Course completed: In Pakistan, football makes Spanish language popular

Argentinean embassy offered the programme in October 2013.

ISLAMABAD:

Bilal Kayani first developed interest in learning the Spanish language because of Spain’s La Liga football.

“I used to read football web pages written in Spanish after translating them (to English) with Google Translate,” he said, with a wide fanboy grin on his face.

His first learning contact with Spanish was during his student days in England between 2004 and 2007. Now, Kayani, who is the Director of a UK-based charity in Islamabad, can speak Spanish quite fluently and probably read those Spanish football websites directly, thanks to a six-month language course offered by the Embassy of Argentina.

On Thursday evening, the Ambassador of Argentina to Pakistan Rodolfo Martin Saravia congratulated Kayani, nine other candidates and some embassy staffers who completed the Spanish language course, at a ceremony held at the embassy. The ambassador also awarded the candidates certificates for successful completion of the course.

Addressing the course participants in Spanish, Saravia said Spanish was an important world language. He said Spanish was an important tool for people who want to travel to or work in the Spanish-speaking countries.

According to some estimates, Spanish is the official language in around 20 countries, it is one of the six official UN languages and was learned widely as a second-language in countries around the world.

Ali Iqtedar Shah, a telecom professional who also completed the course, agreed with Saravia and said Spanish is spoken in over 60 countries. Even though Shah was learning Spanish as a hobby, he said he realized it might help him with job opportunities in Europe and South America.

Saravia said the objective of the course was to improve Spanish language knowledge in Pakistan as the foremost tool of cooperation as well as being an instrument for better economic, political and cultural bilateral relations.

The October 2013 course was the second time the embassy offered the Spanish language course. Saravia announced the embassy will offer a third course beginning in October 2014. One of the two instructors, who taught the course, Mercedes Checa, said Spanish was easier to learn than some other languages because its written words mostly have phonetic pronunciation.

She said the course has provided the students with a beginners’ understanding of conversational Spanish and grammar which they can build on in the future.

The students also sang a Spanish song in chorus and the ceremony concluded with the screening of a 2013 Argentine movie “Corazon de Leon.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2014.