why-is-it-important-to-learn-spanish

Why Learn Spanish? 17 Reasons Spanish Will Make Your Life Better and More Interesting

Are you on the fence about learning Spanish?

Or just curious about the benefits of knowing this popular language?

You’re in the right place!

The Spanish language has a rich history and culture, and is incredibly useful. Knowing it can help you become more successful, improve your quality of life and grow as a person.

Yep, you heard me right—and that’s not all! Read on for 17 compelling reasons to learn Spanish.

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1. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world

To date, there are over 485 million native Spanish speakers worldwide, second only to Mandarin Chinese. Add the number of people who use or study Spanish as a second language, and the total goes up to around 559 million.

In fact, Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world.

Imagine being able to communicate with people from all continents (yes, Spanish is an official language in at least one country of each populated continent!), or have a casual conversation with your Mexican neighbor or the Spaniard in your office.

2. Spanish language courses are a dime a dozen

Due to the large number of speakers (native or otherwise), there are tons of resources available for learning Spanish. It also means you have a good chance of finding a native Spanish speaker to practice your conversational skills with.

Honestly, you really have no excuse not to learn Spanish if you set your mind to it!

3. Spanish opens up a ton of friendship opportunities

Knowing Spanish also gives you more opportunities to connect with people if you know their language.

You don’t even have to leave your house! In the era of the internet, everything can be done online—including making Spanish-speaking friends from the comfort of your home. This means you can practice your Spanish and get feedback right away.

Your writing skills will skyrocket, and if you decide to keep in touch via phone calls or video chatting, you’ll also be able to practice your conversational Spanish for free!

This opens up chances for meeting in person if you happen to live in the same area—or perhaps there will be some traveling in your future.

4. You’ll also widen your dating pool

If you’re looking for romance, Spanish can potentially help you find love, too.

Maybe one of your new Spanish friends will become something more. Or maybe you’ll just happen to meet someone who speaks the language. Imagine how touched they’ll be if you whip out their native tongue to declare your love for them.

But hey, even if it doesn’t work out, at least you’ll still end up bilingual!

5. Plenty of jobs require Spanish

Whether you want to stay in your country or find a job abroad, Spanish will help you sooner or later. There are plenty of jobs that require Spanish.

Maybe you’ll have to attend to a patient who only speaks Spanish or help a South American client get the products they ordered. You may even want to work as a translator or interpreter.

6. Knowing Spanish can boost your career prospects

Mastering Spanish can help you get promoted at your current place of employment.

After all, a manager position might require being bilingual in Spanish and English. Maybe your company is opening a new branch in Venezuela and looking for a fluent Spanish speaker to be the international director.

Or maybe your employer, like many others, simply values foreign language skills, which means being bilingual pays (literally).

No matter your field, Spanish will add that final touch to your resume and make you stand out.

7. You can be a self-employed Spanish speaker, too

Even if you have your own company, knowing Spanish is still a major asset.

For one thing, Hispanic Americans are getting wealthier. Since their purchasing power is on the rise, your sales can, too. Knowing Spanish can also give you the opportunity to open a business in a Latin American country or any other area with a large number of Spanish speakers.

So, speaking Spanish (the language) plus speaking Spanish (the culture) is an excellent, invaluable skill no matter what line of work you’re in.

8. Getting around Spanish-speaking places will be much easier

Whether you’re heading to a vacation in Mexico or a long-term backpacking adventure through Spanish-speaking countries, knowing the language will help you.

You’ll feel more confident booking a trip to a place where you know you’ll be able to communicate beyond hand gestures. You’ll leave behind the stress and anxiety of not knowing how to do things like order food or get from one place to another.

Plus, if you can speak Spanish, you can interact with the people of the place you’re visiting.

You’ll be able to ask for recommendations and hidden gems, as well as directions—all without referencing a phrasebook or dictionary. You’ll also be able to mingle and have fun at local events, bars or parties.

You’ll probably even learn more Spanish by immersing yourself in the language and culture of the country you’re in!

On a more serious note, you’re also more likely to stay safe. You’ll know the right words to use in case of emergencies like robberies, accidents and lost passports. You can better communicate with Spanish-speaking medical staff about any injuries or health issues you may have.

9. You’ll be exposed to various rich and colorful cultures

Considering that there are over 20 countries where Spanish is an official or national language, that’s a lot of traditional Spanish foods, customs and cultures you can partake in.

One of the best things about traveling abroad is being able to savor regional food, especially when you can ask locals for suggestions.

But even if you have no plans to travel abroad, you can visit an ethnic restaurant in your home country and blow the staff’s minds by asking about the menu in Spanish. The same goes for other cultural aspects.

And every country that speaks Spanish has its own history, traditions and way of living.

Nicaragua has vastly different customs than Spain, which has vastly different customs from Chile and so on. Even within a single country, there can be several kinds of traditions, folklore and dialects.

Learning Spanish will open a window to the history of the language as well as its people and their variety of traditions—and you certainly don’t have to leave your country (or even your seat) to learn more about them.

10. You can enjoy Spanish books in their original language

Considering how popular Spanish is as a language, it’s very likely that your favorite Spanish language book authored by your favorite Spanish speaking author has already been translated into English.

That being said, there’s always a chance that your most highly anticipated book hasn’t been translated yet, especially if it’s a new release. And even with the best translations, there’s always the risk of nuance getting lost.

When you know Spanish, you can enjoy the beauty of the original written language in all its glory. And if you’re able to read the book in both its original and English version, you can see for yourself how accurately the translation captured the original text or how much it’s changed between both versions.

11. Spanish entertainment becomes more enjoyable, too

Imagine you want to watch a TV series with rave reviews. But it’s from Mexico, they’re not dubbing it into English and there are no English subtitles.

Or perhaps you just want to sing and understand “Despacito” or some Ricky Martin songs.

The solution? Learn Spanish!

That way, you won’t have to depend on a native speaker to help you understand those lyrics. You won’t have to depend on subtitles, dubbing or translated books, either.

By learning the language, you’ll get to fully enjoy Spanish movies, songs and TV shows like a real native speaker in Spanish, with all of the meaning and nuance intended by the artists.

And you don’t even have to become an advanced Spanish speaker. The FluentU program provides supportive tools combined with hundreds of Spanish videos to help you understand every moment of what you’re watching.

Learning another language will vastly expand the content and information you can consume. And who wouldn’t love to be more knowledgeable and worldly?

12. You’ll better appreciate the concept of languages as a whole

This is something I really notice as a language teacher. Most people have no idea how their own language works unless they’ve studied another one—which is totally normal!

We learn our native language through trial and error. If, as young children, we made a mistake while speaking, we were corrected by our parents or teachers. Our brains slowly created a language template that eventually enabled us to become fluent in our mother tongue.

But no one was explaining adjective placement or auxiliary verbs to us at the age of three. We simply figured it out. This is why you might be able to tell when something sounds “wrong” in your native language, even if you can’t explain why.

But when you’re studying another language like Spanish, you learn all about grammar, vocabulary, parts of speech and sentence structure. This will make you more aware of your native language usage—especially if you have a language exchange partner with lots of questions!

So, all of your foreign and native language skills will improve—listening, speaking, reading and general comprehension. As writer Geoffrey Willans once said: “You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.”

13. Knowing Spanish makes it easier to learn other languages

Since you’re diving deep into linguistic concepts when learning Spanish (like what we’ve just mentioned), you’re going to find it easier to pick up new languages. After all, most languages have some concept of grammar, conjugation, etc. 

And because Spanish is the most widely spoken Romance language in the world, it provides some unique advantages for learning other Romance languages.

All Romance languages come from Vulgar Latin, which means they share a lot of characteristics. The core vocabulary is often identical, for one. The grammar and sentence structure are also similar, and even verb tenses and moods can appear more or less the same across them.

If you decide to learn Spanish, that means you’ll also be learning valuable information that can help you study other languages, especially other Romance languages such as Italian, Portuguese or French. You’ll likely be able to learn this third language quicker and more efficiently, too!

14. Your confidence will grow

Learning Spanish and all the information that comes along with it (grammar, vocab, comprehension, etc.) will give you a skillset that sets you apart from monolinguals.

The people around you will be inspired. You’ll see how much you’re truly capable of. These things will all allow you to grow as a person and make you proud of yourself.

15. Your personality can change for the better

Research suggests that people who study another language acquire some personality traits related to that language.

For example, Spanish is a much more affectionate language than English. When an American starts using Spanish in their daily life, they tend to express their feelings more and be more open about showing love for others.

16. You’ll have better cognitive abilities

People who can speak multiple languages are particularly good at things like problem solving and creativity. They’re also better at multitasking and demonstrate higher cognitive flexibility and adaptability.

It makes sense, if you think about it.

Every language has a distinct set of rules, contexts and complexities. In many ways, learning a new language is like figuring out a puzzle. It may be similar to a puzzle you’ve previously mastered (your native language), but it also comes with unique eccentricities.

In Spanish, for example, you’ll be challenged by gendered nouns and the variety of verb conjugations. You’ll have to determine nuance, meaning and appropriate contexts for different expressions and phrases.

Further, you’ll need to figure out how to get your message across clearly and piece together someone else’s message when you don’t understand the entirety of what they’re saying.

A new language exercises your brain by requiring you to operate under a different set of rules. Any problem-solving or deductive reasoning skills you already have will come in handy, but you’ll definitely pick up a lot more, too.

Indeed, in brain imaging studies, scientists have discovered that bilinguals have a higher density of gray matter in the area of the brain associated with vocabulary acquisition. Studies also show that they have longer attention spans and stronger working memories.

So someone who knows their native language and Spanish gets all these cool benefits—plus being able to order tapas and possibly meet the love of their life in a foreign land.

17. Spanish is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn

According to the U.S. Department of State’s School of Language Studies (SLS), Spanish is listed as a Category I Language. That means, on average, native English speakers can become fluent in it within 30 weeks or 750 class hours.

This isn’t really surprising when you consider the following factors:

  • Spanish and English share thousands of cognates (words that sound the same and mean the same thing). Thanks to this, you already know more Spanish than a native Spanish-speaking five-year-old, even if you’ve never touched a Spanish textbook. (On the other hand, watch out for those false cognates, too!)
  • Spanish grammar is nice and easy. Spanish loves its grammar rules and tends to stick to them. A new grammar topic will often be immediately useful and applicable in a variety of situations.
  • Spanish is spelled exactly as it’s pronounced (with the exception of the magical letter h, which has no sound). Every letter is pronounced the same way, no matter what the context is. What you see is what you get!

Of course, Spanish has its difficult aspects, and you may find yourself stuck on a certain topic from time to time. But in general, learning Spanish as a native English speaker isn’t too difficult at all.

 

Whatever your personal motivation is, the truth is that learning a new language like Spanish can bring many positive things to your life.

So go get started on this new adventure. Future you is already thankful!

And One More Thing…

If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU.

Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.

FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:

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FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.

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Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.

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Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

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The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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