TransMission Translations

	Overview
	Real Academia
	The Standard
	A Soaring Market

There are nearly 400 million Spanish speakers around the globe, and experts—including Victor García de la Concha, head of the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy)—predict that by the year 2050 there will be 530 million, of which 100 million will be living in the USA. No wonder global IT companies have realized that in order to release their products in this huge market, Spanish must be a top priority. The market we are speaking of includes medium-sized countries such as Spain and Colombia, highly populated ones like Mexico and even marginal markets in Africa and Asia, such as Equatorial Guinea and the Philippines.

Now, this poses a rather significant localization challenge. As you may know, there are many varieties of Spanish, as many, in fact, as there are Spanish-speaking countries. Even within the same country you find regional varieties. Although the people of Spanish-speaking countries feel that they speak the same language, the differences become obvious the minute two people from two of those countries start to communicate.

It is mistaken to say that there are two types of Spanish: one for Spain and one for all other Spanish-speaking countries (LATAM). In fact, there is a greater contrast between Mexico and Argentina than between Argentina and Spain.

The idea of an International Spanish is a consequence of the need to provide all Spanish speakers with a single Spanish product. Our aim is to produce a standardized Spanish, a language that will be understandable to all speakers even if it does not sound exactly the same as what they would have used to convey the idea.

Spanish speakers in countries where Spanish is the official language
	Speakers	Population	% population
Argentina	35,300,000	35,409,000	99.7
Bolivia	6,810,000	7,767,000	87.7
Chile	13,080,000	14,583,000	89.7
Colombia	35,850,000	36,200,000	99.0
Costa Rica	3,382,000	3,468,000	97.5
Cuba	11,190,000	11,190,000	100.0
Dominican Republic	7,650,000	7,802,000	98.1
Ecuador	11,100,000	11,937,000	93.0
El Salvador	5,662,000	5,662,000	100.0
Guatemala	7,270,000	11,242,000	64.7
Equatorial Guinea	443,000	443,000	100.0
Honduras	5,718,000	5,823,000	98.2
Mexico	92,890,000	94,275,000	98.5
Nicaragua	4,112,000	4,632,000	87.4
Panama	2,088,000	2,719,000	76.8
Paraguay	2,805,000	5,089,000	55.1
Peru	19,440,000	24,371,000	79.8
Puerto Rico	3,741,000	3,809,000	98.2
Spain	38,969,000	39,323,000	99.1
Uruguay	3,050,000	3,185,000	95.8
Venezuela	22,060,000	22,777,000	96.9
Total	332,610,000	351,706,000	94.6
Source: Britannica Book of the Year 1998.