Spanish is the most logical choice to learn as a second language for most people in the United States. We border Mexico and are geographically close to Latin America, where Spanish is the primary language. Not to mention that Spanish-speaking Latinos are the largest-growing minority group in the country, not far from becoming as large a population as the majority. Many cities in the South, such as in San Antonio, Texas, have already begun to recognize this and have made public signs bilingual, even at the zoo and in the San Antonio Museum of Art, as seen in The Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/kls1.html).
Jobs in today's market are becoming more and more geared toward bilingual candidates. Consider education, where states are having to recruit from other countries to find people who are fluent in both Spanish and English. However, if they can find the same type of qualified candidates here, those people can be assured long-term jobs paid at a higher rate than their monolingual counterparts. Dallas Independent School District, for example, pays a bilingual stipend of $4,000 a year for teachers who are bilingual certified. Many districts are even collaborating with alternative certification programs to increase their numbers of bilingual employees.
Just as in English, there are variations in the Spanish language. You should consider ahead of time which variation would be most useful to you. If you choose a native teacher from Spain, or from Mexico, their accents will differ, just as British and American accents differ. There will also be a few grammatical differences. For example, the Spanish use the pronoun and verb combinations for "vos," which is not used at all in Mexico and some other countries. Slang terminology will vary slightly as well. People from Spain and from Mexico will still understand each other, however there is room for misunderstanding. Think about whom you will communicate with the most before deciding on which regional Spanish to learn.
Growing up in public school, most of us were given the standard three languages to choose from: French, German and Spanish. Although culturally enriching, learning French or German may not be as useful to you in the future. French is spoken in a few countries around the world, but not nearly by the same hundreds of millions who speak Spanish. Learning a language for fun should not deter you from choosing another language, but if doing so for a purpose, Spanish is the fourth most-spoken language in the world (http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/most_spoken_languages.htm), and therefore, should be the more important to learn.
Schools today in Florida, California and Texas are still using bilingual education where needed and where law deems necessary. Although Vietnamese and other languages are used in certain regions, Spanish is the language most used in bilingual programs. Yet a new program has emerged: dual language. The function is no longer to promote the learning of English by non-speakers, but to increase knowledge in two languages, primarily Spanish and English. These programs include both children who speak Spanish and are learning English, as well as English speakers who are learning Spanish. If these schools find a way to make our children functioning members of a bilingual English and Spanish society, shouldn't we adults follow the example? Find a Spanish language class and enroll today.