‘Having new people speaking Catalan makes our debates much richer’

One of Barcelona’s most important social institutions, Ateneu Barcelonès, is offering new Catalan language courses, helping newcomers learn the local language “through the history, the culture, the society of our country,” as teacher David Jou tells Catalan News. 

During the last trimester of 2025, small groups of up to just 9 students will get intensive weekly classes of two hours with a personalized feel to become more integrated into Catalan society. 

The course comes with a membership to the Ateneu Barcelonès, a not-for-profit cultural association located in the city centre, which organizes some 50 activities monthly. 

David Jou proudly points to the example of one student students who learned Catalan through the course and went on to take part in various activities organized at the Ateneu Barcelonès. “I remember a Ukrainian student who joined a discussion on the Ukrainian war, and it was very interesting that, thanks to the fact that they can speak Catalan through the course, they can share their ideas.”

“I think the debates at the Ateneu Barcelonès are richer when the members are more diverse and we have the point of view of a person who is actually living these things,” Jou explains. “Having new people speaking Catalan and joining the institution is going to make the debates much richer.”

The classes are intentionally kept small because organizers “want you to participate actively in the classes,” David Jou told prospective students at an open doors session on Tuesday. Dozens attended two days of sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday to learn more about the courses and visit the Ateneu Barcelonès site. 

 

Organizers say that the Catalan courses on offer are “not the typical” language courses, as they aim to provide real-life social contexts to put the language use into practice. As the Ateneu Barcelonès contains a bar, restaurant, and garden terrace, in addition to putting on more than 50 cultural activities a month, the association provides plenty of opportunities to put the language learning into practice. 

Culture and events will be central to how the Ateneu Barcelonès will teach the language – “The city is our class,” Jou says.

The quarterly course costs €460 and includes the course book and necessary materials, as well as a three-month membership at the Ateneu, while an annual option is also available for €1,400 and a year’s membership at the cultural association. 

This is the second year that the ‘Club del Català’ is organized, but the first time that it’s an official part of the Ateneu Barcelonès.

So far, there are around nine groups of nine students, and the Ateneu is looking to expand the courses for the upcoming academic year. 

Jou says the students come from all walks of life, including waiters, illustrators, programmers, and architects; “we even had a tailor,” the teacher says.

“Most of them are people who already speak some other foreign languages, so they have had some practice, they have the background experience of learning languages, so the process of learning Catalan is very fast.”

For more information, check the Club del Català page on the Ateneu Barcelonès website.