Studying Spanish offers access to a very rich culture, both ancient and modern. The main linguistic roots of Spanish come from Latin Vulgaris but it also has imported vocabulary from many other languages and cultures. Spanish is spoken in two continents and in more than 20 countries, is the world's third most frequently spoken language (after English and Chinese), and is one of the United Nations' six official languages.
In the Americas Spanish is the language that has the largest number of speakers. The United States is the fifth largest country in terms of the number of Spanish speakers, reflecting the fact that Spanish has become the second most spoken language there due to the increasing Hispanic population.
Recently, Spanish has also become a language of strategic importance to New Zealand's trading future.
