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“Nowadays, being able to speak Chinese and English is pretty much compulsory in Hong Kong, so if you want to stand out you need to learn another language,” Cornado said. “Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, so if you have to pick an extra language, why not taking a Spanish course?”
He believes that Spanish has replaced French as the city’s most popular “extra” language.
Spanish Culture is also becoming more prevalent in Hong Kong as there are a lot more Spanish schools – as well as Spanish style restaurants - opening around the city. Two of the most well known Spanish learning centers and well-established are Spanish Tutors Hong Kong and the Spanish Cultural Association of Hong Kong.
“Most of [the company’s] success just came from word of mouth,” explained Cornado. “At first I just decided I wanted to become a full-time tutor, and then soon my students started recommending me and I had too many students to handle on my own. So I started the company and brought some more people on board and here we are.”
Now, Spanish Tutors has two full-fledged Spanish teaching centres – one in Tsim Sha Tsui and one in Causeway Bay, working in cooperation with the Spanish Cultural Association of Hong Kong has plans for a third in Central within the next couple of years.
“I have even had people tell me we should open a centre in ShenZhen – the interest to learn Spanish in the mainland is very high,” Cornado said. “But we rather focus in Hong Kong only and offer the best Spanish lessons we can in the city”
Cornado said one of the reasons why they are able to retain their students long term is the tightknit and highly personalised relationships between students and the teaching staff, which he described as being “like a family.”
“We have some tutors who are former Spanish teachers at international schools, who left because they prefer our more personal teaching relationships” Cornado explained. “Here, we only have spanish classes with one, two, three, at most five pupils. We can provide tailor made Spanish lessons for any type of student.”
Because many of the tutors are former IB teachers or DELE examiners, they are very familiar with the curriculum and know exactly what it takes to help students get top marks.
“We get some students who are pretty good at Spanish already and for them, we keep the lessons fun and we can be a bit more broad in what we teach them,” Cornado said. “If their level is really poor and they have an exam like the IGCSE or IB coming up, then we can focus on the key points and get them to score well in the exam, even if their Spanish is not that good.”
Cornado said Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn, especially to someone that can already speak English. With the help of a great teacher like those at Spanish Tutors and the Spanish Cultural Association, as well as enough hard work, new students can become passable at the language within a year if they take a regular Spanish course.
“Spanish is very easy to learn for several reasons – first, it’s very straightforward. Spanish always has the same vowel sounds, and every word is pronounced the same way. In French for example, you cannot guess how to pronounce a word once you see it, making it harder to learn and master.”
“Second, many of the words in Spanish are very intuitive if you know English. For example, the word ‘interesting’ is ‘interesante’, which is so straightforward. Many other words are like this.”
Still, Cornado and his colleagues do his best to keep the Spanish lessons “fun and interactive in a relaxed environment” – unless the students have an exam coming up – an approach that has been very successful so far.
“Learning a new language is a long-term project, so we do our best to teach in a way that is both effective and enjoyable. Students are more likely to want to continue learning Spanish if they are having fun.”
This approach has also been very effective in keeping the teachers long-term, something else which Cornado said separates his company from its competitors.
“Hong Kong is a very cosmopolitan city with a lot of expats that come and go, so it’s very hard to keep teachers long-term, especially in tutoring centres,” Cornado explained. “Unfortunately, this is also something that students hate the most – when their teachers that they have gotten used to suddenly leave.
“But our Spanish teachers all love it here because we are like a big family. We all know each other and have a very personal relationship with each other and we rarely have students or teachers quit, and I think that is the main reason we are so successful.”