There was a time when speaking a second language was a skill that only the rich and famous strived to acquire. It was a delightful when someone knew just the right French phrase to drop at a party. Only United Nations translators actually needed foreign language skills to earn a living. But all of that has changed.

First jet aircraft cut the world to half its size, followed by the Internet which has shrunk the world to one global neighborhood. Now, no matter what your job title is, you're just as likely to serve a customer or client who speaks Spanish, French or Japanese as you are to serve a client who speaks English.

It's no longer a luxury to be able to speak a foreign language. In fact, for many jobs, being bi-lingual is either an absolute job requirement, or you'll at least be at a competitive disadvantage against other applicants who do speak a foreign language.

And it's not just police and fire dispatchers, EMS technicians and law enforcement officers who are finding it neccessary to speak a foreign language. Many healthcare professionals, salespeople and even retail and food service employees see bigger paychecks and happier clients when they have a foreign language skill.

Take Spanish for example. Of the 5,000 spoken languages in the world, Spanish is #3 in the order of number of people who speak that language. Only the Chinese and Indian languages rank higher.

Even English, which is the primary language for an estimated 330 million people, falls behind Spanish which is estimated to be spoken by 346 million people.

As the number of Spanish language speakers continues to grow, colleges and corporations are responding to the pressing need for foreign language publications and marketing materials as well as foreign language radio and television spots.

U.S. businesses are reaching out to Spanish foreign language speaking consumers through advertising outlets such as CNN en Espa?ol, CBS Telenoticias, Univisi'n, and Telemundo. Being able to communicate in a foreign language is big business and people who do not have foreign language skills will be left behind.

Missing out on the income opportunities of speaking a second language doesn't make sense now that the methods of teaching people to speak a foreign language have changed so dramatically.

Today, one of the easiest and most fun ways to learn a foreign language is through a process called "full foreign language immersion". Here's how it works:

You pick the foreign language that you want to learn, such as Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish, and then you contact a foreign language immersion agency, like the company Language Skills Abroad that operates a web site at http://www.languageskillsabroad.com/. They match you up with a quality overseas foreign language school and help you with all of the travel details and living accommodations.

The end result is that you learn your chosen foreign language quicker, because you are living and learning among people who actually speak your target foreign language.