What is the point of Spanish if I live in the United States?

Question

What is the point of Spanish?

• Clay, please use proper capitalization in your posts. - --Mariana-- Sep 9, 2009

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Answer 1

If you have to ask this, then the answer is most likely - there is no point for you. Many people like to leave their country of origin and experience other things, either temporarily or permanently; being able to communicate with more people around the world opens up those parts of the world as potential experiences. Also, different languages develop under different circumstances, involve thinking about things in different ways, learning the language can increase your ability to understand things.

Many people also have a thing called "curiosity", an effect driven by a chemical released into the brain called 'dopamine' during the learning process; it makes the brain want to do whatever caused the release again to get another hit (cocain works on the same parts of the brain). This causes people to want to learn things that can seem completely pointless in order to gain this hit. People who's curiosity wasn't stimulated as a child can lack this drive, and feel like learning things for the sake of it is pointless, however this can easily be overcome by the realisation that sometimes learning things for the sake of it is rewarding... and can pay off in unexpected ways, that without the knowledge, you wouldn't realise.

If you're going to learn another communicative language, Spanish is an excellent choice; it's a nice language, not too difficult to learn, and lots of other people speak it. There's a whole world outside of the USA, and even if you can't reach it by foot, you've already shown you can reach it by wire.

• Thanks for the help... and no, it isn't a homework question. - clayberd Sep 9, 2009

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Answer 2

None at all. Stay in your own backyard.

• I *love* this answer...good one! - --Mariana-- Sep 9, 2009
• Can I retract my comment and use this one too? You got my vote. - Seitheach Sep 9, 2009
• Please people, this person may appear to be uncurious, but without some curiosity this question would not have been asked (unless it's a homework question!) ... don't turn people off curiosity! - AnnoLoki Sep 9, 2009
• I stand corrected. - Seitheach Sep 9, 2009
• This answer is pure poetry...I wish I could say so much while saying so little...You get my vote. - Izanoni1 Sep 9, 2009

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Answer 3

AAAHHHHHH!!!!! Have you never been to Lowe's? Spanish is the second most spoken language in the country. Also several countries to our south have it as their national languages. I have also been in some VERY GOOD Mexican restaraunts that didn't have english menus.

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Answer 4

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the country. It would be very helpful to know and speak spanish. When its hard i sometimes feel the same way.

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Answer 5

Learning to speak a foreign language is a decision that is usually either made out of interest or necessity.

Let me first address the issue of need. By your comments, I assume that learning Spanish does not pose an immediate necessity to you in your own community. You may also feel like this will not change anytime in the near future, and you may be right. However, you might also want to consider that in 2000, about 1 in 8 people in the US spoke Spanish, and this number was an increase, and in the ten years prior, there was an average increase of 1,000,000 new Spanish speakers per year.

In many of the larger cities and especially along the southern border of the US the number of Spanish speakers is disproportionately high. Moreover, many of these that speak Spanish also consider themselves to be able to speak English very well. More importantly, those of "Hispanic identity" are one of the fastest growing demographics in the US.

While it may seem unnecessary to you, you should also recognize that by only speaking a single language in what may well become a largely bilingual country sets you at a disadvantage. At the same time, if you feel comfortable and can function with only one language then even these reasons will not be compelling in and of themselves to make you feel the need to learn Spanish.

As to the issue of interest, this is a much more personal decision. It may be based on a desire to experience another culture, or broaden your own experiences. Maybe you would like to be able to travel to another country where the language is spoken, or perhaps you just want to be able to understand that eighth person that you meet in the on the bus, at your work, in the supermarket or in your own neighborhood. Perhaps you recognize that every person you meet on the street is worthy of dignity and respect as a human being. Perhaps you recognize that by learning another person's language you are tacitly showing that that eighth person is worthy of your respect. Perhaps it is not a matter of necessity but a matter of neighborliness. Perhaps

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Answer 6

Seeing as how more and more Hispanics are coming into America, it seems to be very profitable. Also, depending on the job, some people are more likely to hire you if you can speak spanish and english.

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Answer 7

It's a shame I cannot combine the threads any more and comments will get lost if I close this...but , sorry. If you wish, please answer on this thread.

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