CHOOSING BETWEEN MANDARIN OR SPANISH

Learning a foreign language offers many benefits. It enhances memory, stimulates the brain and keeps it active, and even helps in preventing serious illnesses associated with old age such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia. But what language presents the best opportunities should you take the time to learn it? Two of your best options are Mandarin and Spanish and here’s why.
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​While both languages present great benefits for native English speakers, the main aspects you should consider before going to language school are the number of speakers around the world, the countries where you can apply your learning for work or leisure, and the degree of difficulty in learning the language.

The number of language speakers

Mandarin Chinese is the second most widely spoken language in the world next only to English, with over one billion speakers. Just imagine: 14.4% of the people who exist all over the world are native Mandarin speakers.
 
In contrast, Spanish is fourth on the list of the most spoken languages in the world with over 500 million speakers. In fact, there are more native Spanish speakers than those who have English as their mother tongue, making the former the second most spoken native language in the world next to Mandarin. Spanish is also the 3rd most studied language after English and French.  
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Research on what language suits you best.

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The prevalence in location

Since we’re talking about which language offers the most opportunities, both have their respective advantages. 

Learning Mandarin opens up a number of potential jobs for Chinese language speakers. The popularity of the language also remains high in the U.S. education system and continues to be influential all over the world. Another thing is how China peaks as one of the largest global markets for entrepreneurship today. 

However, China is an isolated country and the language may be confined to just that territory along with Taiwan and Singapore.

Spanish, on the other hand, is spoken in 20 countries and is second to Mandarin in terms of the largest number of native speakers in the world so we cannot discount the possibility of Spanish speakers being able to create career opportunities elsewhere as well.

The degree of difficulty

In terms of the degree of difficulty for English first-language speakers, the Foreign Service Institute states that Mandarin is one of the four hardest languages to learn along with Arabic, Japanese, and Korean. It will definitely take you a lot of time and effort to learn Mandarin’s rhythms, structures, characters, and phonemes but once you master it, the returns are substantial. 

Learning Spanish is very useful if you are working in the Western part of the globe as it is the main language for countries in Central and South America, except Brazil which main language is Portuguese—also a close relative of Spanish as both belong to the West Iberian branch of the Romance languages.

Being versed in Spanish also prepares you to learn more European languages as well. The language also proves to be easier for native English speakers because its grammar and sentence structures are simpler and easier to comprehend as both have Latin roots. Once you get the hang of assuming the genders of Spanish terms, then you’re pretty much set to learn more challenging structures of the language.

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