17th September 2018
Camp Suisse is a truly international environment and every year we welcome a number of Spanish speakers. Over the last few years, Camp Suisse’s Spanish language course has been growing steadily in popularity; on a global level, Spanish is becoming more widely spoken. So we thought it would be a good idea to have a look at the top five reasons to hablar español:
1. Increasing numbers of Spanish speakers
In the US, Spanish is rising ahead of any other non-English language at a rapid pace, with a steady flow of new immigrants from Latin America and growth in the already large Hispanic population.
According to a Pew Research Center report, an estimated 37.6 million people in the US spoke Spanish as their first language in 2013 and analysts predict the Latino population will reach approximately 128.8 million by 2060.
Proportionally, Hispanics will rise from around 16 per cent of the US population in 2010 to 30 per cent by 2050.
2. Learning Spanish will help your career
With booming economies in Latin America, employers are desperate for people who speak Spanish. There is a huge demand in the west, particularly North America, for Spanish-speakers in nursing, construction management and media, among many other positions.
Big corporations are realising the importance of reaching a market that represented $1.5 trillion (£1.13 trillion) in purchasing power in the US in 2015. Meanwhile, Latin America received a record $174 billion of foreign investment in 2012 and companies everywhere are expanding there, such as PepsiCo, which announced a $5 billion investment in Mexico in January 2014.
3. It will unlock a world of travel destinations
There are approximately 329 million native Spanish speakers in the world and they populate some of the coolest destinations in the world.
Even if you do go to popular destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean, speaking the local language will help you get off the beaten path and see some real culture. And then of course you can book a trip to Spain and see the wonders of Barcelona, Madrid, Andalucia and more.
4. You can enjoy amazing books and movies
Around 100 successful authors from 54 countries voted El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha by novelist Miguel de Cervantes as the best book of all time and while the 17th-century book is widely available in other languages, it, like any book, is best in its original language.
Other Spanish-language authors you’ll want to read are Chilean poet Pablo Neruda – many of whose works have not been translated – Gabriel García Márquez, Roberto Bolaño, Mario Vargas Llosa and many more.
And then there are the movies. Star directors Pedro Almodóvar, Alfonso Cuaron and Guilermo Del Toro – who all have movies in their native language – should be enough to convince you of the richness of Spanish-language cinema.
5. Spanish is easy to learn
Written Spanish is almost completely phonetic – look at any Spanish word and you can tell how it is pronounced.
While mastering the grammar of Spanish can be a challenge, basic grammar is straightforward enough and many vocabulary words are similar to English. Since the number of Spanish speakers in the US continues to rise, chances are it will become even easier to learn and practice this language.
To find out more about our Spanish language tuition, head over to our languages pages.