7 Extraordinary Benefits of Learning Spanish
Thinking about learning Spanish?
Whether you’re considering travelling to South America, want to boost your CV with some extra skills or simply enjoy a good mental challenge, studying Spanish is an incredibly valuable thing to do. Being able to speak any second language will open doors for you and create opportunities that simply don’t exist for a monolingual – and Spanish is one of the most useful languages out there, especially if you want to travel in Latin America.
We won’t sugarcoat it, it does take some work and you’re not going to become fluent overnight – but we promise you it’s worth the time and effort! So read on as we take you through the seven main benefits of picking up this beautiful language, and we’re certain you’ll find yourself inspired.
1. Studying Spanish makes travelling abroad a whole lot easier
If you’ve yet to embark upon a journey through South America, you probably don’t quite appreciate the difficulties that you come across as a monolinguist or solo English speaker in these parts.
Want to get to another city? You’ll be needing the colectivo, or possibly the micro.
Hungry? You’re looking for the mercado.
Want to strike up a conversation with a lady waiting with her goat for the same bus? You’ll need Buenos días, ¿cómo está usted?
Sure, English is a really helpful language too. But trust us when we tell you that finding someone who speaks competent English in most parts of South America is about as easy as fitting two llamas in a taxi cab (something that we, admittedly, have seen happen in Cusco).
Being able to speak at least a bit of the local lingo is essential to help you get around, particularly if you’re travelling outside the main tourist areas – we can’t overstate how much it will transform your travel experience! The better your Spanish is, the easier it will be for you to travel across South America and visit all of the incredible destinations that have Spanish as their native language. Think Ecuador, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia… You can even get stuck in with rewarding volunteering projects where you need to be able to speak to the local people.
If you’re planning a trip but your language skills aren’t quite up to scratch, why not start off your travels with a week or two learning Spanish in Peru or learn Spanish in another South American country, or even taking a few online classes to nail the basics before you get here?
Read more about the best destinations to learn Spanish in South America.
2. You literally get smarter by learning Spanish
Your brain works just like a muscle – and as you’ve probably learnt with other ones around your body, it pays to exercise it. No, this doesn’t mean a head-sized treadmill to give it a workout; it means helping to make your brain grow by challenging it through the act of learning to speak Spanish.
One of the reasons why learning Spanish feels like you’re in the process of rewiring your brain is because in some ways you are! Studies have proven that by learning a second language, you’re strengthening the pathways that connect the different sides of your brain. And doing so can actually physically increase the size of the grey matter in your brain.
Learning Spanish can even help you express yourself better in your native language! While studying how another language works and how to use it, you’ll find you automatically get to know the ins and outs of your own language better without even knowing it.
You’ll also feel a whole lot more intelligent if you’re travelling in a country like Peru, at least in terms of street smarts – speaking a bit of Spanish will mean you can figure out what’s going on around you and help you avoid getting ripped off with gringo prices.
People that speak more than one language are known:
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3. Learning Spanish as a second language can keep your brain healthy
Studies have consistently proven that speaking another language – Spanish or otherwise – can stave off the signs of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia by multiple years, thus actually protecting your brain.
Scientists have looked at all kinds of factors and how they affect rates of developing cognitive function disorders, from health and economic status to education level and gender – but none of them made as big a difference in a person’s chances of developing dementia as the number of languages they speak!
This all means no matter your age, learning Spanish as a second language is an investment into your future health, which means you’ll end up with even more time to see the world. Win!
4. Adding another language to your skillset makes you more employable
Alongside being useful for going on holiday, another important advantage of learning Spanish is that it makes you exponentially more employable. Spanish has the second-highest number of native speakers in the world behind only Mandarin, and it’s estimated that by 2050, it’ll be spoken by 754 million people – making it one of the most useful languages you could learn, especially if you’re planning to do business in Spain or Latin America.
Even if you’re not applying for a job with a second language requirement, the fact that you’ve taken on the challenge of learning a new language demonstrates both dedication and hard work. Major factors in helping your resume shine for new employers – particularly given the low levels of second language knowledge amongst most native English speakers.
And if you’re a real lover of travel, another huge benefit of learning Spanish is that it can be extremely handy for getting a paid job abroad!
5. It’ll help you make friends – and maybe more than friends!
Sure, English might be the lingua franca of most of the world but when in Rome (or Cusco), it goes an awfully long way if you make the effort to pick up the local lingo.
There aren’t a huge number of English-language speakers in South America in general, and certainly not in Peru, so it comes down to visitors to go that extra mile and learn Spanish to bridge the gap of communication.
If you’re hoping for an authentic, immersive travel experience in Peru or other parts of South America, being able to speak the language will open up so many new social experiences to you. From striking up conversations with a local at a bar to getting chatting to tour guides or taxi drivers that you encounter on your trip, you’ll find speaking Spanish will immediately make a good first impression, and often the people you meet will open up about their lives and personal experiences in a way they never would in English.
Plus it has to be said… when it comes to your love life, knowing a bit of Spanish can widen your horizons and give you a whole lot of new dating opportunities! And we’re not just talking on your travels – research has shown that even in English-speaking countries, knowing more than one language makes you more attractive to potential romantic partners.
6. Learning Spanish allows you to appreciate a culture in more depth
Research has shown that by speaking the language of a new country, you learn to be more tolerate and positive of that culture. And not just that… it’ll help you understand what on earth is going on around you.
Trust us, there’ll be times travelling when you won’t have a clue what’s happening (regardless of whether you speak Spanish or not), but picking up the local language means you can start to understand the traditions that you’re noticing and even learn to participate in the culture. Whether it’s learning local slang in Peru or getting to grips with Argentine foods, you’ll soon feel well on your way to understanding your new country.
7. Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn
And if the above reasons aren’t already enough, we have one more that you’re definitely going to love: Spanish is actually not too difficult to learn as an English speaker!
According to the US Foreign Service Institute, it takes about 700 hours for a native English speaker to become fluent in Spanish – that is, to speak it well enough to get by at work and be comfortable in social situations. That might sound a lot – but by comparison, learning German to the same level would take 1000 hours, and the trickiest languages like Chinese or Arabic would take over 2000 hours!
One of the great things about Spanish is that so many words look and sound similar to English, so even if you’ve never heard a word before, you can often figure out what it means.
And while you might think when you first start learning that people talk crazy fast and you’ll never get the hang of it, the pronunciation isn’t too complicated and follows pretty straightforward rules. While some countries do have their own accent quirks (looking at you, Argentina and Chile!) that can make understanding tricky for beginners, other countries like Peru and Colombia are known for their clear, neutral Spanish that’s easy to get started with.
Find out more about why Peru is the perfect place to learn Spanish.
