(español) also called Castilian (castellano listen (help·info)) is a Romance language that originated in Castile a region in Spain. Approximately 406 million people speak Spanish as a native language making it the second-most-spoken language by number of native speakers after Mandarin.It also has 60 million speakers as a second language and 20 million students as a foreign language. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and is used as an official language by the European Union and Mercosur.