Learning Spanish opens up lots of opportunities to have more fun. Who doesn’t enjoy reading a good book or watching a good movie? Music? You bet! Food? The best! The satisfaction of accomplishment? Learning Spanish can be one of the most enjoyable things you will ever do.

Whether your motivations are practical, intellectual or sentimental, learning Spanish is something that will benefit you for the rest of your life.

Research indicates that knowing and using two languages reduces your chances of developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. The scientists who studied this were motivated by earlier studies which showed that bilingualism enhances mental abilities in both children and older adults.

Other studies show that studying languages can improve your memory and slow age-related decline in mental acuity. Studying another language could make you smarter, develop and improve your critical thinking skills as you learn to view things through a different lens. Learning a second language stimulates creativity!

Spanish is becoming more and more important with regards to business. Learning Spanish will enable you to better communicate with Spanish-speaking employees or co-workers. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to offer your product or service to the 400 million people whose mother tongue is Spanish? In North America, Hispanic consumers are the fastest-growing market segment.

As for job opportunities, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have Spanish on your CV. Spanish can be particularly helpful if you work in healthcare or education. Increasingly, more and more businesses are employing more Spanish-speaking people. One thing is certain, if you are bilingual, you will be more marketable and have more career choices than your monolingual counterpart. Globalisation with its accompanying free trade agreements is shrinking the business world, and those who know more than one language will definitely have more opportunities.

Although it’s possible to travel to a Spanish-speaking country without knowing any Spanish, your trip will in no way compare with the incredible adventure that awaits the traveller who speaks Spanish. If you only speak English, you will be forced to confine yourself to popular tourist resorts where everyone speaks some English, but if you want to explore the area and get to know the local people, you need to know Spanish.

Being able to do simple things, such as reading signs and menus, asking directions or telling a taxi driver where you want to go requires some knowledge of the language. Hispanic people are very generous, and if you speak Spanish you will find yourself being welcomed in a way that would never happen if you spoke only English. Knowing Spanish will allow you to move from the role of observer to that of an active participant.

The Hispanic population in the United States grew by 43% in the last decade, surpassing 50 million and accounting for about 1 out of 6 Americans. But it’s not only in the US where Spanish is popular. In Europe, Spanish is the second most popular language, after English. Spanish is the official language of almost all countries of South America, Central America and Spain.

Spanish is also spoken in some African countries (Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco, Nigeria, Western Sahara), Asia-Pacific (Philippines, Guam and Mariana Islands). Spanish is the fourth most commonly-spoken language in the world. Only Mandarin, English and Hindi have more speakers. Spanish is an official language on four continents and is the mother tongue in 23 countries. The sheer number of Spanish speakers and their rate of growth makes learning Spanish a smart choice.

Developing a deeper understanding of Hispanic culture is becoming more and more important. There is no more certain way to gain this insight than to learn to speak Spanish. Knowing the language will prepare you to better appreciate some of the great Hispanic modern and classic cultural contributions. From Cervantes to García Márquez Hispanic literary contributions are monumental.

From royal portraits of Goya to the surreal depictions of Picasso or the vision of the genius Salvador Dalí, Spanish influence on the arts has been substantial. Let’s not forget Spanish gastronomy! Learning Spanish can be the perfect excuse for enjoying the cuisine of Spanish speaking countries: burritos, tamales, paella, patatas bravas, calamares… mmm, delicious! The list goes on and on, it’s a delicious indicator of the vast diversity of Hispanic culture.

Johann Wolfgang may have exaggerated when he said, ‘He who knows no foreign language, knows nothing of his own’. It cannot be denied that by studying Spanish you will, without doubt, gain a better understanding of your own language. Spanish is what we call a ‘Romance language’, it means that it is based on Latin, the language of the ancient Roman Empire. Many English words also come from Latin, so by learning Spanish you will be expanding your English vocabulary.

As you study the Spanish grammar, you will notice how similar it is to English, as well as how it’s different. This will raise your awareness of the grammar of your own native language. Spanish language is very nearly phonetically perfect, you can look at almost any word and immediately know exactly how to pronounce it. This characteristic of the Spanish language makes it one of the easiest languages to learn. Knowing Spanish will be a huge advantage to learn French, Italian or Portuguese because these languages are Romance languages too.

If you are the kind of person who likes to help others, learning to speak Spanish will put you in a position where you can help both Spanish speakers who don’t speak English and English speakers who don’t speak Spanish. It is a ‘win-win’ situation.

The living standard is appallingly low in many Spanish speaking countries. In many Latin American countries a lot of people live in severe poverty. Learning Spanish will prepare you for taking the next step, and going there and making a difference!

The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said; “The limits of my language are the limits of my universe”. Without a doubt, learning Spanish will expand your own personal universe. As the Hispanic population continues to grow at a disproportionate rate it becomes more and more likely that you might marry into a Spanish-speaking family, have Spanish speaking neighbours, work colleagues or encounter Spanish-speaking people in your daily rounds. Wouldn’t it be nice to say hello and chat with your fellow paisanos (countrymen)?

Learning Spanish will enable you to keep pace with Hispanic influence on culture which is strong and getting stronger. For example, are you familiar with the Plenty kitchen towels TV ad? Did you know that Juan (his name) is actually one of the most common Spanish names?

Also, when he says “Juan sheet does plenty’, it also sounds like “Juan sheet, dos plenty”, a play on words since dos is the number two in Spanish and Juan sounds like “one” in English. That’s just one example, there are plenty of Spanish-English jokes and puns that you’d simply miss if you don’t know any Spanish.