Christmas with Radishes, Anyone?

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Learning a language, Spanish

Advent markets, yule logs, mistletoe, gluhwein…and radishes? Christmas celebrations around the world are as varied and wonderful as the people and cultures who hold them, but there can be few traditions as exotic or unlikely as Mexico’s Noche de Rábanos, or Night of the Radishes.

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Tags: christmas, december, mexico, night of the radishes, noche de rabanos, oaxaca

Day of the Dead in Mexico: A Time to Celebrate

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Learning a language, Spanish

A unique and heart-warming tradition to look forward to in November
The Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, is not the morbid event it may at first appear: to the contrary, it is an uplifting fiesta, celebrated mainly in Mexico, to remember and pay tribute to friends and relatives who have died. It [...]

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Tags: day of the dead, dia de los muertos, mexico, morelia, november, oaxaca, spanish courses mexico

Where’s the best place to learn Spanish in Latin America?

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Learning a language, Spanish

Alex Wolfson, Latin America specialist at Cactus, ponders an inherently difficult question

Every day the Cactus Language Team receives many phone calls from our clients and potential clients. Most already know where they would like to take a language course because of a particular affection for a city, the desire to visit a specific place and [...]

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Tags: argentina, bolivia, chile, colombia, costa rica, cuba, dominican republic, latin america, mexico, panama, peru, spanish, spanish language course

Variations of Spanish in the World

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad

Alex Wolfson, Cactus Language Holiday Advisor, tells us why he embraces the differences in a language as he crosses borders

Thursday, for some reason or other, is usually the quietest day of the week in the Cactus Language team for new bookings, so it is a day when I usually dedicate time to reading and replying [...]

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Tags: argentina, chile, costa rica, mexico, peru, spanish

Cactus Language Success at Brighton Festival Fringe!

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Cactus Staff Opinion, Learning a language, News

Alex Wolfson reports back on our Cactus Language Evening in conjunction with Brighton Festival Fringe
I’m sitting at my desk with my hands shaking slightly and a slight pain in my temple after all the San Miguel I ended up drinking last night, but do not feel at all guilty about this because it was all down to the [...]

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Tags: brighton festival, language learning, mariachi, mexico

Spanish Language Guide: History, Usage & Variations of Spanish in the World

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Spanish

Sarah Gooding, Editor at Cactus, takes a look at the Spanish language
Spanish in the World Today
With some 400 million native speakers worldwide, and another 100 million speaking it as a second language, there can be no doubting the importance of Spanish as a global language.
In native speaker terms, only Mandarin Chinese has more speakers, yet [...]

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Tags: argentina, basque, castellano, catalan, colombia, cuba, galician, latin america, mexico, romance language, spain, spanish, valencian