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Thursday, May 11, 2006

Strike of the Spanish Armada

Consider this:

Over 330 Million people speak Spanish all over the world.
US is the world's largest economoy and economic stimulator.
Almost 12% of US's population speaks Spanish.
US has the world's fifth largest population of Spanish speakers.
Spanish speaking population is a major contributor to the US economy.
Almost all phone service and support today in the US have the option to select an operator who speaks Spanish.
Almost all US official forms are circulated in Spanish.
Almost all business establishments in the US display a board similar to one shown in picture.
India is the world's second most populous country in the world.
India has very successfully supported America's backoffice processes and call centers.
On an average Indians speak or understand at least two languages
India is thriving on US business especially with call centers.

Now, lets try to put all this together:
Spanish, language, spoken, most populated, largest economy, call centers, Indo-US business ties.
Basically, for India to get more business or even to sustain business from US counterparts its call center agents would soon need to be ready for Spanish speakers or they will lose significant business to countries like - Phillipines, Argentina or Mexico. That translates into introducing the world's second largest population to Spanish. With the power of world's largest economy and world's second largest population stepping behind Spanish speakers how long would it take for Spanish to catch up or even take over English in terms number of speakers. It should be noted that though English is considered a global language, its number of speakers are ranked same or close ahead of Spanish.

After thoughts:
Chinese is the most spoken language in the world (all variants included)
Hindi is ranked second and is the spoken by second largest population in the world.

Disclaimer: This is just an analysis without any prejudice.

Links from this posting:
US Hispanic heritage link (US Census). Click here.
Spanish Language. Click here.
Spanish Language in the US. Click here.
Hindi. Click here. (Related t-shirts and humor.)
India. Click here.

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