@skieurope The supposed “usefulness” of Spanish does not occur in a vacuum. The question is not if it is the “most useful” in absolute terms — which it obviously is — but how many individuals speak it, how many are taking it, and what the added value of studying Spanish is vis a vis other languages in that opportunity cost context. This is simply a matter of supply and demand: to the extent Spanish is being oversupplied, which it most certainly now is, it is not comparatively useful. I’ll find the study for you if I must, but I thought links are not allowed and it doesn’t take much of a thought experiment to understand this logic.
In terms of whether one should be fluent in one Romance language before even beginning another - especially when we are talking about high school - that is simply not true. I will concede, though, that it is far better to be advanced in one first.
Spanish cinema? Compared to Italian, French, or German? Haven’t heard that one before, but to each his own. I won’t touch the literature issue either: I would be tilting at windmills.
@gardenstategal Latin America is perhaps the only place where business will not be conducted in English; it is conducted in Spanish and Portuguese. You apparently were not in Brazil, but it is expected that Spanish speakers from other countries speak Portuguese there, and that the Brazilians, in turn, speak Spanish in other countries. We are talking about 200 million people after all; Brazil is the economic powerhouse of the continent.