Spanish

Spanish is an official language in twenty-one countries and is the mother tongue of approximately 500 million people. From Spain in southern Europe to the Americas, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa, the Spanish-speaking world has developed a rich and diverse culture over its long history.

At the Faculty of Letters, we offer Spanish language education designed to equip students with well-balanced, comprehensive communication skills, enabling them to access the culture and history of the Spanish-speaking world.Knowledge of Spanish is particularly valuable for students pursuing fields such as Western history, Japanese history (especially the history of Christianity in Japan), Asian history (especially Islamic history), Western art history, and English and American literature.  

As a language spoken by hundreds of millions of people across a vast region, Spanish can be put to use in countless contexts, including tourism, the arts, sports, business, and diplomacy. In today’s world, the importance of Spanish continues to grow as the number of its speakers increases, making it a language well worth learning.

Spanish Is for You If...

Spanish has the second-largest number of native speakers in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. It is an official language in many countries and one of the official languages of the United Nations. In addition, many Japanese companies operate in the resource-rich countries of Latin America.

The United States has the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, after Mexico, and Spanish functions as a de facto second language in the country. Knowledge of Spanish is invaluable for life in the United States and essential for understanding contemporary American literature as well as popular culture, including music, television, film, and musicals.

Spanish evolved from Latin, the language of the ancient Roman Empire, on the Iberian Peninsula. It later spread to the Americas through the Reconquista and the Age of Discovery. Learning Spanish can help you gain a broader perspective on this global history.

Spain has produced many world-renowned painters, including Velázquez, El Greco, Goya, Picasso, and Dalí, while Latin America is home to artists such as Frida Kahlo and Botero. In architecture, Spain is known for its Roman ruins, Islamic-era palaces and mosques, Romanesque and Gothic churches, and the distinctive works of Gaudí. Latin America boasts the ruins of ancient civilizations such as the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, as well as beautiful colonial cities. Mexico City, one of the world’s largest cities, is also a treasure trove of modern architecture.

Many Spanish-speaking countries, including Spain, Mexico, and Peru, are known for their outstanding cuisine and abundant tourist attractions, such as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Knowledge of Spanish allows you to visit these diverse countries and experience their cultures more deeply. In addition, Kanagawa Prefecture, where the Hiyoshi Campus is located, is home to communities with Latin American roots, including many people of Japanese descent. Cities such as Kawasaki and Tsurumi offer restaurants serving authentic cuisine from countries like Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

One of the great attractions of the Spanish-speaking world is its rich variety of musical genres, including flamenco from Spain, salsa and reggaeton from the Caribbean, tango from Argentina, and folk music from the Andean region of South America. Spanish-language songs frequently become global hits, and “Despacito” is a recent example. Knowing Spanish allows you to understand the lyrics and even sing along.

The Spanish-speaking world is home to sports powerhouses such as Spain and Argentina in soccer and Cuba and the Dominican Republic in baseball. Learning Spanish will enable you to understand player interviews with ease.

Spanish is also the language of a treasure trove of literary masterpieces, such as Cervantes's *Don Quixote*, considered the first modern European novel, and Gabriel García Márquez's *One Hundred Years of Solitude*, which sparked a worldwide boom in Latin American literature. At the Faculty of Letters, courses are also offered that allow you to explore such works of Spanish and Latin American literature.

Since Spanish is one of the Romance languages derived from Latin, learning it makes it easier to understand other Romance languages such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. The Spanish-speaking world is also a multilingual society. In Spain, in addition to Spanish, languages such as Catalan, Galician, and Basque are official at the regional level. Latin America is home to approximately 900 indigenous languages; among them, Mayan, Quechua, Aymara, and Guaraní are each spoken by millions. Knowing Spanish provides easier access to these diverse languages and their unique cultures.

The Spanish program at the Faculty of Letters is team-taught by Japanese and native-speaking instructors, with the goal of helping students develop balanced and comprehensive communication skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Students take three classes per week (A, B, and C). Two of these (A and B) are taught by Japanese instructors, and one (C) by a native-speaking instructor. Class A is designed to build a foundation of grammatical knowledge, Class B focuses on developing vocabulary and sentence construction skills, and Class C aims to build communication skills for specific situations. The goal for the year is to learn the fundamentals of Spanish grammar and to acquire the reading and listening skills to understand simple Spanish texts, as well as the writing and speaking skills to communicate about everyday matters.

Students take two classes per week, one taught by a Japanese instructor and the other by a native-speaking instructor. They continue with the grammar studied in the first year while further developing their Spanish reading comprehension, composition, and oral expression skills. Another objective is to deepen their understanding of the societies and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world through activities such as reading longer texts and giving presentations.

A key feature of the Spanish program at the Faculty of Letters is its small class sizes, typically 25 students or fewer. This allows for close guidance from instructors, enabling students to thoroughly learn grammar and develop conversational skills through a wealth of exercises and activities. Ample time is also dedicated to review and Q&A, ensuring that students can solidify their understanding as they learn.

Spanish is largely phonetic, which makes it relatively easy for Japanese speakers to pronounce. Its grammar is also not overly difficult if you have a basic grasp of English grammar, as the rules are quite clear. However, learning any language from scratch requires considerable effort. There is much to memorize, including not only vocabulary but also concepts unfamiliar to Japanese speakers, such as noun genders and verb conjugations. We will provide tips for efficient memorization in class, so we encourage you to approach your studies with dedication.

From the third year onward, students can take courses such as "Intermediate Spanish" to continue their language studies and "Culture of the Spanish-Speaking World," which covers a wide range of cultural topics including literature, art, and cinema from Spain and Latin America.

Spanish proficiency tests include the Spanish Language Proficiency Test administered by the Hispanic Society of Japan and the DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language) administered by the Instituto Cervantes, Spain’s official cultural institution. At the end of the second year, students are encouraged to aim for Levels 3 to 4 on the Spanish Language Proficiency Test or Levels B1 to B2 on the DELE.

At the Faculty of Letters, our full-time Spanish faculty consists of one assistant professor specializing in the literature and culture of the Spanish-speaking world (with a focus on Basque literature) and one fixed-term assistant professor specializing in Spanish art history. For more details, please see the faculty profiles at the link below.

In addition to these two faculty members, approximately ten experienced part-time instructors support your Spanish language studies. While many of our native-speaking instructors are from Spain, others come from Latin American countries such as Argentina.

If you are interested in language training or studying abroad in Spanish-speaking countries, or in taking Spanish proficiency examinations, please feel free to consult with the instructors.