Recently the UK has seen an increase in the number of students moving away from more traditional languages of French and German and instead are opting to learn Spanish. The reason for this change is the popularity of ‘Songbird Shakira, “as she is often seen on the Internet. Well, that is what is expected to believe that if we were to take everything written in newspapers as the Gospel!

Personally, I find it hard to believe that a pop star can have as much influence on the student body of an entire country, especially when it is on the choice of language is learned. If that were the case we would have seen an increase in Spanish students has long been attuned to the great popularity that other Spanish-speaking singers and celebrities enjoyed at one time or another, Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Julio Iglesias (yes, I remember), Ricky Martin and more recently the popular Enrique Iglesias, son of the aforementioned Spanish swooned, and I’m sure there are many, many more.
The fact is, though Shakira is very good at what he does and is very popular with men and women and not always for the same reasons, I think labeling it as the catalyst for recent changes in language teaching in the UK is a bit exaggerated. However, that does not mean that popular culture can not be changed and the form of a company, and the choice of influence. . . remember the Beatles?

But learning the Spanish language has been increasing for many years regardless of popular culture, and for many people is undoubtedly the first language of choice to learn, but why? In the U.S., it is easy to see why this would be the case that not only U.S. share a border with Mexico, which just happens to have the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world, but according to the census of 2000, and Spanish is spoken by 12% of the U.S. population, which means that U.S. has the fifth largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. This is in contrast to the UK, which is very insular, where language learning is concerned and this is highlighted in the recent figures showing a dramatic reduction in the number of language students in upper secondary education, and levels of university.

However, although the overall picture is bleak for language study in the educational system in the UK there is indeed room for some optimism when considering the increasing number of students opting for Spanish. Instead of popular culture, a number of reasons why most likely switch to Spanish is likely to happen and they are:

Language training for adults, by contrast, is an area that is growing every year, and is the Spanish once again that is increasing in popularity, especially 40 to 60 age group that can only be guess they are preparing for retirement in sunny climates.

Spanish courses online are the best way to learn Spanish for most of these adult students because they are more cost effective and flexible means of learning Spanish, not to mention faster, compared to the traditional evening class.  yahoogirls