The Spanish Section at The University of Hong Kong is a comprehensive teaching programme which aims at teaching both the language and the culture of all countries in the Hispanic world. Spanish is the official language of 21 countries and almost 500 million people speak Spanish as a first or second language.
Why study Spanish? |
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| Statistics |
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Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, only behind Mandarin and English, and it is in second place in terms of native speakers.
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Towards the end of the 19th century only 60 million people spoke Spanish. Now, there are almost 500 million. |
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Spanish is the mother tongue of almost 400 million people in 21 countries. It is also spoken in many other countries where it is not an official language. |
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Latinamerican consumers are the biggest growth market sector in North America. Their population in the US has grown by 60% in just a decade and so has their purchasing power. |
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Spanish is the second most employed language for international communication in the world and it is also one of the official languages in the United Nations and affiliated organizations. |
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| Economic Indicators |
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Over 30 million American residents over 5 speak Spanish at home, that means one in every five citizens. David Graddol, a language researcher, presented a report to the British Council where he said “the world is rapidly becoming multilingual and Arabic and Spanish are key languages for the future”.
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It is estimated that the Spanish-speaking population in the US will reach nearly 50 miilion by 2015. The current 39 million Hispanics who live in the country constitute a 12.5% of the total population and hence the demand for Spanish language media has increased: radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc.
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Latin American countries are undergoing great economic development and are rapidly becoming important commercial partners worldwide. It is expected that MERCOSUR and the free trade agreements between Latin American countries and North America will bring even more growth to Latin American economies.
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| Cultural Indicators |
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The Hispanic world has got a rich and varied cultural offer which in the last decades has become well known all over the world
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Don Quijote de la Mancha by Cervantes is the second most translated book in the world after the Bible. Other famous writers in the Spanish-speaking world are Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez , Isabel Allende or Jorge Luis Borges
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Picasso is recognized all over the world through his masterpieces which are rapidly bought and sold by collectors
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Spanish architecture is admired around the world and visionaries like Antonio Gaudi, author of the Sagrada Familia, are familiar names to most people. Another famous current architect is Santiago Calatrava, creator of the Athens Olympic Stadium or the World Trade Centre headquarters in New York. |
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Another great cultural export of the Hispanic world is music and dance. Who hasn’t heard of salsa, tango or flamenco? |
