There are almost as many reasons for learning Spanish as there are countries speaking the language either as a national language, or with a significant number of the population speaking the language.  Spanish is the fourth most often spoken language in the world after English, Hindustani and Chinese. Approximately 400 million people speak Spanish and it's a very popular second or third language. Some people believe that more people speak Spanish than English.

 

Learning Spanish will give you increased understanding of the English language. Because both English and Spanish have Latin roots, as does French, Italian and Portuguese, you will find similarities in grammar in all five languages, as well as.  In addition, because of the ebb and flow of civilization, Spanish has ties to the other Indo-European languages such as German.  As you work at understanding and learning Spanish, you are often forced to understand English verb tenses and moods.

 

Learning Spanish will help you to better communicate with the Spanish speaking people who now live in almost every community in the United States.  They used to be congregated along the border states and in Florida and New York City, but that is not longer true.

 

You can visit many of the Spanish speaking nations as a tourist without knowing any Spanish, but you you will frankly miss out on a lot of the enjoyment.  Moist people are willing to make the effort to communicate with you, but when there is almost no common basis of understanding, you will not be able to enjoy the interchange as much.

 

By learning Spanish, you gain some insight into ways that other cultures learn and think.  Reading a Spanish language newspaper will give you a very different view of the border issues between the United States and Mexico, for example.  Spanish also has a rich heritage of literature , only some of which has been translated into English.  You always lose some of the shades of meaning and expression when something is translated from one language to another.

 

Learning Spanish will give you a head start on learning any of the other Romance Languages such as Italian and French.  It will also assist you to learn German and Russian, since they have roots in the Indo-European language tree.  There are some characteristics such as verb conjugation and gender which are part of the Spanish language and other Indo-European languages, but do not appear in English. 

 

Spanish is one of the simplest foreign languages available to English speakers.  The strong cognates in English vocabulary and the almost completely phonetic written Spanish make it possible to pronounce Spanish words even when you don't know what they mean. Basic Spanish grammar is fairly straightforward so you can have a level of communication after only a few lessons.

 

Learning Spanish can open up a tremendous number of employment opportunities in the United States.  For example, nursing, education, international business, tourism, and international communication employment opportunities are all increased by a working knowledge of the Spanish language.