More than 500 million speak the Spanish language today, still second to the Chinese language though. In the Americas, the Spanish language is widespread and many countries have it as their first language. There are also, of course, the native speakers in Europe and then there are those who speak it in Africa, the Pacific Islands and in Asia, particularly the Philippines.

As Spanish is a most frequently spoken language, either as a first or a second language, many have learned that being able to speak it is very useful in both the political and the economic world. Businesses especially take benefit if they have people who speak Spanish for this could increase the effectiveness of their organization. Learning Spanish language is not an rocket science, any newbie can easily learn Spanish with the help of online rocket Spanish review course.

However, Spanish did not really play a dominant role in communication in the past, not like its influence today. It was less than 600 years ago when Spanish was a little known language spoken by an insignificant people in a small country in the middle of powerful countries and empires in Europe. When it became an empire in its own right, thanks to its colonization activities, only then did this insignificant language became an influence to be reckoned with.

Spanish has been influential on most of the world’s major dialects and languages. Many think that there is no influence on the English language but this is where they are wrong. Spanish and English developed under one mother language, Latin, and soon, with Spain as a world empire, became an influence to reckon with from religion, to culture to yes, the English language.

In the 16th century, Spain was considered to be a major learning center in Europe. This was because there was seen a reintroduction of Greek learning into Europe by the Arabs in Spain. When Spain became a powerful empire, its culture and language influenced the whole world.

Spanish is still considered a very prestigious language in Europe since it became a world empire. England itself became a subject of linguistic treatises like Bibliotheca Hispanica, Containing a Grammar, with a Dictionarie in Spanish, English, and Latine (1591) written by Richard Percival. Soon after, there was the Spanish book on etiquette which, until now, is the basic handbook of all things etiquette used and practiced by royal families around the world.

Spanish as a language has been lexically influential on English throughout the centuries. There are obvious phonological and grammatical influences which are rare or limited to particular regions and yet are there if one were really paying attention.