Thread: U.S Will Be the Country With the Most Spanish-Speakers in 20

U.S Will Be the Country With the Most Spanish-Speakers in 2050, Says Scholar

Published February 01, 2011

By 2050, 10 percent of the world population will speak Spanish and the United States will be the biggest Spanish-speaking country, the general secretary of the Association of Spanish Language Academies said Monday in this Mediterranean city.

Cuban writer and academician Humberto López Morales made this prediction during his speech upon being awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Valencia at a ceremony presided over by Spanish Education Minister Angel Gabilondo.

He noted that the current situation of Hispanics in the United States is the result of a confluence of historical processes headed by Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century, followed by Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and, more recently, Venezuela and Argentina.

"Besieged by poverty and by the barriers that impeded access to decent salaries, a minimally acceptable home, basic conditions of health or the education of their children," the citizens of those countries emigrated to the "promised land."

The successes achieved by the immigrants, and the comparison with the decadent situations prevailing in their home countries spurred, López Morales said, a process of voluntary "acculturation" that affected the immigrants' mode of dress, customs and eating habits, but also the language.

"Growing abandonment of positive attitudes toward the mother tongue, restriction of the settings in which Spanish was used, gradual impoverishment and, possibly, advanced stages of linguistic mortality" are some of the symptoms of that acculturation process, he said.

However, "things have changed, and a lot," thanks to the growing clout of the Hispanic population in the United States, and estimates are that in 2012 there will be more than 52 million Latino citizens, thus making them the largest minority in the country.

"Knowing Spanish is ... among other things, a business," and in some states, like Florida, "Spanish is a good passport for obtaining a job," he said.

According to another study cited by López Morales, "every minute that goes by, 2.5 Hispanics enter the stream of immigrants to the country, that is to say, 3,700 per day."

If the forecast is born out, the United States by 2050 will become the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world and Spanish will be the second-most-spoken language on the planet, surpassed only by Chinese.

"If the course does not change, it's very possible that within three or four generations 10 percent of the world population will understand Spanish. Let us hope so!" he concluded.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifest ... z1CiL7Sw2Y

What's funny is Chinese are taught English in grade school!
Which is kinda weird anyway!

So there are presently 22 countries on the Western Hemisphere whereby Hispanics are the majority and yet the USA will or should become a Spanish speaking country by 2050? What does that say about Hispanics that are too cowardly to fix their own countries and that they will continue to flee here and change our national language to Spanish? I thought the idea was for immigrants to assimilate to the culture and language of the country they migrate to? Just how arrogant are these people?

There are 52 million Hispanic citizens in this country presently? Where does he get that info since illegals are counted on the census also?

Well I won't be one of them, I hate Spanish - in fourth grade, we had to take it.

I'm going to learn Russian or German or Italian (yeah Italian sounds good... ) or all of them and whenever I hear chattery Espanol, I start speaking it loudly!

Hummp!

Originally Posted by forest

Well I won't be one of them, I hate Spanish - in fourth grade, we had to take it.

I'm going to learn Russian or German or Italian (yeah Italian sounds good... ) or all of them and whenever I hear chattery Espanol, I start speaking it loudly!

Hummp!

I protested in my local community a number of years ago when they were offering Japanese, French, or German foreign languages and then dropped them all and went to the only foreign language was Spanish. Upset the community heavily while the public schools said they didn't have the funding.

We had asked why not keep a foreign language that raised someones foreign job potential in the middle and upper class job market which at that time Japanese was the language. We never got a valid response.

This is a result of catering to these people. Why do voting ballots need to be in any other language besides English. English should be taught as a First Language, Not "as a second language". Learning other languages is great, but without a common language (English), we will be a Balkanized nation.

Originally Posted by stevetheroofer

What's funny is Chinese are taught English in grade school!
Which is kinda weird anyway!

I think it has a lot to do with globalization, international trade, and the unique relationship that the US and China share in it. Which is why many Japanese learn English at a young age as well. Filipinos learn English in high school or they do not graduate. Certain subjects like science are not even taught in the Filipino high schools in their native language.

Yeah, I've always thought it funny that the rest of the world is scrammbling to learn English, while a huge amount of our residents don't bother to learn it for generations. Especially because Spanish is much closer to English than the Asian languages refered to above.

Filipino's still graduate w/o learning english unless your in one of the higher class highschools. However most younger filipino's (except the Muslim population) are trying hard to learn english in schools while not mandatory. Many realize their only chance at a better future is getting outta dodge.

Originally Posted by ReformUSA2012

Filipino's still graduate w/o learning english unless your in one of the higher class highschools. However most younger filipino's (except the Muslim population) are trying hard to learn english in schools while not mandatory. Many realize their only chance at a better future is getting outta dodge.

Oh, perhaps things have changed. I was going by what a woman from the Phillipines told me a few years ago. She said that science isn't taught in Filipino at the high school level, only in English. Perhaps things have changed, or maybe she only had experience with the higher end schools.