Spanish language is the 2nd language in the world, after Chinese

Very informative piece of news here, about the current situation of Spanish language worldwide!

Image: 7.6% of the world population is today Spanish-speaking.

Spanish is the second most spoken mother tongue in the world, behind Mandarin Chinese, and the third most used on the Internet, according to the yearbook "Spanish in the world" 2018, presented today by the Cervantes Institute in Madrid.
The number of Spanish speakers increased to 577 million (from 572.6 million last year), of which 480 million have Spanish as their mother tongue. The figure implies that 7.6 percent of the world population speaks the language of Cervantes

In addition, it is the most studied foreign language in the United States. Nearly 22 million people learn Spanish in 107 countries, said the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and other authorities during the presentation of the study.

Spanish is thus disputed with French and Chinese second place among the languages ​​most studied as a second language, behind English, and is perceived as "the most important language for the future" in the United Kingdom, according to the yearbook.

The 386-page study collects key data on Spanish in various scientific and economic sectors. They stand out for example those of the publishing house, where Spain appears like third exporting country of books of the world behind the United Kingdom and the United States.

With regard to the Internet, it is the third most used language - behind English and Chinese - and the second one in portals such as Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter. Mexico is among the ten countries with the largest number of users on the Internet.

Instituto Cervantes was created in 1991 to promote the teaching, study and use of Spanish throughout the world. It has 87 centers distributed in 44 countries across the five continents, as detailed on its website.

"Spanish in the world" is its main specialized publication and this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary since it began to be published in 1998. Since then it has become a reference on Spanish-speaking demolinguistics for experts from all over the world.


Translation from the source in Spanish right here.

The Sephardic Spanish, a part of Spain

Sephardic Spanish were Jewish people who lived in Spain for centuries before 1492. They held important position in the Government and other important institutions in the country. Moreover, it is said that most of the counselors of Alfonso X El Sabio (The Wise) were Sephardi.

For them, Spain is Sepharad, a promised land in the Bible (Obad. 1:20). When they arrived to Spain, the country was really in a golden period of its time, being a source of culture and a bridge to new knowledges coming from the Arab world, thanks to the Spanish translator monks.

              

In 1492, Spain was in a period of time when it was still building itself as a country unified under only one kingdom. Before that, more than 2 had been ruling different parts of the territory. At around that time, the Catholic Kings became the Kingdom of Spain, and therefore they needed to reorganize some aspects of the Kingdom. Moreover, they were concerned about Sephardic people, because of their economic and social power, while not being Catholic... Therefore, they let them choose to convert to Catholicism, or leave the country. Although many people (really or just admittedly) converted and remained in Spain, some of them decided to leave the country... However, they left it full of sadness, because of their deep roots with Spanish culture and people.

                      

It needs to be said that these event is not exclusive of Spain. It is the only one that happened in Spain and, actually, it is one of the last ones that happened in Europe. Before this one, England and France, among other countries, had done it in a forceful way to Jewish people for the same or similar reasons.

After hundreds of years, these amazing people kept their Spanish roots and carried Spanish language with them. However, it was separated from Spain before it made huge changes and became the current Spanish.
For that reason, "Judeoespañol", or Sephardic Spanish, is more similar to the Middle Age Spanish than the current one. In the next post, I will talk about this language. I am amazed to listen to it, it is a language treasure and, in my opinion, its people is very creditable.

Some references to learn more (please be aware these are long articles):

- Sephardic Jews
- Sephardic laws and customs
- History of the Jews in Spain


¡Gracias y hasta pronto!

Differences in vocabulary between Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Latin America

Hi there! Today I want to show you some differences in vocabulary between the Spanish language that is spoken in Spain and the Spanish language spoken in the Spanish-speaking countries in America.

By the way, please note that when we say 'American Spanish', we are referring to the Spanish dialects of America, which means that there are differences in vocabulary between those dialects as well.

American Spanish	Spanish from Spain	English
gancho	percha	hanger
platicar	charlar	chat
conmutador	centralita	switchboard
encendedor	mechero	lighter
papa	patata	potato
computadora	ordenador	computer
tomar (una cosa)	coger (una cosa) *	take (something)
florería	floristería	florist
fotocopiado	copistería	copy shop
estacionarse	aparcarse	park
mesero	camarero	waiter

* Be careful not to use it in America trying to say 'take a thing', because over there that verb has a completely different meaning (to have sexual relations). Although people would understand what you mean, that is the first meaning of that verb in America. Therefore, please say 'tomar' or 'agarrar' in America for 'take something'.

And if you want to see how confussing could it get (making an admirable effort =), please listen to the following song: Qué difícil es hablar en español! from Inténtelo Carito (thank you, it is a very nice song!)

¡Gracias y hasta pronto! :)

Let's talk about wine!

As you probably know, Spain is a wine producer country. It is an important tradition that has been inherited by descendants of wine producer families. Wine is produced everywhere in the country, and we call it 'Vino'.

We have 'Vino blanco' (White wine), 'Vino tinto' (Red wine) y 'Vino rosado' (Rose Wine). We also produced our own kind of Sparkling wine, called 'Cava'. It is produced in Catalonia and it is delicious! Enjoy Spanish wine!




And if you want to learn something else about wines, check this documentary. ¡Tiene muy buena pinta! (it looks very interesting!) =)

Espero que os guste (hope you like it). ¡Hasta pronto! :)

Español, the fastest language!

¡Hola! :) I just have found a very interesting video! It says that Spanish is the fastest spoken language that exists at present. I'm not sure at all if it's true or not, but I admit that Spanish can be spoken in a way that each word is very near the words beside them, so it could seem fast hehe.
Anyway, it doesn't have too long words and the pronunciation is easier than the most of the language, I think. Moreover, the writting is very intuitive because it follows almost exactly the way Spanish is spoken.

¡Disfrutad del vídeo! :)
Enjoy the video!