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Berlitz Top 5 reasons to learn Spanish...
1. Spanish is one of the three most demanded foreign languages worldwide
- The country with the highest demand for Spanish classes is the United States;
- The other top-10 are Germany, France, Brazil and Japan;
- In Japan, Spanish is second after English;
- In Asia and Australasia, Spanish is fourth after English, French and a third European language (usually German, Italian or Portuguese);
- Spanish is one of the very few languages with growing enrolments;
- In the period 1989- 2009 the global demand for Spanish increased 9.57%;
- In the same period, demand for French and Italian disminished 17% and German 42%; English increased by 43% and Mandarin by 454%;
- Only English enjoy a higher global demand;
- Spanish share of global learning demand is 9.9% - compared with 6.8% of French and 69.43% of English;
2. Spanish is the language for travel and hospitality
Spanish is an important language for world travelers. It is the language of some of the world's favorite tourist and business destinations.
According to statistics from World Tourism Organisation WTO 200, two Hispanic countries are amongst the first 10 tourist recipients. Spain in a second place after United States of America and Mexico placed eighth.
In dollars revenue, Spain is also second with 45.2 billion USD taking a 7.3% of the world percentage, while the Caribbean countries, Central America and South America are recipients of 5.3% of the world tourism. More exactly, the American- Hispanic countries get 40% of the tourist in the American country, with a forecast annual growth of 40%.
3. Spain: 2nd world Tourism destination
Spain is the second country in the world in terms of tourism arrivals: In September of 2010, Spain has registered 5.7 million international tourist, 8.3% more than in the same month last year. The number of tourist visiting Spain has been consistently increasing in the last 7 months. By end of 2009, Spain registered a total of 53.6 million visitors and Spain itself with a total population of 42 million.
4. Spanish enjoys proper academic standards
Spanish is a well established academic discipline that has been part of educational programs of most western countries for nearly two centuries. The enormous popularity of Spanish in the last three decades has resulted in unusually large enrollments of students learnings Spanish, particularly in English-speaking countries. As a result, the textbook publishing business in the field has flourished and the need to standardise academic proficiency levels has become apparent. Today, Spanish is arguably one of the best (if not the best) resourced foreign languages in the educational context. The two main sources of textbooks and learning materials are the United States and Spain
5. Learnability: Spanish is easy to learn
Spanish is easy to learn for English speakers. Beacuse of their Latin origin, English and Spanish share many common words; there are dozens of English words in the Spanish language and vice-versa (vista, patio, mosquito, fiesta are all Spanish words). No other major language has sounds that are as easy to learn as those of Spanish. Spanish is a very flexible, expressive and freely spoken language. It is estimated that an English speaker can learn Spanish in a fraction of the time it would take to learn an Asian language. As a result, the average student is able to maintain a simple conversation in Spanish after a few months of study, and a long conversation on everyday topics after just a couple of years.
Once the basics of the language are solidly planted, it is possible to develop a reading competence in any area of expertise or specialization in a few months. Typically, students of technical and scientific disciplines with a reading ability in Spanish will merge it with their studies as a matter of course.
The high learnability rate of Spanish for English-speakers depends primarily on the relative closeness of both languages, and secondarily on the relative inner complexity of the target language. Thus, Spanish is easier and quicker to learn, due to its simple grammar and phonetics, compared with Asian or other European languages. For many English speakers, Spanish is a good gateway into other languages of the Romance family, such as French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and Romanian.
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Berlitz Spanish Courses
