The Diplomat in Spain

The Diplomat

The ambassadors and honorary consuls of the Spanish-speaking countries accredited in Angola attended the celebration of International Book Day and the Spanish language on the 23rd at the Crystal School, in Talatona.

Along with the Spanish ambassador in Luanda, Manuel Lejarreta, the diplomatic representatives of Argentina, Cuba, Spain, Equatorial Guinea, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico and Uruguay attended.

Present at the event were the teachers and more than 400 students of the Crystal school, which is the only Spanish school in Angola.

After a few words of welcome and gratitude from the director of the center, all the ambassadors, along with some teachers and students, proceeded to read several extracts from “Don Quixote”, a masterpiece of universal literature in Spanish by Miguel de Cervantes.

Next, the diplomatic representatives gave brief speeches and read outstanding works by writers from their respective countries of origin. The event concluded with the presentation of prizes and gifts.

The Crystal school, belonging to the Arenales foundation, is the only Spanish school in Angola and has become an educational reference in this country for the promotion of our language. In recent years it has been established as an examination center for the Spanish Language Teaching Diploma (DELE) and work is being done on the creation of an extension of the Cervantes Institute of Dakar in the school.

In November of last year, a training course on teaching Spanish as a foreign language was held at the school aimed at Angolan teachers. The course was taught by Spanish teachers from the Cervantes Institute in Dakar within the framework of the ELE (Spanish as a Foreign Language) program with the aim of training Spanish teachers in new technologies, methodology and latest advances in language teaching.

With the celebration of the commemorative event last Tuesday, the aim is to promote in Angola the knowledge of the Spanish language, which is part of the common linguistic and cultural heritage of the countries of the Spanish-speaking community.

The Spanish language, a global language spoken by more than 500 million people and the world’s second mother tongue by number of speakers, is official in 20 countries and more than 23 million students study Spanish as a foreign language in 2023. In addition, it is already the third language in which most scientific texts are published.

These data reflect that the Spanish language is one of the great assets in global communication and with a growing trend. Portuguese is also a language with great global projection while, together with Spanish, it represents a block of almost 800 million people, approximately 10% of the world population. Spanish and Portuguese are the two largest languages on a global scale with the greatest linguistic proximity.