When I was growing up, there didn’t seem to be emphasis placed on the importance of learning Spanish. In fact, the only time I’d ever heard Spanish spoken was on “I Love Lucy!” It was a much different world; we had less contact with people outside our own part of the country, and we arrogantly believed that other people had to accommodate themselves to our ways we didn’t have to exert ourselves to learn anyone else’s. It should come as no shock to you to realize that in the last few decades, the world has really changed, and Spanish has taken a much more central role in our culture as a whole.

But what does this mean to you? If you’re not Hispanic yourself, and your town doesn’t have a large Hispanic population, why learn Spanish? The reason is that you will be amazed how many job opportunities exist for people in America who can speak and understand English and Spanish. Many jobs today require you to be bilingual; but if your job does not require you to be bilingual in Spanish, it may give you better job security and even a pay rise in the near future, since you will be considered a bigger company asset because you have become so versatile. It will be easy for you to apply for a job where you only need to speak English, however when you are able to communicate effectively in Spanish too, you can easily apply for a job where Spanish are required for that position. The importance of learning Spanish, in many cases, equals your ability to be a team player in today’s economy.

The American economy is also becoming more global and the need to do business in languages like Spanish cannot be underestimated. Twenty years ago, the average Mom-and-Pop shoe store was only likely to sell shoes to people within its own community. Today that same store probably has a website, possibly an online catalog, and a toll-free number for phone orders. The customer service representative who answers that telephone needs to be comfortable speaking to a much more diverse customer base than would have been required a few decades ago. In short, that person needs to speak Spanish and the importance of learning Spanish has never been greater.

“But I don’t have time to go back to school to learn Spanish!” you may be thinking. There’s no reason you have to. There are many wonderful programs you can download to your computer or access via CD or DVD. Audio-based Spanish learning programs are the best, which combines the type of dialogues you may remember from your school days that include effective computer-based games that teach grammar, build vocabulary, and are just plain fun to learn with. But whatever program you choose, make sure that it’s delivered in some kind of audio (versus written) format. You will find it very helpful learning to pronounce Spanish words correctly if you can hear how native Spanish speakers pronounce their words. There is no point learning to speak the Spanish language if native Spanish speakers do not understand your Spanish pronunciation.

If a Spanish language learning program tells you that you need to apply no effort to learn to speak Spanish, then it will be false and misleading. No reputable learning system would make that claim! But never before in history has the importance of learning Spanish been greater, and with today’s technology, it’s not the arduous chore it used to be. So give it a try. You will receive a lot of benefits learning to speak and understand Spanish and your job and bank balance will show the results in time!