Spanish is the second most spoken language by native speakers in the world, with more than 400 million Spanish speakers in 21 countries, and the British Council has recently ranked Spanish as the most important language British students should learn. With an ever-increasing presence in the global market, emerging economies in the Americas mean that the chance of work and business opportunities from the Spanish-speaking world continue to multiply. In cultural terms, being able to communicate and understand Spanish opens up a whole world of artistic and literary excellence. Artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Fernando Botero and Frida Kahlo have produced some of the most famous pieces of artwork in the modern era. Writers from Cervantes to Vargas Llosa and García Márquez have enriched global literature, and a total of 11 Spanish-speaking writers have won the Nobel prize for Literature: five from Spain and six from Latin America. For these reasons, and many others, learning Spanish at A level is an immensely valuable and attractive option.