Spanish as a Foreign Language

Date: 4th September 2009

Here I would like to expatiate why I chose to learn Spanish, in particular, as a foreign language.

Until December 2006, it had been my unfulfilled desire to learn and master a foreign language. My parents have always been considering learning a foreign language as a colossal waste of time, energy and captial. On the other hand, I have always been having an inclination to learn and master as many languages as possible. I find immense happiness in doing so.

But their constant discouragement didn't set me aback. On the contrary, it boosted my spirits. I fervently decided to learn and master a foreign language and prove them totally wrong.

I was bewildered to choose between French, German, Russian and Spanish. I sought the help of search engines to find a solution for my bewilderment. While surfing the net, I came across so many facts which ultimately made me to choose Spanish.

Let me narrate the basic facts now. Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world with approximately 500 million speakers(Mandarin dialect of Chinese stands first). So, one basic fact is that Spanish speakers outnumber English speakers.

Spanish has been recognized as one of the six official lanugages of the United Nations. The other five are: Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Russian.

Also, Spanish serves as the official language of about twenty-five countries in the world. Some of them are: Spain, Mexico, the whole of the South American continent(other than Brazil) like Bolivia, Gautemala, Hondruas, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru. In the United States, Spanish has been officially recognized as the second language.

Spanish and Portugese are mutually intelligible languages. Hence, Spanish is widely understood in Portugese speaking conturies like Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique etc.

The aforesaid reasons drove me to start learning Spanish as a foreign language. Now let me share with you all, the fact, that how I am at an advantageous position with my knowledge in Spanish.

I now possess "Diploma in Spanish". I studied "Spanish as a Foreign Language" at "Instituto Hispania", India(http://institutohispania.com/index.html)

Instituto Hispania is obviously the top ranking institute for learning Spanish. The management of the institute does commendable service in promoting Spanish language in India. I would strongly recommend the people of India to learn Spanish at any one of the branches of Instituo Hispania.

By virtue of my knowledge in Spanish, my English word robe has increased by leaps and bounds. It is because of the fact that Spanish is actually an offshoot of Latin and Latin has a telling influence in English.

I would like to corroborate this statement with an example. In Spanish, the word "Salud" refers to "Health". Once, while going through an article in English, I came across the word "Salubrious". With out even refering to the dictionary, I could make out that it would mean something related to health. Spanish and English possess innumerable identical and similar words.

Also, now since I know Spanish, I am able to understand Portugese, Italian and French.

The aforesaid three languages along with Spanish fall under one language family.

Now, by the Grace of The Almighty I have been living in a country for almost a year where Spanish has been given the status of second language. Here, I end up conversing in Spanish with the native speakers of the language and consequently I have won the hearts of innumerable native speakers of Spanish.

Summing up, I would sincerely recommend those Indians, who have an inclination to learn new languages, to learn Spanish at the outset.

யாம் பெற்ற இன்பம் பெருக இவ்வையகம்