Like many others, you may be wondering why has Spanish become so popular in recent years?
While there may be various reason for its popularity, we will first talk about why are there so many Spanish speakers in the world.
Think about this for a minute, according to Cervantes Institute in 2017 there were 477 million native Spanish speakers in the world!
Read ‘How many people in the world speak Spanish’ by speakeasybcn.com
This makes it the second most spoken language in the world.
The colonization process of the American continent began in the early 1500’s.
The most important actors during this process besides the indigenous population of the Americas were:
Spain, England, France, Portugal and Netherlands.
At the time, Spain was at the height of its power.
Investing in exploration companies to find new routes to the Indies was as risky as it could be profitable.
Spaniards were not the first ones to have stumbled upon the new continent, but they were the first ones to systematically start exploring it.
In the end, they were able to claim the largest chunk of territory compared to the other European powers.
Fast-forward 500 years, and you will quickly notice that most people living in this continent are native Spanish speakers.
Therefore, one of the reasons it is popular is because it is spoken big such a massive amount of people.
Read ‘Play videogames and learn Spanish’
That means that the sheer amount of content produced is considerably bigger than most other languages.
However, there are almost as many people speaking Mandarin in the world and its popularity is not even close to that of the Spanish language.
So what else makes it so popular besides the sheer number of native speakers and content produced?
Unlike other widely spoken languages like Mandarin or Hindi, Spanish is comparatively easy. Particularly for people whose native language uses the Latin alphabet.
If you are a native English speaker it would be significantly easier to learn Spanish.
I am sure you would be able to learn Hindi or Mandarin, it would just take much longer.
The third reason why Spanish is so popular, has to do with the cultural traits that are associated with Spanish/Latin world.
People associate the Spanish language with mostly positive traits such as: cheerfulness, openness, sociable, etc.
Read ‘Spanish is the happiest language in the world’ from the Daily Mail.
It wouldn’t be crazy to conclude that most people would gravitate towards something that seems easy and fun.
We already tend to do that in our daily lives.
We usually choose our friends based on how feel when we are around them.
Why Spanish is so popular
No one would be friends with a person that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Besides the sheer number of Spanish speakers, the easiness of the language and the cultural traits associated with it, pop culture has also enhanced the status of Spanish as an International language.
Stars like Shakira, J Lo, Marc Anthony and more, have played their role in transforming it.
Popularizing it and making it what it is today.
As we know mass media has always had immense power.
Usually what they decide to portray as cool and popular, becomes cool and popular.
Which takes us to importance of learning Spanish nowadays.
As an English Speaker, you have an advantage over the billions of native Mandarin and Hindi speakers of the world.
You already know the alphabet! We hope 😉
The pace at which you will learn Spanish will be so much faster than theirs.
Read ‘Watch Narcos and learn Spanish’
Besides, the chances to practice it are countless.
You can do an online course, an immersion course, or have a go at it on your own!
If you are the adventurous type, you can travel to Latin America and try your luck to acquire it by yourself!
All sound like good projects than will pay their dividends when the time comes.
Let us know what you think about our reasons Why is Spanish so popular
🙂 Adios!
