Spanish Lessons

Casa Latina Academy is not only the first stop for all prospective students wanting to learn Spanish, but also a home-away-from-home for many native Spanish expats that would like to gather and hear their beautiful language spoken. We have been nicknamed the 2nd Spanish Embassy and everyone is welcome !

The native Spanish community in Cape Town is relatively small, but Cape Town is one of the most sought after and preferred Spanish language learning destinations in the world.

Spanish courses and lessons in Cape Town has increased by a massive 38% in 2019 compared to previous years. The main reasons being; Spanish is much more affordable to learn in Cape Town, compared to other cities or countries in the world. We are also fortunate to have some of the best Spanish teachers in the world. In addition to this, we teach various recognised international – as well as locally approved Spanish curriculums – as set out by the Department of Education.

Travel to and from Spanish speaking countries are much more affordable than in previous years with many more airlines, including South American airlines opening routes between South Africa and South America & Europe, bring the cost down from the only airline (SAA) who had the monopoly on these routes and charged exorbitant fees.

The demand to learn the Spanish language has increased even further with many families relocating to Latin America and Spain.

Spanish is classified as one of the Romance languages, and due to the affordability and easy accessibility to Spanish speaking countries, we have found this term to be quite literal in that romance are blossoming between locals and Spanish speakers. Over 25% of our students are studying the language because they have a Spanish partner. The whole family, including abuela (grandma) soon follows suit.

Learning a foreign language in a country where it is rarely spoken, is extremely effective and it is a myth that it is best learned in a country where it is spoken. This is quite a bold statement – but proven. Yes – indeed it is best to be surrounded by the language and to be stimulated by it. Research have however shown that if you don’t have a good base to work from, you can live in a Spanish speaking country for years and will never pick up the language, as it will be purely “noise” to your brain.

For this reason, and with our unique teaching methodology, we encourage our students to not only emerge themselves in our accredited course material, but also use all their senses by surrounding themselves by the language in the form of stimulants such as music. Note: Applications is not recommended for students at a Beginners level.

The Spanish language is all about pronunciation and to unlearn bad habits and incorrect teaching, takes our teachers weeks – to sometimes months – before a student can join a group which they wont distract.

Here are some interesting facts regarding the Spanish language: 

• Spanish is one of the oldest languages in the world

Spanish was developed from a specific type of spoken Latin. Originally this dialect had its origin in the central-northern region of the Iberian Peninsula after the demise of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. In the last thousand years, Spanish spread towards the Mediterranean, after which it is was adopted by the Spanish Empire – as well as the Americas (mostly due to colonization). The first Spanish texts were written – as long ago – as 974 and is still in existence to this day.

• What is a phonetic language?

Spanish is a phonetic language. This basically means that when you speak Spanish, you pronounce each letter individually. In addition to this – each letter in the Spanish alphabet has a particular sound.  Don’t be alarmed. The Spanish alphabet is very similar to the English alphabet. (A-Z). There are only a few differences. The main one being that a “V” is pronounced as a “B” – but pronounced “B” “E”. a Big plus to this, is that you will vary rarely make any spelling mistakes.

• Spanish is the official language of 21 countries

Besides Spanish being spoken as a first language in 21 countries all over the world (mainly South and North America, Europe and Africa) – it is also the referred to language for all the areas dependent on these countries. So the net is even further spread. Spanish is also adopted by the United nations as well as many International organisations and huge companies as their official language. Currently there are almost 600 million people speaking Spanish and – according to research – this number will increase with another 200 million in the next 40 years.

• There are two names for Spanish.

Spanish is referred to as Castellano and Español. The Spanish (from Spain) refers to the language as Castilian. This a very historic dialect of Spanish, which is mainly spoken inland as well as the north of Spain. We can almost call this the Shakespear of Spanish. The general Spanish spoken in Spain as well as Latin-American Spanish have very little differences.

• Spanish is in demand

Research have shown that using Spanish on internet searches have risen with more than 750% in the past few years. in the next few years, 10 – 12% of the worlds entire population will be fluent in Spanish, where the current percentage is around 5%.