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As a typical Brit who mostly just speaks English, and have over 50 countries on 6 continents under my belt, I've never been to a country that had Spanish as an

As a typical Brit who mostly just speaks English, and have over 50 countries on 6 continents under my belt, I've never been to a country that had Spanish as an official language. In a given year the languages that would help me are Russian, Mandarin, and Arabic. French in some parts of Africa (and France/Belgium of course). In places like India and Kenya, I follow conversations with the locals as they generally speak English, but then they throw in borrowed phrases (Hindi, Swahili, etc).

CydeWeys 8y ago
I'm frankly amazed that you've never been to a Spanish-speaking country given your homeland and travel propensity, and that are 20 of them (plus Puerto Rico). It's almost like you've gone out of your way to avoid Spanish-speaking countries. Do yourself a favor and buy a cheap flight to Barcelona and make it 51.
- sdiq 8y ago
  Or travel to Gibraltar and take a detour to Spain.
- rb808 8y ago
  If you live in the Americas Spanish dominates as the main language. In the rest of the world it isn't so significant, which is what they were describing.
- isostatic 8y ago
  In the last 10 years (had to do this for an Indian visa recently so have them on file), I've been to New Zealand, Austrailia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Russia, Qatar, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, St Lucia, USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Portugal, Gibraltar, Italy, Vatican City, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden Before that they were only places like Austria, Lichtenstein, Finland, etc I've never been to Spain. Never been to Slovenia either, just hasn't come up. I can't think of any other non-american countries that have Spanish as the official language. I've come close to visiting Chile, Mexico and Cuba at various points, but never had the dots fall into place.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    Here's a list of countries where Spanish is the official language (note, this doesn't include countries where Spanish isn't official but is still widespread): https://www.spanish.cl/vocabulary-lists/spanish-speaking-countries-capitals.htm https://www.spanish.cl/vocabulary-lists/spanish-speaking-cou... That's all countries in the western hemisphere of any decent size except for the US, Canada, and Brazil. So you just haven't traveled much in the western hemisphere.
    - isostatic 8y ago
      Correct, I've traveled to US, Canada and Brazil :) (And St Lucia) The Western Hempisphere is mostly water, there's not a lot there compared with the eastern hemisphere. Far East is my favorite long haul destination, but both SubSaharan Africa and Middle East have their charms.
planteen 8y ago
Just because Spanish isn't an official language in the US doesn't make it less useful. The US is the second largest Spanish speaking nation in the world, behind Mexico. There are a number of careers in the US where speaking Spanish is very useful, especially when you interact a lot with people (e.g., medicine & sales). Every major US market is served by at least two Spanish speaking TV stations over the air. And if you speak Spanish fluently, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility that lets you communicate with Portuguese speakers (for Brazil). It's an extremely useful language for North, Central, and South America. It also gives the average American much more opportunities to make use of their Spanish skills in every day life when compared to French or German.
- beat 8y ago
  Indeed, a combination of English and Spanish will get you around 98% of the Americas (assuming you can do enough to comprehend Portuguese in Brazil).
- kibwen 8y ago
  Seconded. The emphasis on countries with Spanish as an "official language" is misplaced; the US famously has no "official" language (though let's not pretend this is the result of magnanimity, rather than just a peculiar quirk of legislation), and Spanish-speaking enclaves are all over the place. If you're outside the US you might think that Spanish is relegated to the areas near the border, but no: I have driven through towns in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania and seen stores with signs exclusively in Spanish; I have hitchhiked through Aurora, Illinois and encountered wandering mariachi bands making their way to a quinceañera; the alley behind my apartment in Massachusetts is filled nightly with the excited Spanish exclamations of children at play. By no means is Spanish strictly required to enjoy the US, but it will give you insight into enormous US subcultures that many won't ever appreciate.
  - isostatic 8y ago
    And Polish or Hindi or a dozen other languages will give you insights in the UK. Looking at https://blog.udemy.com/how-many-countries-speak-spanish/ https://blog.udemy.com/how-many-countries-speak-spanish/ tells me that outside of the Americas, I can use Spanish in Spain Gibraltar (which is painfully British) Andorra It makes sense for Americans to take Spanish as a second language, but for Europe; Arabic and Russian are in countries that are far closer, French and German are more widely spoken in Europe. Spanish is only useful if you go to Spain on holiday, and then not in the normal resorts.

CydeWeys 8y ago

I'm frankly amazed that you've never been to a Spanish-speaking country given your homeland and travel propensity, and that are 20 of them (plus Puerto Rico). It's almost like you've gone out of your way to avoid Spanish-speaking countries. Do yourself a favor and buy a cheap flight to Barcelona and make it 51.

sdiq 8y ago
Or travel to Gibraltar and take a detour to Spain.
rb808 8y ago
If you live in the Americas Spanish dominates as the main language. In the rest of the world it isn't so significant, which is what they were describing.
isostatic 8y ago
In the last 10 years (had to do this for an Indian visa recently so have them on file), I've been to New Zealand, Austrailia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Russia, Qatar, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, St Lucia, USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Portugal, Gibraltar, Italy, Vatican City, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden Before that they were only places like Austria, Lichtenstein, Finland, etc I've never been to Spain. Never been to Slovenia either, just hasn't come up. I can't think of any other non-american countries that have Spanish as the official language. I've come close to visiting Chile, Mexico and Cuba at various points, but never had the dots fall into place.
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  Here's a list of countries where Spanish is the official language (note, this doesn't include countries where Spanish isn't official but is still widespread): https://www.spanish.cl/vocabulary-lists/spanish-speaking-countries-capitals.htm https://www.spanish.cl/vocabulary-lists/spanish-speaking-cou... That's all countries in the western hemisphere of any decent size except for the US, Canada, and Brazil. So you just haven't traveled much in the western hemisphere.
  - isostatic 8y ago
    Correct, I've traveled to US, Canada and Brazil :) (And St Lucia) The Western Hempisphere is mostly water, there's not a lot there compared with the eastern hemisphere. Far East is my favorite long haul destination, but both SubSaharan Africa and Middle East have their charms.

planteen 8y ago

Just because Spanish isn't an official language in the US doesn't make it less useful. The US is the second largest Spanish speaking nation in the world, behind Mexico. There are a number of careers in the US where speaking Spanish is very useful, especially when you interact a lot with people (e.g., medicine & sales). Every major US market is served by at least two Spanish speaking TV stations over the air. And if you speak Spanish fluently, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility that lets you communicate with Portuguese speakers (for Brazil). It's an extremely useful language for North, Central, and South America. It also gives the average American much more opportunities to make use of their Spanish skills in every day life when compared to French or German.

beat 8y ago
Indeed, a combination of English and Spanish will get you around 98% of the Americas (assuming you can do enough to comprehend Portuguese in Brazil).
kibwen 8y ago
Seconded. The emphasis on countries with Spanish as an "official language" is misplaced; the US famously has no "official" language (though let's not pretend this is the result of magnanimity, rather than just a peculiar quirk of legislation), and Spanish-speaking enclaves are all over the place. If you're outside the US you might think that Spanish is relegated to the areas near the border, but no: I have driven through towns in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania and seen stores with signs exclusively in Spanish; I have hitchhiked through Aurora, Illinois and encountered wandering mariachi bands making their way to a quinceañera; the alley behind my apartment in Massachusetts is filled nightly with the excited Spanish exclamations of children at play. By no means is Spanish strictly required to enjoy the US, but it will give you insight into enormous US subcultures that many won't ever appreciate.
- isostatic 8y ago
  And Polish or Hindi or a dozen other languages will give you insights in the UK. Looking at https://blog.udemy.com/how-many-countries-speak-spanish/ https://blog.udemy.com/how-many-countries-speak-spanish/ tells me that outside of the Americas, I can use Spanish in Spain Gibraltar (which is painfully British) Andorra It makes sense for Americans to take Spanish as a second language, but for Europe; Arabic and Russian are in countries that are far closer, French and German are more widely spoken in Europe. Spanish is only useful if you go to Spain on holiday, and then not in the normal resorts.