Spanish shows the first symptoms of descent in the world, especially among students

The

is close to 500 million native speakers (496 million, three more than a year ago) and is close to

(specifically, 595, four more than in 2021), but it has begun to show the first signs of decline, especially with the number of students, as stated in the document 'El español en el mundo.

Cervantes Institute Yearbook 2022'.

In this sense, the yearbook explains that Spanish continues to be the second mother tongue by number of speakers, after Chinese, and the fourth in the global calculation.

Thus,

, although here there is "a slight decrease" that is attributed to the pandemic and the "withdrawal of language tourism".

"It is the first time that there has been a

since this report began to be published and here, even with data that is still very incomplete, what is being done is confirming something that had already been clearly perceived in the classrooms", explained the professor at the University of Alcalá and author of the report, David Fernández Vítores.

During the presentation of the document at the Madrid headquarters of the Cervantes Institute, Fernández explained that this decrease in enrollment "has a lot to do" with the restrictions that the pandemic has generated in the last year and that, in some cases, compliance with the regulation has forced to reduce the activity.

Despite the fact that this drop has been accompanied by the increase in remote classes, according to the author of the report "it has not yet been compensated".

"Yes, there has also been an

, which could mean a shift from face-to-face to virtual," he added.

Another point that Fernández has highlighted has been the slowdown in the growth of the Spanish-speaking community, despite the fact that it has increased by four million compared to 2021. "This growth is much lower than the previous year, when there were almost six million more speakers", he indicated.

THE ROOF, AT THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY

The author has warned that this

has to do with global demographic trends and "it is likely that they will continue like this in the future."

He has also alluded here to the impact of covid in countries where Spanish is the official language, with an excess mortality of 1.5 million people in Spanish-speaking countries.

"Spanish is still in an expansive cycle that will end up peaking in the second half of this century, but it is also warning us that this loss of speakers has already begun to occur and it is possible that it will continue to worsen until the year 2100. You can rely only on demographics and you have to look for a way out elsewhere," he said.

"YOU HAVE TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET"

Spanish --potential users account for 7.5% of the world's population-- is the

by number of speakers, after Mandarin Chinese.

In addition, in the year 2060, the United States will be the second Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico --27.5% of Americans will be of Hispanic origin--.

"

but we are also perceiving a wide demand around English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom, where French is displaced as the first option in learning. This combination of English- Spanish", he pointed out.

In any case, Fernández has concluded with allusions to "the very delicate post-pandemic situation", assuring that the challenges of Spanish are "similar to those of any other international language".

"Of course, the challenges for the non-Spanish-speaking world is to come out of the closet and become universal in all senses, not only literary but also other fields such as science," he pointed out.

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