Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero on the future of the Spanish language

Monday, February 02, 2009

Valparaíso de noche.

(Edit: Okay fine, he's the "President of the Government of Spain", or the Prime Minister. Stop using the word Presidente and people will stop mistaking him for the president.)


Some interesting pieces of information from an article here in Spanish written about remarks made by the Spanish president prime minister about the future of Spanish and an upcoming conference (2 to 5 March) in the city of Valparaíso in Chile.


«Hay que hacer un esfuerzo para fomentar el español en Internet», afirmó durante su intervención el presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero...El líder del Ejecutivo se lamentó de que el español no tenga en la red «la fuerza que ostenta en otros ámbitos» y recordó su potencial. «Es la tercera lengua más hablada del mundo, por detrás del chino y el inglés, y el número de hispanohablantes crece a un ritmo anual del 10%». Además «es la lengua oficial de más de veinte países y la segunda en los Estados Unidos, donde a mediados del siglo XXI será hablada por 130 millones de personas».
Quick translation: "There must be an effort to promote Spanish on the Internet", said President Prime Minister José Luis Rodgríguez Zapatero in his speech...he regretted that Spanish on the Internet does not have "the force that it holds in other areas"..."It's the third-most spoken language in the world after Chinese and English, and the number of Spanish-language speakers is growing at an annual rate of 10%." Moreover "It is the official language of more than twenty countries and the second in the United States, where in the middle of the 21th century it will be spoken by 130 million people."

and:
En su opinión, América está llamada a ensanchar «la cartografía» de nuestro idioma. «Va a ser el laboratorio y el motor del español del futuro. No en vano, en esta cita en Valparaíso se prestará especial atención a la implantación de los estudios de lengua española en países de habla no hispana, como Brasil, donde su gobierno ha impulsado decididamente su enseñanza, o Estados Unidos, donde el crecimiento de la fuerza del español es extraordinario».
In his opinion, America is going to expand the "mapping" of the language. "It's going to be the laboratory of, and the motor of Spanish in the future. Not surprisingly, in this event in Valparaiso there is paid special attention to the introduction of Spanish-language studies in non-Spanish countries like Brazil, where the government has strongly supported its study, or the United States, where the growth of the power of Spanish is extraordinary."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave!

You do the same error as Jed Bush when ending a visit in Spain:
"Before leaving, I want to thank the Spanish President!"
And Juan Carlos replied: "When you're back in America, please do greet for us your brother, the King of the United States!"

Olivier

Me said...

Okay, ma to es un errore tre facil a far, no? Nam su titul formal es li "Presidente del Gobierno de España". Si li parol President in anglesi significa rey in altri lingues yo posse comprender li comparation.

Mithridates said...

Okay, ma to es un errore tre facil a far, no? Nam su titul formal es li "Presidente del Gobierno de España". Si li parol President in anglesi significa rey in altri lingues yo posse comprender li comparation.

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