1. Spanish in the 21 st century

2. Why Learn Spanish?

3. Today there are nearly 350 million and growing! In the late 19th century, there were some 60 million Spanish speakers.

4. Spanish is the mother tongue of approximately 350 million people in 21 countries

5. According to an estimate about 15 percent of Americans speak Spanish at home.

6. By 2050, the number of Hispanics in the U.S is projected to grow to over 100 million people, which will be about 1/4 of the total U.S. population

7. ''There's nothing foreign about Spanish anymore. It's the second language of the United States,'' says Sam Slick, who founded Command Spanish, the nation's largest firm specializing in teaching Spanish for the workplace.

8. Both have Latin origins and Indo-European Roots. Learning Spanish will help you understand English better.

9. Learning Spanish will give you a head start in learning the other Latin-based languages such as French and Italian. French Italian And it will even help you learn Russian and German, since they too have Indo-European roots.

10. Written Spanish is almost completely phonetic: Look at almost any Spanish word and you can tell how it is pronounced

11. We’re behind the World... The USA's lax participation in foreign- language education was discussed at Senate hearings. Witnesses told members of the committee on governmental affairs that monolingual Americans have become ill- equipped to deal with everything from global warfare and international commerce to espionage.

12. Spanish language learning: Will help your child to develop intellectually Expands their mental capacities Stretches their listening ability to be able to hear clearer distinctions between sounds.

13. Gives students a better understanding of their own native language Gives them an appreciation for people of other countries and cultures In school testing, it has been proven that bilingual children consistently score higher than monolingual students. Spanish language learning:

14. Employment Opportunities Entering the work force, a bilingual candidate is more likely to be chosen over a monolingual one.

15. Economic and political powerhouses like: The European Union United Nations Union of South American Nations Organization of Ibero-American States Organization of American States – make use of the Spanish language as an official language. Employment Opportunities

16. Many countries in Latin America have signed or are on the verge of signing onto NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which was originally set up by the United States, Canada and Mexico. This should further strengthen trade and business ties between these countries and the U.S. - making the Spanish language an even more important asset for Americans in the business world. Employment Opportunities

17. http://www.academiaespanol.com/spanishinne wcentury http://learn-spanish-online.maxupdates.tv/top- reasons-to-learn-spanish-language/ http://spanish.about.com/cs/forbeginners/a/wh ylearnspanish.htm http://www.espanol.com/usatoday.htm

18. http://www.squidoo.com/learnspeak_spanish http://www.spanish- school.com.mx/learnspanish.php http://www.learn-spanish-smart.com/benefits- of-learning-a-second-language.html