Spanish is the second most used language in the world after Chinese, which as a native language is spoken by over a billion people. But it isn’t only about the amount of Spanish speakers around the world, there’s a lot more around learning a language.
During quarantine it can be difficult to keep yourself busy, and learning a second language is a great way of setting goals and keeping your brain active and improving. Plenty of research on languages found that memory has improved for bilinguals, and even diseases like dementia came years later for those.
Apart from health benefits, learning Spanish can also offer you an opportunity to travel without leaving your living room, and this is a great deal during confinement. How? Just let yourself enjoy while listening some caribbean music or get in the Spanish mood by watching films in Spanish. You can also get in touch with people around the world by chat!
In case you are not still convinced that learning Spanish is a good idea, here are other 5 reasons to leave all doubt out:
1. Experiment a straight-forward learning
Spanish grammar can be scary the first time it is presented to English Speakers: plurals, genders, 14 tenses, countless irregular verbs. Even if syntax and grammar may seem an English nightmare, Spanish basics are one of the easiest to learn.
What’s more, there are some amenities, especially if your native language belongs to the group of Romance languages. Students who speak French, Italian or Portuguese will have no major learning problems. Thanks to Latin roots, English speakers will also not be left behind.
2. Get your pronunciation on point easily!
Linguistics classify Spanish as a transparent language, meaning there’s a highly strict relationship between each letter and its sound. This results in an extremely accessible language that sounds as it is written! There are phonetic differences in dialects between regions and countries, but that doesn’t bother your learning at all.
If you feel like discovering the traditional Spanish accent, you can try a Spanish class Barcelona during holidays, or just go for online classes during quarantine with Spanish teachers at institutes like Expanish.
3. Literature
Days are extremely slow during confinement? Maybe you are already tired of playing games online. Well, reading is a delightful and an impossible to end task. If you already master some Spanish basics, give a try to Spanish literature in quarantine!
There are many classics of universal literature and among them are some of the greatest works of literature in Spanish:
- Twenty love poems and a desperate song (1924)
It is the famous work of poetry by the Chilean Pablo Neruda (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971), one of the great literary creations of the 20th century. It consists of 20 love poems and the last “a desperate song”, inspired by the experiences of the poet’s youth who was not 20 when he wrote them.
- The Aleph (1949)
It is a storybook written by the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, made up of 17 stories, which reconstruct metaphors and myths from the tradition of universal literature.
4. Learning Spanish is good for business
Business issues are also Spanish’s strength. It is the official language of the United Nations, the EU, the Organization of American States and the Union of South American Nations, allowing business contacts and investments around the world.
Spanish is also the second most spoken language in the US and also the second most interesting audience in terms of marketing. Many studies have been done in the United Kingdom about the amount of purchases lost by not including Spanish speaking public.
The British Council’s Language for the Future reports that Spanish is one of the five most important languages after Brexit.
5. The possibility of traveling and having fun!
Get excited by planning all the countries you can visit where people speak Spanish and all the cool things you could do there, of course, once confinement is over. Maybe you can give it a try to Ibiza, lose yourself in the great Gaudi’s masterpieces between Barcelona streets or just travel through time by visiting the incredible Mayans ruins in Mexico.
With Spanish in your pocket it’s time to conquer the world!
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