The United Kingdom has recently seen an increase in the number of students moving away from the more traditional languages of French and German and instead they are opting to learn Spanish. The reason for this shift is the popularity of the ‘Colombian Songbird’ Shakira, as she is often regarded to on the internet. Well, that is what we are expected to believe if we were to take everything that is written in the newspapers as gospel!

Personally, I find it difficult to believe that a pop star can have so much influence over an entire country’s student body, especially when it is regarding the choice of which language to learn. If that were to be the case we would have seen an increase in Spanish students a long time ago in tune with the massive popularity that other Spanish speaking singers and celebrities enjoyed at one time or another; Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Julio Iglesias (yes, remember him) Ricky Martin and more recently the extremely popular Enrique Iglesias, son of the aforementioned Spanish swooner, and I’m sure there are many, many more.

The fact is, although Shakira is extremely good at what she does and is very popular with men and women and not always for the same reasons, I think labeling her as the catalyst for the recent changes to language education in the UK is a little extreme. However, that isn’t to say that popular culture cannot change and shape a society, and influence choice…remember the Beatles?

However, learning the Spanish language has been on the increase for many years now, irrespective of popular culture, and for a lot of people it is unquestionably the first language of choice to learn, but why?

In the US it is easy to assume why this would be the case as not only does the US share a border with Mexico, which just happens to have the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world, but according to the 2000 census, Spanish is already spoken by 12% of the US population, which means the US has the fifth largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. This is in complete contrast to the UK which is quite insular where learning languages are concerned and this is highlighted in recent figures that reveal drastic reductions in the number of students taking languages at secondary, higher education, and university levels.

However, although the overall picture is bleak for language study within the education system in the UK there is indeed room for some optimism when considering the increased number of students opting for Spanish. Rather than popular culture, there are a number of more likely reasons why this switch to Spanish is probably happening and they are:

• A greater number of teachers available that can now teach Spanish
• Greater freedom of choice for the student doubled with government policy change in 2004 that made languages non compulsory to 14 year olds and over.
• Stronger bonds with Spain due mainly to the fact that a large percentage of British people holiday each year in Spain, which is also home to over 1 million expats
• Spanish culture is seen as being much more appealing and far more accessible than other European cultures.

Adult language education, on the other hand, is one area that is increasing year on year, and it is Spanish once again that is increasing in popularity, especially in the 40 – 60 age group that one can only surmise are preparing for retirement in sunnier climates.

Online Spanish courses are the preferred way of learning Spanish for the vast majority of these mature students as they are a more cost effective and flexible means of learning Spanish, not to mention quicker, when compared to the traditional evening class.

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