You must have been asked this question one day. And if you haven’t been able to answer anything other than vamos a la playa , mi casa es tu casa or even me gusta la fiesta , this article is for you! Languages are not measured against each other, whether in terms of beauty, complexity or interest. That being said, there are some languages that are more useful than others , and Spanish is one of them.
Note: Today we welcome Johanna from the Foreign Languages Blog site , who comes to talk to us about a language that is too often overlooked in these columns, namely Spanish.
I realized this a year ago. I was already fluent in English and French and had just learned Hebrew! How proud of myself I was! At that time I finished my studies and I had integrated a very international master’s degree in a very prestigious university. Everyone was quite impressed with the fact that I speak Hebrew, and I must admit that I was quite pleased with myself!
Until that day when Maria enters, a young Chilean comrade, who asks me: ¿Hablas español? . I answer no, and hardly have I had time to finish my answer when my comrades all start talking in Spanish. With different levels and accents, of course, but all the same! They talk to each other, they understand each other, they communicate and Maria becomes the center of attention!
And there, it seemed crystal clear to me: no one speaks Hebrew! I can only communicate with very few people! I have to learn Spanish. And you too !
A phenomenal number of Spanish language speakers
There are many motivations that push us to learn a language: work, friends, travel and so on. But if we go back to the fundamentals of the concept of language , language is above all a tool of communication. Poetry and theater have made it an art in its own right, of course. But above all, with a language, we communicate, we live among our peers. Keeping this in mind, I say to myself: even if it means learning a language, you might as well learn one that is really useful for communication . And with that goal in mind, the first thing that comes to mind is English. The second thing that comes to mind is Spanish!
Let’s look at the numbers*. English remains the undisputed number 1 (and far be it from me to tell you not to make English a priority). There are about 1200 million speakers of English, of which about 350-400 million are native speakers. Added to this is the fact that English is the official or administrative language of 53 countries and a large majority of international organizations.
Spanish, a language spoken by 500 million speakers and present on every continent.
But let’s take a look at Spanish. The planet has about 500 million speakers . And if the majority of them are in Latin America, also know that Spanish is spoken on 4 continents . Spanish is found, as an official language or not, in:
Latin America, of course
North America with a high rate of US speakers
Europe with Spain
Asia with the Philippines
Africa with Equatorial Guinea and Morocco
So for the globetrotters among you, before buying a backpack, buy a Spanish method, it will be even more useful!
