Spanish Language

Some important facts about Spanish language:

Spanish language originated in the Castile region of Spain. It is a part of the Indo – European romance languages which also include English, French, German, Bengali, Russian, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Portuguese and Punjabi.
Spanish is the native language of more than 470 million people worldwide. It is studied either as the first or second language by nearly 559 million students and by 21 million students, as a foreign language.
In Europe, it is spoken in Spain, Switzerland, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Gibraltar, Andorra and Catalan. Outside of Spain, it is widely spoken in the Hispanic America, the USA and the African Union.
It is one of the official languages of the UN. The EU and the Union of South American nations also use it as the official language.
Spanish is spoken in 21 countries and it is the third most spoken language in the world, the first two positions are taken by Mandarin and English.
Spanish is also called as Español or Castellano by people who speak it.
Although it took root in the Iberian Peninsula, it spread to other parts of the world, especially to Latin America and Africa because of the colonization of Spain. Also, there is a notable difference in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary between the Spanish spoken in Spain and that which is spoken in Latin America.
English and Spanish have many words and expressions in common as they both have derived from the Latin. Many words related to technology and culture has been adopted into Spanish from English. Also, the Spanish language is greatly influenced by Arabic.
Spanish is the easiest language to learn in terms of pronunciation, i.e. If you know the spelling of a word, it is always easy to predict its pronunciation as compared to French or German, where if you even knowthe spelling of a word, you would not know how to pronunciation it.

Advantages of learning Spanish Language:

If you are a history buff or a traveller who likes to explore cities in Central and South America, where ancient Mayan, Inca or Aztec civilizations flourished, Spanish is the language that would help you immensely to travel and communicate with ease in these regions.
For business executives who need to travel frequently to Europe, North & South America or Republic of Africa for developing commerce in these regions, learning Spanish language and culture could rather prove beneficial for business, as you would be prepared with the do’s and don’ts while interacting with the clients/customersfrom these regions.
Learning a second language like Spanish has been proven good for health. You might be wondering how?

Many studies conducted on the study of Human brain, have shown that learning a language prevents the ageing of the brain and hence prevents disorders like dementia from developing. Also being bilingual boosts the logical reasoning, critical thinking and creativity of the brain, thus making you smarter and more intelligent.

Spanish artist have left their mark on the world of music. Artist like Jenifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Mariah Careywho have topped the chartbusters for many years now are all Latin pop singers. So by learning Spanish you could actually listen and understand to hundreds of their original songs in Latin or Spanish.
You could just learn Spanish for fun, as it is known to be the easiest language to learn amongst the Romance languages. Spanish culture and food is very unique and you might have heard some terms related to food like Tacos, Tortillas, paella in India as well. With knowledge of Spanish you could read, understand and cook hundreds of such new recipes from Spain or Latin America.
Finally the most important reason to learn Spanish is for employment purposes. Currently Spaniards are expanding their business interest to many new developing countries, which means an opportunity to work in a Spanish multinational company in India or elsewhere across the globe.