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Why would you learn Spanish? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 9 of 46 07 August 2011 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
A very good reason, actually. Last year I learned Catalan (to an extent), and because I already spoke good Spanish, reasonable French and OK-ish Italian, it was easy. Easy, but not effortless. The result was that within the space of a few months, I went through all the stages from beginner to intermediate in rapid succession. I found it really exciting and absolutely fascinating.
I'm told "cedilla" was originally a Spanish word -- "little Z". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jiajia Newbie China Joined 4858 days ago 17 posts - 26 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 10 of 46 08 August 2011 at 9:48am | IP Logged | |||||
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I had ever dabbled in Spanish (at beginner level) for 2 weeks as a way of relaxing before I decided to give it up. Frankly, I’m not mad keen on the pronunciation of Spanish (I personally prefer Italian), though it may seem and sound quite easy for Indo-European and Chinese speakers. People thought up lots of grounds for picking Spanish rather than German, French, Italian, or Brazilian Portuguese (not available in China), but eventually I found Spanish not as important or useful as it was described, and I’m not living in the US after all.
It's worth mentioning that, in my humble opinion, Mexico mightn't develop even faster and stronger than Brazil in future, neither might Argentina nor any other Latin American countries. In fact, what attracted me most to Brazilian Portuguese was the soft, nasal, and slower voice, it really sounds different from Spanish and Italian, and a bit like French. It's a great pity none of the coursebooks teaches Brazilian pronunciation, spelling and grammar in the bookshops. I’m curious to know why Brazilian Portuguese still hasn’t been widely taught in the US, Europe, and China, while Spanish is becoming increasingly popular all over the world? Thank you. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jean-luc Senior Member France Joined 4960 days ago 100 posts - 150 votes Speaks: French* Studies: German | Message 11 of 46 08 August 2011 at 11:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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If you don't have any interest in the language and don't need to know it, why bother learning it ? Life is to short to be spent on uninteresting (for you) and useless (for you) stuff.
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| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5051 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 12 of 46 08 August 2011 at 11:42am | IP Logged | |||||
I believe that until recently nobody really knew much about Brazil. Soccer, telenovelas, military dictatorships, economic woes... Could be easily mistaken for another version of Argentina. Portugal didn't really help, being a poor little country on the European periphery. Meanwhile Franco dropped dead and Spain metamorphosed from a poor, provincial nation into a chic, artsy and rich modern European state that has even surpassed Italy on some accounts (in my very subjective opinion). The number of tourists that visit Spain each year surpasses its 46m something population. A language becomes popular if the culture with which it is associated permeates its geographical boundaries, and Spain is doing well in that department. Let's not forget about other Spanish-speaking countries: I've met people who dream about visiting Cuba, Buenos Aires, the Andes, the Galapagos, Mayan pyramids, etc. Brazil came into the spotlight only a few years ago, with all those news articles about the burgeoning Brazilian economy, its growing middle class, Dilma Rouseff, Petrobas and giant offshore oil discoveries, Rio winning the 2014 FIFA bid and the 2016 Summer Olympic bid... and their economy really must be doing well because I keep meeting Brazilian tourists in Nova Iorque and Moscou. Edited by espejismo on 08 August 2011 at 11:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4949 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 13 of 46 08 August 2011 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
I didn't know Argentina made telenovelas. As for Argentina's economic troubles, they are so overblown is not even funny. Argentina has had the same problems as Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, etc, etc (and if now we can include lots of the 1st world!), yet for some reason everyone raves about Argentina being far worse than those countries economically, when there is just no evidence for it. It is Argentines that so exagerate the problems of that country, they are in great deal to blame for their bad reputation. Now they are doing the same with crime. Argentines will tell you that country has horrible crime, but compared to most of the rest of the world, even the rest of it's own region, it's a paradise of crime rate. I think it's about time some objectiveness is applied to Argentina's economic pros and cons, and the safety. And more praise given to it for its progress in becoming a more welcoming society to racial minorities, gays, etc. Edited by outcast on 08 August 2011 at 4:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5415 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 14 of 46 08 August 2011 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think you mean "especially"... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5051 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 15 of 46 08 August 2011 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Why would you learn Spanish?
I would say that one important reason is that Spanish is the most spoken language in the Western Hemisphere, and it is becoming an important lingua franca in North America, South America and Europe (very studied in Brazil, USA, France, Italy, Romania, Portugal, etc). It is the only one that can defeat English in the Western Hemisphere in the near future. Some people say that a new linguistic order with Chinese (Eastern Hemisphere) and Spanish (Western one) is enough, and English or any other language will be useless. For example, there will be some 135 million of Hispanics in USA in 2050. Spanish will be the second most spoken language in the country, but it can be the FIRST one in New York (Nueva York) and Los Angeles in the near future, like Miami nowadays. So, if you can do business in Spanish in the near future in Nueva York, Miami, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago or Caracas, which language will be the most useful in the Western Hemisphere? France, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, USA (Hispanics), South America, etc will bet for Spanish language. At the same time, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Hong-Kong, Singapore, etc will use Chinese. Finally, ALL reports say that English, Spanish and Chinese will be the most spoken and important languages of this century. There are two reports (one from Instituto Cervantes, another one from Banco de Santander) that say that the winner will be Spanish: Spanish will be the most spoken language by 2045 (some 10% of the World population). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5415 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 16 of 46 09 August 2011 at 6:38am | IP Logged | |||||
You have an incredibly Hispanocentric and Sinocentric perspective. There's more to North America than New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, and there's certainly more to Asia than China. Moreover, you focus entirely too much on pure numbers. Hindustani is already the second-most natively-spoken language in the world, but that doesn't mean Hindustani is the world's second-most important language. Chinese is already the language of 20% of the world's population (twice your cited prospective estimate for Spanish three decades from now), but it's just beginning to displace English in Asia (and China has a far larger economy than the entire Hispanosphere). Not to mention, you cite Miami and Los Angeles, but both cities are among America's most poorly performing cities. New York is doing better, but less than a fifth of the state's population speaks Spanish, and it's unclear whether the Hispanophones are responsible for the strength of New York's financial industry (which is its main claim to fame). Lastly, the notion that Spanish will displace English as the lingua franca of the West (including the Anglosphere, Central Europe, and Scandinavia) is just ridiculous. Norwegians and Germans will not be speaking to each other in Spanish anytime soon. 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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