Language Profile Spanish
Spanish or Castilian (castellano) is an Indo-European, Romance language (a language that descend from Latin) that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken to Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries Official language in: 21 countries. 322 million of people speak Spanish as their first language. Today, Spanish is the official language of Spain, most Latin American countries, and Equatorial Guinea; 21 nations speak it as their primary language. Spanish also is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Mexico has the World's largest Spanish-speaking population, and Spanish is the second most-widely spoken language in the United States, where 34 million people, 12.2 percent, of the population older than 5 years speak Spanish at home, and the most popular studied foreign language in U.S. schools and universities. Global internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the internet, after English and Chinese. Spanish shares a lot of vocabulary with English. Although generally the Saxon word is more common (ex. calm, quiet), many Spanish words have an equivalent in English, usually in its formal register, due to their Latin origin (tranquilo=tranquil). Spanish is the only language in the world with the graphia “ñ”, which has the same sound as the French “gn” (Espagne). Spanish pronunciation is easy with clear rules and few exceptions. The grammar gets complicated with many verb tenses especially in the past, the subjunctive mode and one of the most challenging peculiarities: two verbs “to be” SER and ESTAR.
Spanish with Cactus:
Cactus provides Spanish language training as 1:1 programs, closed groups for in-house company training, full-immersion courses, online courses, self-study, and on public evening courses.