If you want to learn Spanish in Barcelona, it’s quite possible that you have a few doubts.
You know that Barcelona is the capital of Catalona and you’ve seen those massive Catalonia Is Not Spain banners at major sporting events, so you might be wondering whether it’s a good idea to study Spanish in Barcelona.
The first thing to point out is that, despite having its own vibrant and sometimes militant identity, Catalonia is part of Spain … for the moment, at least.
Consequently, Castililian as the Spanish language is known here is one of the two official languages in Barcelona, along with Catalan.
This makes Barcelona a pretty exciting place linguistically as the majority of its inhabitants are bilingual, and from my 25 years in language teaching, I can testify that the Catalans in general are extremely good language learners.
Apart from anything else, I managed to learn Spanish in Barcelona, long before I became interested in Catalan.
Spanish Literature And Education In Barcelona
Furthermore, the Barcelona publishing industry is the largest in Spain because Barcelona doesn’t only publish books in Catalan but also publish as many, if not more books in Spanish than Madrid.
Barcelona is also home to some of Spain’s most prestigious universities. The Universidad de Barcelona, the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and the Universidad Pompeu Fabra are frequently the highest ranking universities in Spain according to Council of Europe figures.
Being such an education-oriented city also means that Barcelona is a magnet for Spanish teachers coming to take their ELE (Español como Lengua Extranjera) qualifications.
The Universidad de Barcelona offers a Master’s Degree in ELE and also supervises the month-long starter courses at IH Barcelona, widely recognised as one of the best ELE qualifications in Spain, but just one of many on offer in the Catalan capital.
So with so many Spanish teachers qualifying in the city, the standard of teaching is extremely high.
So where can you learn Spanish in Barcelona?
Escoles Oficials de Idiomes: The Escoles Oficials (EOIs) are Official Language Schools run by the Generalitat de Catalunya. Their main purpose is to teach the locals foreign languages but EOI Drassanes in the centre of town and EOI Vall d’Hebron at Barcelona’s main hospital offer Spanish courses in Barcelona for foreigners at very reasonable prices.
The Universities: The Universitat de Barcelona has on-campus language school called the Escola d’Idiomes Moderns and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has the on-campus Servei de Llengües and an off-campus service at Hospital Sant Pau, and all of these are excellent places to study Spanish in Barcelona.
Language Academies and Private Teachers: There are so many language academies and private teachers that it would be impossible to list them all here. However, I plan to create pages on the major language academies, and if you Register for the Forum, I’ll be happy to put you in contact with a private Spanish teacher.
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