Eh… it’s probably not so much that they are demanding their language be spoken…

More a case of the tourists are probably being dickheads in general and the locals have had enough of their shit. That and the locals would like to be able to enjoy their own beach without having to wade through masses of tourists.

I mean, it depends where you go in Spain right. If you're working in an office in Madrid and someone gets annoyed that you don't speak English that's one thing, if you're working a restaurant in an area that makes all its money from tourism, then surely it makes sense to make those people bringing in the dough feel comfortable.

While your correction is important, the whole idea of Mandarin being one language is also a bit messed up. The different Spanish speakers of the world will have a much easier time getting together and understanding each other than the various groups of Mandarin speakers.

Where one language ends and another begins is largely political, which makes it difficult to make a fair count.

Where else is Spanish a "native" language other than Spain? It's spoken across South America and some of Asia, but that's due to colonialism the same as how English spread. The natives of South America didn't speak Spanish before they turned up.

That is definitely not true.

A little context: There's more than 40 million native Spanish speakers in the US, whose language has the same legal standing as English. That's more people than the entire state of California. More than ten million more than Texas.

Whoever assumes they're all "illegal" or "unwanted" immigrants should take a moment to reflect on why the cities of California have all these strange names like "Los Angeles" and "San Diego". They were there before the English speaking. And we all know who were there before them, making the whole "immigrant" argument kind of moot anyway.