The Common Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages developed by the Council of Europe, an international standard and common basis for foreign language education, organises language proficiency in six levels, A1 to C2, which can be regrouped into three broad levels: basic user (A1 and A2), independent user (B1 and B2) and proficient user (C1 and C2). The levels are defined through ‘can-do’ descriptors which specify progressive mastery of each skill, which is graded on a six-level scale as mentioned before: A1 (60 hours), A2 (90 hours), B1 (120 hours), B2 (150 hours), C1 (180 hours) and C2 (210 hours). All in all, based on the minimum number of hours suggested by the Instituto Cervantes for each level (shown above, although the total duration of each level depends also on the actual capacities of each student and type of course selected), at least 810 hours are recommended for a student to go all the way from absolute beginner to reach and complete the C2 level. Contents of our courses are carefully planned based on the CEFR, but can be flexible in terms of duration, that is, we do not ask students to keep up with the pace we determine, but the opposite: teachers adjust to the capacities of each group. This means that, although we do know perfectly well what the starting point and the goals of the course are, we cannot be certain of how each group will eventually progress nor of how far they will actually get.

There is no need to worry about the exact starting level when students sign up, just need to let us know what they expect it to be by the time their course starts if they have an approximate idea. Everyone is required to take a test (unless they are absolute beginners) once enrolled and before their course starts which will assist us in assessing their learning requirements and class timetable. It is a two-part evaluation: one (written) which is done online between 30 and 10 days ahead and takes no more than a few minutes and another (spoken) on the first day of class, before starting (around 15 minutes ahead) and if considered necessary by our academic team. Remember that students may change level as many times as considered appropriate (for instance, if they find it too difficult).

Absolute beginners are learners which have had no or very little instruction. There are plenty of resources available to people interested in learning a new language such as apps, music, series, films, books and podcasts, which means that the majority of students nowadays have had some previous exposure to Spanish before starting a course. Knowing some expressions or vocabulary (even quite a decent amount of words), but having no conversational experience in real situations (other than, maybe, ordering in a bar or getting by in similar situations), may not qualify as being an advanced beginner. Starting from the very beginning does not mean spending hours learning and practising the alphabet before actually getting down to work. Even most false beginners, that is, learners who have studied Spanish before (in school, maybe, often for a number of years, but never acquired any real grasp of the language, and who usually pick up speed as they remember past lessons) may, in fact, benefit from starting from zero to build a solid basis. Remember that classes are conducted monolingually in Spanish without the use of the students’ own languages, even with absolute beginners: students will start talking from minute one : )