Our students can benefit from an “Intro to European Spanish literature, culture, and language” when choosing Spain as part of their European Studies program.
A popular Romance language, Spanish can equip an American student with a much better understanding of sophisticated Latin-based English words. The influence of Spanish is noticeable in Italy (lexical similarity is 82%) and in France (lexical similarity is 75%) on account of interrelated historical events; thus, assimilating all these languages is relatively easy.
Over 400 million people speak Spanish worldwide; in the United States, it is the most spoken language after English. It is the 3rd most spoken language in the world, after Mandarine Chinese and English. Spanish is the official language in Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay, Ecuatorial Guinea; Spanish is also spoken by large communities in the United States, Gibraltar, Belize, Andorra, and parts of Morocco. Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language of Sephardic Jews, is spoken primarily in Israel; moreover, creole Spanish is predominant in some areas of the Philippines, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao.