Spanish is the official first language of more countries than any other language in the world. It is nowadays the fourth most spoken language in the world, after Chinese, English and Hindi. Spanish ranks even second in terms of native speakers, and according to some statistics, there are more Spanish than English native speakers! Worldwide, there are nearly 500 million people speaking Spanish.   

Spanish is official language in the following 21 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela. A great part of the population in Andorra, Belize, Gibraltar, and the United States speak spanish, too. Spanish is nowadays the mother tongue of more than 350 million people.  

Spanish is as well official langugage in various international organisations and institutions, such as the European Union, Mercosur, Organization of American States and the United Nations. Spanish is therefore the second most used language in international communication. 

Last but not least, knowing Spanish can offer you great work opportunities. If you have in addition to your degree a good knowledge in a foreign language such as Spanish, you have definately more chances to get the job of your dreams. In fact, almost every good job requires knowledge in at least one foreign language.

If you want to work not only on the national level, knowing spanish offers good job opportunities, especially in trade or business fields. Other working fields are diplomacy, interpretation, and security applications, which all require an outstanding knowledge of the foreign language. 

After all, you can say that learning a new language in general increases problem-solving skills, improves your memory, self-discipline, and self-esteem.