Feliz Día del Español - Happy Spanish Language Day

Today the Cervantes Institute's 73 centers, located in 42 countries on five continents, are celebrating El Día del Español - Spanish Language Day. And there's a lot to celebrate, as an article in today's El País notes: according to a report published by the Institute, Spanish is the mother tongue of 450 million people, making it second only to Chinese in terms of numbers of native speakers; and after English, it is the second most popular language for international communication.

Understandably, therefore, Spanish is very popular to study as a second language, and this has a significant economic impact on many countries, not the least of which in the mother country, España. Spanish is studied by around 20 million non-native Speakers around the world. The number of "language tourists" coming to Spain grew by 138% between 2000 and 2007. Some 237,000 students traveled to Spain to learn Spanish in 2007, while Cervantes Institute schools around the world have experienced an annual growth of 21% in student registrations. In addition, Spain is the EU country which receives the most students from the European Union's Erasmus exchange program -- 17% of those who participate in this program choose to attend a Spanish university.

There are additional factors that contribute to the economic weight of the language in Spain. For example, the country's large publishing industry has 162 subsidiaries in 28 countries around the world -- more than the 80% of them in Latin America. As for the presence of Spanish on the Internet, according to the report that is growing, too. Spanish is the third most widely used language on the Net, and this use grew 651% between 2000 and 2009. The penetration of Internet use in Spain is the highest among Spanish-speaking countries, but Chile and Argentina have levels of penetration that approach the European Union average. Spain, Mexico and Argentina are among the 20 countries with the largest number of Internet users.

For more information on El Día del Español, the official website is www.eldiae.es. To see if there is a Cervantes Institute near you, go to Instituto Cervantes: sedes en el mundo. And for those interested in studying Spanish in Spain, visit the site of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Spanish Schools for Foreigners (FEDELE).

In Today’s News: David Beckham Ends Madrid Stint with a League Title

Of course, the bad news in my city is that although Barcelona beat Tarragona’s Gimnastic 5 to 1, Madrid’s 3 to 1 win over Mallorca allowed it to edge Barça out for the Spanish League title. Today all of the local papers focused on Barcelona’s loss of the League title to Madrid, in spite of their excellent game against Gimnastic. Several papers led with a cover photo of a dejected looking Ronaldinho.

Early on in the evening it looked like Barcelona would win the league, as Madrid appeared to be having trouble against Mallorca. However, the tide turned dramatically for Madrid with two final goals coming during the last 10 minutes of the game!

Local fans followed their team’s match with the usual enthusiasm this world class team receives. Whenever there is an important football game or other sports event being broadcast, the sounds of cheers, boos and horns soar out of bars, pubs and living rooms. You can literally feel the excitement in the streets — or even in your home if you happen to have your windows open. Last night was no exception. Of course, had Barça won the league and not just last night’s game, the fans would have poured out into the streets themselves to make even more noise.

Oh, yes, what about mid-fielder David Beckham? Well, in case you’ve been on Pluto, he’s leaving la vida loca to be just one more star in L.A.’s “galaxy.” Last night Beckham, who has been living in the Spanish capital for four years, was given an exciting send off along with another departing team member, Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos, who is joining Istanbul’s Fenerbahce Sports Club after 11 years in Madrid.

Beckham may be gone, but Spain will always have two of the brightest stars in the world of football — Real Madrid and Futbol Club Barcelona!

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Also in the news today:

Bicing, Barcelona’s public transport by bicycle program, now has over 50,000 subscribers! (See June 17th’s Biking with Bicing in Barcelona post.)

Barcelona is the ERASMUS capital of Spain! Sixteen percent of the more than 26, 000 European universtiy students who come to Spain through the ERASMUS program choose Barcelona because of its cosmopolitan, festive ambiance. One quote from a student: “En esta ciudad hay mucha fiesta.” (In this city there is a lot of partying.) I’m sure he went on to add that he also liked the high quality of the opera at the Liceu and the wide variety of museums available — and Barça, of course! ;-)

Copied from original http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/ posting by Carloz on 18 June, 2007