Why learn Spanish?
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Learning Spanish will put your child ahead of the competition in their future in their careers in healthcare, education, international business, politics, public service, sales and so much more.
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Spanish is the 4th most spoken language in the world and the 2nd most spoken language in the United States.
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The United States is the fifth largest Spanish-speaking community in the world after Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Argentina
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By the year 2025 projections indicate that the Latino population will total roughly 61 million people and will account for almost 1 out of every 5 people living in the U.S.
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Spanish is the mother tongue of approximately 350 million people in the world.
Why at such an early age?
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Research indicates that from ages 1 through 8 is the best time to introduce a new language to a child. If the 2nd language is introduced early in life children will learn it faster and retain it longer.
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Being exposed to a 2nd language offers numerous benefits to young children including an improved ability to communicate, better cognitive development, richer cultural awareness, improved academic performance, superior educational opportunities and, ultimately, better jobs.
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The earlier a child is exposed to a 2nd language the more likely they will speak it with native pronunciation.
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One recent study found that bilingual children learn to read sooner than their single language counterparts, have increased creative skills and become proficient problem solvers. Another study indicated that bilingual children also performed better on math and verbal sections of standardized tests than single language children.
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Children have emotional advantages as well. Since they're not as self-conscious as adults, they are not afraid of pronouncing words wrong. They are willing to call out their new foreign words (whether right or wrong) and their spontaneity pays off with a faster fluency adoption.
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There are different areas in the brain controlling different functions in our lives. When we brush our teeth, sign our names or drive a car, we don't consciously think: "move the right hand up and down like this," "capitalize this letter," or "turn the wheel 30 degrees to the left." These are examples of automatic brain function. When children acquire language, this same part of the brain, called the "deep motor area," is what they use, so the language is like second nature. When adults learn a second or third language, their brains operate differently. The window of opportunity to imprint information and skills in the deep motor region of the brain is widest during early childhood and nearly shut by the time we reach about 18. Therefore, adults have to store information elsewhere, in a more active brain region. As a consequence, adults usually think sentences through in a native tongue and then translate them word-by-word, instead of thinking automatically in another language like a child would. Even for people with extensive training in a second language as an adult, who feel their speech is automatic, on a neurological level the brain is still operating differently from a child's.