Spanish language being studied more and more in the Philippines, teachers receiving scholarships to take part in intensive Spanish courses

Spanish language in the world and the Philippines:

That doesn't look quite right though. Let's try re-centering the map with the Philippines in the middle:

Much better. Now you can see why English, Spanish and Chinese are of paramount importance for the country.

There are a few articles on this subject recently in both English and Spanish, so letş take a look at a few of them.

First one in English here, detailing the scholarships teachers are able to receive in the Philippines to learn Spanish, and paid for by the Spanish government.

Lapus said the project has been part of the “long-term framework” to re-introduce Spanish as an elective subject in Philippine public schools.

“Our social and historical ties with Spain and the Ibero-American countries worldwide means that we can be conversant in Spanish, an international language,” (Education Secretary Jesli) Lapus said in a statement.

Spanish was reintroduced to the curriculum in 2007.

Next is an article in Spanish here goes into more detail on the Instituto Cervantes' role in this as well. The Instituto Cervantes has had a centre in Manila since 1994, and in their most recent Spanish courses in the city 35 teachers have participated as well. In 1987 the Philippines abolished Spanish as one of its official languages along with the need to study it in schools, so this is not so much a new policy as a partial restoration of what used to be the norm. The government also wants Chinese to be a language that a lot of people speak as well. China is right next door, after all.

Finally, this other one in Spanish, also the most interesting for some of the numbers it contains. Right now 2% of the population of the Philippines speaks Spanish, and most of these are over 50. The intensive course for the teachers mentioned above consists of 240 hours of instruction in April and March. There's also a mention of Chavacano, a language in the Philippines (Zamboanga) derived from Spanish.

One of the economic benefits for learning Spanish: one 26-year-old woman working in a call centre says that she now earns 14,000 pesos (228 euros) a month but wants to learn Spanish because that would raise her salary to almost 20,000 pesos (325 euros) along with a higher position with more opportunities to double her salary.

Finally, the last article mentions one advantage those in the Philippines have in learning Spanish: the large number of Spanish loanwords in Tagalog (over 4,000). Some examples: ‘presidente’, ‘senador’, ‘diputado’, ‘alkalde’, ‘konsehal’, ‘pulysia’.