7,000 languages, why Español?

Question

General estimates conclude that there are around 7,000 spoken languages around the world, but each of us has decided to learn Spanish.

My question is, what inspired you to learn Spanish? What captivated the imagination? or what situation or context made learning Spanish seem like an interesting or necessary goal?

I would love to hear some responses which share with each other some small part of why we are all here, learning together this wonderful language.

• the language sounds beautiful to hear - mahala Sep 27, 2009
• everbody around here(n.j.) is from mexico or some other spanish speaking country.. - pennypicker Apr 11, 2012

Answer 1

I am amazed that there are still over 350 native languages spoken in South America. Once, when I was a police officer in Central California, a witness to a crime only spoke one of the Oaxaca languages. The only person we could find to translate Oaxaca didn't speak English, only Spanish and Oaxaca. So then we needed someone to translate from Spanish to English. I found the whole thing fascinating and got interested in languages. I decided to finish my degree and go to law school. In first year of law school, they taught a class dealing with symbolic logic and the concept of language. That interested me so much that I started working on a joint degree in law and linguistics. I needed to be able to read at least two languages besides English so I went with Spanish and French. I always wanted to read Don Quixote in the original Spanish (I read an English translation in high school and loved it). Later, I married a Latina and realized that there was no reason I couldn't learn to speak Spanish, with her help, in addition to reading it.

• Amazing isn't it? There are over 30 in Bolivia which has only about 10 million people. - ian-hill Sep 25, 2009

Answer 2

The 2000 census says the county in which I live is 4.51% hispanic. That was a load of malarkey in 2000, and it's even more ridiculous today.

My town of 10,000 people has three Mexican groceries, two panaderias, six Mexican restaurants (not counting Taco Bell) at least one salon de bellesa (I don't exactly go looking for those) and 4 Mexican churches that I can name off the top of my head. My guess is that there are at least 10,000 hispanic immigrants here in my county of about 40K.

I refuse to be one of those Americans that insists that, "If they want to talk to me, they've got to learn my language." I think a lot more people on both sides ought to be bilingual.

I'm a deacon in a church, a Red Cross volunteer, and a citizen in a community full of people that speak Spanish. It's something that I can do if I put forth the effort, so why would I not do it?

• Thank you for N O T counting Taco Bell as Mexican food. ;-) - Izanoni1 Sep 25, 2009
• You're my hero. - Seitheach Sep 25, 2009
• cheers - 003487d6 Sep 25, 2009
• Awesome! - --Mariana-- Sep 27, 2009
• hilarious, i mean the comment above. great post Greg. - miloszdom Oct 7, 2009
View 2 more commments >>

Answer 3

There are several reasons why I am learning Spanish. The most obvious reason is that I live in the U.S. and we are neighbors to Mexico and most of Latin America. It is the second most common language spoken here.

I have quite a few friends who speak Spanish and I want to be able to better communicate with them.

I enjoy speaking with people in their native tongue when I visit Spanish speaking countries.

I am currently involved with ministry work and helping to teach music to Spanish speaking students, who know very little English. We are helping each other!

I always like to challenge myself in new ways. Learning Spanish is definitely a challenge, but it has been so much more rewarding than I ever dreamed.

Besides all of the above, I get to learn from the great people on this site. Gracias a Todos!!!!

• Great answer. - Goyo Sep 25, 2009
• Encantado Nicole - RicardoP Sep 25, 2009
• Ricardo, es "Encantada" a una señorita. - eric_collins Sep 25, 2009
• Eric, no, it's encantada if you A R E a señorita jejejeje - Valerie Sep 25, 2009
• Oh, okay. - eric_collins Oct 6, 2009

Answer 4

I starting learning Spanish when I was 8 years old. It was a class offered as an alternative to students who did not need extra help reading. I continued to take Spanish classes from then until I was 15 years old in order to meet the state Regent's recommendations (In the State of New York it is recommended to complete 'Spanish III'). I never thought about continuing with Spanish because I never thought that I would use it again.

When I was almost 22 I was asked to serve as a missionary for my church in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have been learning and speaking/reading/writing in Spanish ever since.

• That's a wonderful story! - --Mariana-- Sep 27, 2009

Answer 5

When I go into almost any store in my area, there are Spanish-speaking people shopping. Occasionally, they have difficulty getting their point across to the English-only speaking people they encounter. I would like to help them; therefore, I am studying Spanish and, in some small way, maybe I can make their life a little easier. Additionally, I would like to volunteer at a community center where assistance is offered to these hard working people.

Answer 6

I've always been really interested in what was going on in the rest of the world, outside of the U.S., and because of that I've wanted to learn to speak another language fluently. Spanish seemed like the natural choice because I live in the U.S. and a lot of people here are native spanish speakers.

Plus I'm a grammar geek, so getting to learn a whole new grammatical structure is a lot of fun for me. It's pretty awesome what learning a new language can teach you about your own.

Answer 7

For my own life, it's just been something that's always been a part of my life. I don't think it was a "choice." Everyone around me always spoke spanish, my friends ever since like forever have spoken spanish...so it wasn't a choice. I guess you could say for me it was more a matter of necessity than of choice. I wanted to know what people were saying...I didn't want to be at the side all the time, so I listened close and asked questions and made a fool of myself until I could understand what people around me were saying. Then later I got to speaking it and developed the style of speech and the accent and the speed...that's how it's been in my life.

• That is the only way to improve in Spanish..to make a fool of yourself. That has worked wonders for me. Plus, you get to make people laugh! - Nicole-B Sep 25, 2009
• Jejeje. You're funny Nicole. :) - Goyo Sep 25, 2009

Answer 8

I am learning Spanish because I moved to Bolivia - just to see something different after retIring (or rather being retired) from work in England. It is a bit of a bore not understanding what your friends are talking about and chatting up the local ladies is a bit difficult as well. Anyway knowing another language opens up all sorts of opportunities and helps one understand the world and life better. I experienced this first when I lived in Denmark and got to know Danish very well and Norwegian and Swedish (They are alike in a similar way that Portguese and Spanish are alike). It also gives me something to do - I hate being idle and like a challenge.

• Fantastic! - --Mariana-- Sep 27, 2009

Answer 9

I used to live in LA. After that I moved to Orlando for awhile.

The fact that I'd lived so long in bilingual communities without learning Spanish was starting to make me feel lazy. All those resources and I had never made the effort? Come on, me, suck it up!

• I have been to several places in Florida where I could go for an hour or so without hearing any English...only Spanish. - Nicole-B Sep 25, 2009
• The airport in Miami right? - ian-hill Sep 30, 2009

Answer 10

More than two years ago I started learning Italian, but I quit after a month - probably because I was about to give birth. Anyway, then my motherhood began, together with waking up at night and being always on the go. Four months ago, on my birthday, my husband took me to the cinema to see "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". I really enjoyed it, especially Penelope's acting. I can't remember exactly how my learning started (although I was perfectly sober ). I began to look for some general guidelines on pronunciation, useful phrases etc. on the Internet and that's how I ended up here. Everyone, including me, is a real pain in the neck,the lessons are so-so, the dictionary sucks, not to mention the forum.... Just kidding I got addicted from the word go.

• lol - --Mariana-- Sep 27, 2009

Answer 11

My consideration for learning Spanish is not to talk to a sixteen year old, he can learn English quickly, I want to make his grandmother more comfortable by being able to say few words in her language.

• Nice. - --Mariana-- Sep 27, 2009

Answer 12

Even when I was a very young girl, I was interested in Spanish for some odd reason (who knows maybe I have Spanish blood from way way back?). Anyway, where I grew up, there was no opportunity to learn Spanish at school or anywhere close by. There was no internet in those days either, no Spanish speaking people around here only French, a few Ukrainian and English. The need to learn Spanish stayed with me all those years. Then my husband and I started discussing what we were going to do when we retire. One of the things we are very interested in doing is going to work as volunteers in Latin America, possibly Haiti or the Dominican Republic (perhaps in an orphanage). My husband talked to a local priest about this and he said we had better start learning Spanish if we were going to do that kind of thing. So here I am! I love it. This is a terrific site!

Answer 13

I grew up in Portugal, right next to Spain, but when I came back to England I didn't have many opportunities to speak Portugues and unfortunatly I've forgotten alot of it. When I traveled back to Portugal and when I visited Spain numorous times, one of the things that always frustrated me was not being able to properly talk and express myself to people, and not always understanding what people were saying around me.

From my travels and from this mentality I've developed a love for languages, with Spanish being possibly my favorite alongside Japonese. I make frequent trips to Spain and I'm looking forward to the day when I can meet and have long conversations with people in Spain and hopefully make it easier to move to Granada or Barcelona for a while.

Another reason I'm learning Spanish is that I'm hoping to take a linguistics degree at University and I plan on becoming a translator, what with translation opening me up to so many options to travel and see the world. Spanish is so widely spoken that it would give me employmet opportunities all over the place.

Lastly I also love Spanish film and literature and I really want to be able to watch and read without having it translated. I feel theres often much that gets lost in translation, and reading it raw would be awesome.

Answer 14

I reside in an urban area saturated by Spanish-speaking people. Personally, I would like to be able to communicate with my friends better. Besides that, approximately half of my patients are Spanish speaking. I feel as though I would be much better at my job if I can communicate with my patients! We would not have to request a translator every time & they would be much more at ease.

Life would be better!

• I am glad that you are interested in learning Spanish for the sake of your patients. I'm not sure what part of the medical profression you are in. - Nicole-B Sep 28, 2009
• I am a medical transcriptionist and several times people have posted questions about medical reports, etc. It would be great to have someone here who could help to decipher the language of medicine within the language of Spanish. - Nicole-B Sep 28, 2009

Answer 15

I am learning Spanish because I can start using it now (I am serving with many hispanics) and when I get home I can use it even more. Everyday!