Spanish, like many other European languages such as French, Italian or Portuguese, is a Romance language that had its roots in Latin. It originated on the Iberian Peninsula, the south west region of Europe where Spain and Portugal have their boundaries. A rich mixed of Latin and an Arabic dialect formed what became the standardized Spanish in the 1200s.

Currently, Spanish has the second largest number or native speakers in the world. It is the official language in more than 20 countries including: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay or Venezuela. And there are more Spanish speakers in the United States than in Spain. With 120 million, Mexico has the largest population of Spanish speakers but the US is catching up.

With more than 400 million native speakers worldwide, Spanish is the second most spoken language, only Chinese is more popular. English is third with over 360 million native speakers.

In the US, more than 40 million people speak Spanish fluently and that number continues to grow.

Learning new languages is a must these days, not only to communicate with people from other regions but to find a job in an increasingly competitive labor market. Actually, Spanish is the most studied language in the US, where 50% of American college students choose to learn Spanish. If you’d like to improve or learn Spanish while living in Spain, its never been so easy.