Languages at the URV

Catalan and Spanish, URV languages

Catalan is the language used for institutional and administrative purposes. As far as teaching is concerned, the two official languages-Catalan and Spanish-are used. Lecturers have the right to choose in which language they express themselves and their choice must be respected.

The proximity between the Romance languages means that, in a relatively short time, students who already know one language can understand classes taught in Catalan. The fact that the Catalan used in teaching is scientific and technical makes understanding even easier. Even if a class is taught in Catalan, students are not required to use the language actively so they can intervene, take notes, write essays, do exams etc. in Catalan or Spanish, as they wish. And, on occasion, they may even be able to use English.

Learn Catalan before you come

• Intercat. Intercat is a compendium of electronic resources to learn Catalan language and culture. It has been designed mainly with the mobility students who visit Catalan universities in mind.
• Learn Catalan at universities around the world. You can learn Catalan at your university before you come to the URV.

Learn languages at the URV

• URV Language Service. Once you have arrived at the URV, the Language Service organizes a whole series of Catalan and Spanish courses for exchange students. At the URV, you can also study languages. The URV Language Service offers different levels of languages. Initial Catalan courses (A1 level) are free for exchange students and Spanish courses have a reduced price (€97 per course approx.). These courses, in addition to the other language courses (Chinese, Italian, French...), do not belong to any university study plan, as they are extracurricular, so you will not have to include them in your Academic Agreement or Learning Agreement nor will they appear on the certificate of grades that will be given to you at the end of the course. In order for you to be validated for credits at your home university, the Language Service will give you a diploma for each language course passed and with this diploma you must apply for credit recognition at your home university.

For further information write to infosl@urv.cat

Language tandem

The Language Learning Centre in the CRAI on Campus Catalunya has a list of people who are interested in taking part in language exchanges.

If you are interested in practising your language skills by talking with another student, you only need to fill in the URV Conversation Exchange form, and the Language Learning Center will get in touch with you as soon as they find a conversation partner that matches your profile.

For those of you who would rather get directly in contact with each other, there is an Intercanvis Lingüístics URV Facebook page available. Write a new post on that wall specifying your name, the languages you can offer and the ones you would like to practise. You can also comment on someone else's post or send them a private message in Facebook, in order to make arrangements and start your Tandem.

For questions or further information, please write to the Self-access Language Learning Centre specialist at the following email address: crai.espaillengues@urv.cat

SMiLE Programme

The SMILE program offers international students coming to study at URV the opportunity to do 40 hours of supervised teaching practice in local primary or secondary schools working in English, French or German. Enrolment in the program can count as a 6 ECTS subject.

SMiLE webpage

Advanced Spanish

The Center for Hispanic Studies of the URV offers Spanish language courses of 60 hours during one semester for levels B2 to C1. This Center is also running the official Examinations leading to the Diplomas in Spanish as a Foreign Language (DELE). Take advantage of the opportunity to obtain these official qualifications with recognition around the world.

Contact the Center for Hispanic Studies at ceh@urv.cat.