of the 19th century, 60 million people were Spanish speakers. Today, nearly 500 million people across the world speak Spanish!
* Spanish is the second most used language in international communication.
* The Hispanic population in the USA has grown by 60% in just one decade.
* Latin American countries are showing strong economic growth,making them potentially major commercial partners.
* Estimates indicate that by the year 2015 the United States of America will be the largest Spanish speaking country in the world!
* The 39 million Hispanics currently living in the USA represent 12.5% of the total population. Estimates also indicate that by the year 2010 the hispanic population in the US will be the largest minority group.
As we have seen, Spanish is not only an interesting and culturally rich language to learn, it is THE language to learn. It is always wise to plan ahead in order not to miss or see how opportunities pass by without being able to do anything about it.
“When there is smoke, there is fire.” Will you be ready to tackle the fire when it reaches your area? The answer is up to you!