But, in learning to speak Spanish, you may or may not also have realised that you’ve gained membership of the second most widely spoken native language in the world (and English is not the first!). Not only that, but recent research forecasts a rate of growth that will still further expand the proportion of the world’s Spanish speakers.

The outcome of research conducted into the mother tongues of the world’s population’s shows that in the first year of this century, Mandarin Chinese was far and away the native tongue of the largest single population – some 885,000,000 people. Then comes something of a surprise, when we discover that Spanish had already overtaken English, to occupy second slot, with a native-speaking population of 332,000,000 against the world total of 322,000,000 native English speakers. There are 10 million more people whose first language is Spanish rather than English and the vast majority of these are of course in Latin America.

The Indian languages Bengali and Hindi take fourth and fifth spots respectively in this league table, whilst next comes Portuguese in sixth place (with 170,000,000 speakers), again showing how former colonial possessions carry forward the vigour of the language still today.

Returning to our main theme of Spanish, it is interesting to note that the same researchers have shown that the dominance of English on the internet is now to a certain extent declining. Predictions are that English will go from 80% of computer-based communications to just 40% by the end of this decade alone. Although defenders of the Spanish language have spoken about a creeping “Ciberespanglish” and it is true that English continues to lead a number of technical items in Spanish on the internet (especially terms which are economically or financially inspired), the Spanish-speaking world is becoming an ever more important market and Spanish-language versions of programs are consequently being developed.

In the past, there may have been something of a negative impression gained by outsiders of the Spanish-speaking world. Why this has been so and where the cultural antagonism has come from is difficult to measure, but it does seem that there has been some improvement in the general image of the Spanish language and things Spanish, in the UK at any rate. Spanish has seen an increase in the number of “A”-level candidates in the past decade, for example, while French and German have both seen a decline. More generally, familiarity with Spanish literature abroad has been increased by a succession of Nobel prize-winners and a consequent increase in available translations of major works of fiction into English.

Many of the factors influencing the ranking of the Spanish language on the world stage, however, are far removed from Europe and, indeed, from Spain itself. Probably the most influential forces are at work in the New World.

A recent study by Hispanic associations in the United States, for example, has predicted that the number of Spanish-dominant and bilingual Latinos in the United States will increase by 45% over the next two decades (“The Future Use Of The Spanish Language In The USA — Projected to 2015 & 2025″ published by Hispanic U.S.A. Inc., July 2005).

By the year 2025, the research suggests, the number of Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States will reach 40.2 million, up from the current total of 27.8 million. Two-thirds of all Hispanics in the country aged 5 years or more will be speaking Spanish 20 years from now. On average, 35% of third-generation Latinos in the United States will be speaking Spanish as their first language. The 18+ Spanish-speaking population will increase by 53%, to 15.2 million by 2025; and the key 18-49 year-old demographic group will grow by 7.5 million, and will include 59% of all the Spanish speakers.

The concentration of Spanish-speaking populations in the United States will continue to focus on Los Angeles, but cities such as Boston, Las Vegas and Austin, Texas, are predicted to see growths of up to 55%, with other cities such as San Diego, Phoenix, Washington, DC, and Atlanta fairly close behind.

Although a land of many immigrant languages, there are reasons to believe that Spanish will follow a different course than German and other such immigrant languages. Strictly speaking, Spanish is not an immigrant language. It was spoken in the United States before English, its presence in North America preceding the founding of the United States. In the isolated mountain communities of New Mexico and in towns on the Mexican border, Spanish has been spoken continuously for hundreds of years. Spanish is the native language of Puerto Rico: Puerto Ricans are native U.S. citizens. Among non-English languages in the United States, Spanish has shown remarkable resilience.

In addition to tradition, Spanish has advantages Polish, German, or Italian did not enjoy at the turn of the century. The sheer size of the Spanish-speaking population worldwide, the communications revolution and the emergence of a global economy mean there are more opportunities to use the language and more economic incentives for retaining it. “It is for these reasons – proximity, globalization, and new economic structures – that I think Spanish will be very different in the U.S. from German and other languages of immigration,” wrote Joseph Lo Bianco, an Australia-based expert who has studied the issue of languages internationally.