Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, with more than 440 million speakers, ahead of English (378 million) and behind Mandarin (909 million). The potential and appeal of our language becomes evident in the important demand of students received by the academy UCAM Español Institute Dubai, which starts now a new academic year for children and adults.

Alberto Fernández, academic coordinator of this office of UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, highlights the great interest that our language raises in Dubai. Each new academic year it welcomes approximately eighty adults and forty children, in addition to teaching Spanish in seven schools. The origin of these students is very diverse: “Children of Spanish families who speak Spanish but need to improve their grammar and spelling, and children of various nationalities who learn our language because their parents think it could be important for their future. With regard to adults, there is a great variety of nationalities and origins, such as Egypt, Lebanon, Europe, America or Australia”.

Like their origins, the reasons that led the inhabitants of Dubai to study Spanish are varied: “There are people who want to work or study in South America or Spain, but some of them listened to Spanish-language music and want to know the lyrics of the songs, and some people even have a Spanish partner and want to learn his/her language. We are the only centre accredited by the Instituto Cervantes in the entire Persian Gulf and we perform the official DELE and CCSE tests, so we welcome a lot of students who are interested in passing these exams to obtain the official certificate”.