Mossel Bay’s new language training centre was introduced an open day at The Point Hotel on April 9.

The University of Buenos Aires Language Centre (CUI) has teamed up with local company Armiger, which will administer the courses, to train locals in Spanish, and later also in Portuguese, Italian and French. “Depending on which sources you’re reading, Spanish is considered either the second- or third-most-spoken language on the planet – after Mandarin and Hindi,” said Louis Harris, Mossel Bay’s Co-ordinator for 2010, who facilitated the establishment of the Academy in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup. It’s also definitely one of the top three languages on the Internet, which makes it one of the most important of the so-called FIFA languages, and Mossel Bay is proud to have taken the lead in beginning to train our hospitality, emergency and other personnel to speak, read and write it.” Harris said the short-term goal of the academy was to make South Africa’s guests welcome during the World Cup. “The long-term vision is to prepare South Africans for doing business with more than 400 million Spanish speakers throughout the world and to give them an exportable skill that will make them sought after in the international work force well into the future.” Courses will take place in the classrooms of Milkwood Primary School at The Point and student numbers are already climbing rapidly. Rates are reasonable and employers will be able to reclaim the cost of tuition from their SETAs. “Everyone who expects to deal with visitors, officials and players during 2010 should enrol for these courses,” said Harris. “This includes all front-of-house staff as well as emergency personnel, shopkeepers and others. Lectures will begin on April 20. Registration forms are available on the Armiger web site – www.armiger.biz – or from Mossel Bay Tourism.