If you’re keen on learning a romance language and want to focus on the easiest and most practical for English speakers, choose Spanish. Dr. Gómez estimates that English has a high level of similarity with Spanish due to shared Latin influences and the large number of English-based words that are now used in Spanish.
Yes, conjugations are complicated, but they’re not any more challenging than the other languages of this group, and Spanish only has five vowels and 22 consonants. Its big advantage over, say, French, is that it’s phonetic, meaning that words are pronounced how they are written. Once you know the alphabet, you’ll be able to pronounce almost any word in Spanish, even if it’s your first time seeing it.
Besides, practicing the language is easy, especially if you live in the U.S., which has the second-largest population of native Spanish speakers in the world (after Mexico). And if you want to travel for the language, you can choose from over 20 countries where it’s spoken. Spanish-language shows like “Money Heist” and singers like Bad Bunny and Shakira also make exposure easy and, more importantly, fun.
Just a word of caution: Each Hispanophone country has a different variety of Spanish, so be prepared for some hilarious misunderstandings.
