1) The success of the increasingly homogenized global community depends on being able to communicate with others. Currently, Spanish is spoken by more than 330 million people worldwide, with Spanish representing the official language of the following twenty countries:
Spanish is also widely spoken is more than ten other countries and territories (Spanish 1996-2001).
2) The worldÆs language, politics, economics, and culture are becoming more diverse and more homogenized. An inability to adapt to this reality limits one in terms of an increasingly diverse and constantly changing world. With increased interaction between people of diverse cultures in social, educational, political, and business settings, speaking one language becomes a limitation. Without being able to communicate with large segments of the world population, one is also limited in terms of the riches that come from exploring other cultures. Even in the United States, the largest growing segment of the population and largest minority group is Hispanic and speaks Spanish (Why 2003).
Spanish speaking citizens have made a tremendous impact on nations where Spanish is the official language. Mexico and other Latin American nations have solidified relations with North America, have entered trade pacts, have seen millions of their residents migrate to North America, and have heavily influenced U.S. culture in terms of cuisine, politics, trade, music and other aspects of culture. The influence of these countries on non-Spanish speaking individuals in their own and other nations has been impressive. Today Spanish is spoken by over 100 million individuals as a second-language (Why 2003). The Spanish
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