Students who major in Spanish at Saint Louis University gain a necessary asset in an increasingly globalized, complex world. Mastering Spanish as the demand for bilingual workers in the U.S. continues to rise gives graduates a competitive edge in education, health care, business, international relationships, government, cultural studies, social work and law enforcement. It also broadens one's horizons by increasing cultural awareness and global contacts.<br><br>The Spanish major at Saint Louis University prepares students for careers requiring Spanish proficiency or for graduate work in Spanish.<br>With the help of a team of dedicated, experienced faculty members, instructors and mentors, Spanish majors focus on refining their language skills in Spanish, exploring the Hispanic cultural legacy through literature, linguistics and culture, gaining familiarity with Spanish within professional contexts (such as health care), and increasing their cultural and social sensitivity. Students are encouraged to study abroad, one option is SLU's campus in Madrid, Spain.<br>In the United States, Spanish has been present for more than five centuries, and it is currently the second most used language, spoken at home by about 42 million people and eight million students. Spanish is spoken worldwide by almost 500 million native speakers on four continents and in twenty-one countries. It is the third most used language on the internet, one of the six official languages of the United Nations along with Arabic, French, English, Mandarin and Russian and one of the official languages of the European Union. By 2030, Spanish speakers will make up 7.5% of the world's population.<br>Spanish is the second most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese.<br>Based on the growth of the Hispanic population and the increase of Spanish speakers worldwide, bilingual English-Spanish ability and cross-cultural understanding are valued assets within all fields but especially so within business, health care, government, education, cultural as well as international studies, social work and law enforcement. In addition, it is reported the need for foreign language teachers will increase 20% over the next 10 years in the U.S.