Spanish language course

Recently I joined a French course at the French Cultural Center. The course fee per semester was Rp 400,000. One semester is about four months, so costs about Rp 100,000 a month. This means it is inexpensive and affordable, particularly for students.

Judging from the course fee and the facilities available, i.e. a library and cinema, the French government must subsidize its cultural center and, therefore, makes French language teaching available as cheaply as possible and for as many language learners as possible.

The German Embassy has the Goethe Institute, which runs German classes. Although the course fee is higher than that of the French Cultural Center, at least language learners know where to go to learn German and feel that they go to the right place.

I have checked that the Japanese and Dutch embassies also have cultural centers and run language classes with reasonable fees.

Unlike the French Embassy, with its French Cultural Center, and the other embassies mentioned above, the Spanish Embassy does not run Spanish class. It is such a pity considering that 250 million people worldwide speak Spanish (fourth after English, with has 1,400 million speakers, Chinese 1,100 million and Hindi 700 million). Why doesn't the Spanish government introduce and familiarize the Spanish language in Indonesia? Language learners who wish to learn Spanish are forced to join Spanish classes in courses which are rarely available and sometimes very expensive and with unqualified instructors.

It is hoped that the Spanish Embassy will open Spanish classes in the near future. I am sure that a lot of Indonesians want to learn the language.

ADRIANUS HIYUNG TJUNG

Jakarta