English vs Spanish- A Battle for Dominance

[Supreme]

People who speak English as a first language, such as myself, it is fair to say get things spoon fed in life. English truly is the global lingua france, the official language of Earth, spoken by a billion people, and around 400-500 million of those as a first language. However, Spanish is becoming increasingly influential, and is spoken by more people as a first language. Here's the countries that speak Spanish:

Spain
Mexico
Nicaragua
Chile
Argentina
Bolivia
Peru
Honduras
Cuba
Panama
Paraguay
Venezuala
Uruguay


Compare that to English speaking countries:

Britain
Ireland
Canada
America
Australia
New Zealand
Fiji
South Africa
Nigeria
Jamaica
Zimbabwe

My point is, with only around 80% of Americans speaking English as a first language, and the steady increase of Spanish speaking immigrants (plus the Spanish television network in America, the fifth largest in th US), do you ever think Spanish will defeat English and become the next global language? To members in the USA, is the Spanish speaking community really that big? In Miami, around 70% of people speak Spanish at home.

Just a thought.

 

[Abdul Fattah]

Hi,
I doubt this will change due to mere percentages. If percentages really mattered, then mandarin Chinese (with approx a billion speakers which is about 3 times as much as Spanish or english) would have been the world language by now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Native_speakers_in_the_World.jpg
While Spanish might be increasing, English is still the official language, and the language used by the wealthy and power-full of America.
English also has that advantage that it is known as second language almost all over the world, not to the same extend that Spanish is.
English is also the feeding language in technology, used by the majority of programmers.
there's plenty more reasons, why Spanish won't be able to steal the leading place of English just yet.

 

[Italianguy]

It's even harder for me. I spoke Italian first for the first 2 years i could speak, and i was born in New York city. English is technicaly my first language....I guess, but even though i was born, raised and educated in America, I still have trouble with my weird accent;D

Believe it or not Italian is so close to Spanish its actually hard for me to congegate proper verbage for Spanish and I mix it up to much because it's so similar:hmm: I was told by my many Spanish and Mexican friends that it's hard for them to learn or speak Italian as well. So much of it is the same that it's hard to learn the same word twice with either 2 different meanings , or the same meaning and diferent spelling.....I know it's weird

I have an easier time learning Arabic and Aramaic, and i pick up on Hindi and Tamil a lot quicker

God bless.

 

[CosmicPathos]

I really doubt Spanish will become lingua franca ..... probably impossible given the current circumstances. I'd think that Arabic has high chances of becoming more spread ... given that it is commonly loved by 1.2 billion ppl of the world ...

 

[Italianguy]

I really doubt Spanish will become lingua franca ..... probably impossible given the current circumstances. I'd think that Arabic has high chances of becoming more spread ... given that it is commonly loved by 1.2 billion ppl of the world ...

I have to agree, I attend a large Christian university, this university requires its students to take an appologetics course as well as multiple theory courses. One of my next courses I will be taking is an Arabic language class. The Arabic course has become a necessary requirement in the past few years. It has become very popular and with more Arabic speaking citizens moving to the US, it's quikly replacing Spanish in schools around the nation as a focus study.

I have found it to be an easy language to learn (I do speak some other languages).....Although the written part has me perplexed:hmm: I see the writing more as art than just letters, it is beautiful when written correctly

God bless, والله معكم

 

[Supreme]

It's even harder for me. I spoke Italian first for the first 2 years i could speak, and i was born in New York city. English is technicaly my first language....I guess, but even though i was born, raised and educated in America, I still have trouble with my weird accent;D

Believe it or not Italian is so close to Spanish its actually hard for me to congegate proper verbage for Spanish and I mix it up to much because it's so similar:hmm: I was told by my many Spanish and Mexican friends that it's hard for them to learn or speak Italian as well. So much of it is the same that it's hard to learn the same word twice with either 2 different meanings , or the same meaning and diferent spelling.....I know it's weird

I have an easier time learning Arabic and Aramaic, and i pick up on Hindi and Tamil a lot quicker

God bless.

Oh yes, I've heard that Spanish and Italian are similar. They're both Romance languages, along with French, Portugese and Romanian. I know Spanish probably won't overtake English any time soon, but if you look at the staistics in America- New Mexico has 30% first language Spanish speaking community, Chicago I think it's 38%. Here's hoping that I won't have to take a Spanish phrasebook with me when I next visit the States!

 

[ardianto]

Remember Dora The Explorer ?

This is an English cartoon that contains Spanish language lesson.

Several years ago Indonesian Lativi bought this movie, dubbed English language with Indonesia language, but they didn't change its Spanish language lesson. So, Indonesian kids (and adults like me) can learn Spanish language from Dora The Explorer.

Unfortunately, then Dora The Explorer moved to Global TV, and they changed its Spanish language lesson into English lesson. imsad

 

[Italianguy]

Oh yes, I've heard that Spanish and Italian are similar. They're both Romance languages, along with French, Portugese and Romanian. I know Spanish probably won't overtake English any time soon, but if you look at the staistics in America- New Mexico has 30% first language Spanish speaking community, Chicago I think it's 38%. Here's hoping that I won't have to take a Spanish phrasebook with me when I next visit the States!

LOL, don't bring a Spanish dictionary.......bring a "Italianhinditamil" dictionary with you to the states....Because your Staying with me bro!;D

 

[Italianguy]

Remember Dora The Explorer ?

This is an English cartoon that contains Spanish language lesson.

Several years ago Indonesian Lativi bought this movie, dubbed English language with Indonesia language, but they didn't change its Spanish language lesson. So, Indonesian kids (and adults like me) can learn Spanish language from Dora The Explorer.

Unfortunately, then Dora The Explorer moved to Global TV, and they changed its Spanish language lesson into English lesson. imsad

My son used to love that show He picked up on the Spanish. They had a male version of Dora but i can't remeber his name???:hmm:

 

[greenshirt]

i work with a school system as a social worker, and i've noticed that a lot of the kindergarten-3rd grade students dont speak good english, but generally at least after 6th grade people who once only spoke spanish are now fluent in english, taking english classes, etc. it is also worthy to note that i am really good friends with a guy and we speak english.. but his younger sister only speaks spanish. my friend(named amador) speaks both fluently but his sister is still too young to be taught fluent english.

point being, is i think most immigrants pick up on english, and if not then their children(second generation) will. and though its true that america has the third biggest spanish speaking population in the world, english is still obviously the main language and immigrants are learning the language.

spanish will never become the global language(at least in our generation) because the countries that spanish is spoken prominently in are not as big of a super power as the english countries. the USA and the UK are two very major super powers, and even australia(with its small population) is a very prominent, successful nation. people will cater to our language because of prominence.

 

[Amadeus85]

I am a big fan of Spain and spanish spirituality, and rather a critique of England and its anglo-saxon, protestant heritage. Especially in past, there was a real battle of dominance between these two countries, and two different ways of life and thought.

 

[ardianto]

My son used to love that show He picked up on the Spanish. They had a male version of Dora but i can't remeber his name???:hmm:

He is Diego.

Dora and Diego are educational TV series. These are very good for children. :thumbs_up

 

[Italianguy]

He is Diego.

Dora and Diego are educational TV series. These are very good for children. :thumbs_up

Ahhhhh there it is, good shows. My son doesn't watch them much anymore, but I think their still on tv?

Thanks.

 

[Supreme]

I am a big fan of Spain and spanish spirituality, and rather a critique of England and its anglo-saxon, protestant heritage. Especially in past, there was a real battle of dominance between these two countries, and two different ways of life and thought.

Spain has always been second best to England, in terms of language, empire, history, culture and even monarchy. How many countries have the King of Spain on their banknotes? England quite happily said no to being part of this inferior nation when it stopped itself becoming a Catholic Spanish puppet at the Spanish Armada!;D

 

[Amadeus85]

Spain has always been second best to England, in terms of language, empire, history, culture and even monarchy. How many countries have the King of Spain on their banknotes? England quite happily said no to being part of this inferior nation when it stopped itself becoming a Catholic Spanish puppet at the Spanish Armada!;D

Spain spirituality was formed by 1 000 years of non stop wars and battles with unbelievers. That's why their catholicism is (or used to be) so warriorlike, offensive and focus on evangelization.
Spain was a country where the Lord was king, the human king on throne was only Creator's administrator.
Look at the Eskurial palace, this is the king's home mixed to a church.
Spaniards fought against Arabs, Berbers, Englishmen, Turks, Frenchmen for almost whole its history. Spain evangelized whole continent, South America, with help of its sister, arch-catholic Portugal. Spain evangelized Philipinnes and Central America. Spain was a sword of Rome, defender of Trident, the represser of heretics (Inquisition, saint Dominique the founder of the monastery who fought against Katars).
Spain was one of the few western european countries (or maybe the only) which completely resist reformation and enlightment.
In Spain in half of XIX century majority of people thought in a medieval way,in way of creating Christianitas. All what they were doing was not for money, private buisness but for God. At last the Spaniards did began and won the last crusade in Europe, the civil war (1936-1939) against the red godless civilization.
The spanish right wing was so religious and based on catholicism that after the Vaticanum II and the spirit of VII, the spanish right wing simply colapsed, as they didnt have other ideology than catholicism.
It's sad that that world is slowly disapearing.

 

[north_malaysian]

do you ever think Spanish will defeat English and become the next global language?

nope. I doubt it. Spanish might have more first-language speakers than English but English has way more second-language speakers than spanish, especially in Asia and Africa.