Catalan Lessons in Berlin and Online
Levels: A1–C2 · Format: Online / In-person Berlin
Private Catalan lessons for adults, all levels from complete beginner (A1) to fluent (C2). Taught by a native speaker born and raised in Barcelona, based in Berlin. Lessons run online (worldwide) or in person in Berlin.
Catalan tutors are genuinely rare outside Catalonia, if you've tried to find one before, you already know this. That scarcity is exactly why this page exists: to make it easy for you to actually find someone who teaches it properly.
Why learn Catalan with me
My father wasn't allowed to learn Catalan in school. That was Franco's Spain, when the language was pushed out of classrooms and public life. He didn't properly learn it until he had my sister, and kept improving alongside me as a baby, until Catalan became the main language of our house.
I grew up in El Poble Sec, a Barcelona neighborhood once full of impremtes, print shops. My grandfather ran one of them. Words became the family trade from there: my mother is an editor, my aunts are philologists.
That trade came from somewhere. My great-grandmother's side arrived from Galicia, by way of Cuba, before settling in Barcelona. My father's side came from rural Aragón, part of the 19th-century migrations that brought people from the countryside into the growing city, and they settled in Sarrià. Galician speakers, Aragonese speakers, all of them ended up learning Catalan, layer by layer, generation by generation.
So Catalan was never the pure or only language in my house. It doesn't need to be that for you either. You're not replacing Spanish. You're adding a layer, the way my own family did, generation after generation.
What lessons look like
- 1:1, tailored to your level and goals (conversation, exams, moving to Catalonia, family or heritage learning)
- Online via video call, or in person in Berlin
- All levels, A1 through C2
Frequently asked questions
Is Catalan hard to learn if I already speak Spanish?
No, not especially, and speaking Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, or even Romanian gives you a real head start, especially with vocabulary and basic sentence structure. The harder part comes later, usually around B1 to B2, when you're trying to stop Catalan sounding like Spanish with different words. That's not a sign you're doing something wrong. It means your brain has built strong connections between the languages, and now we work together on separating them, so your pronunciation, verb patterns, and word choice become genuinely Catalan instead of translated Spanish.
Is Catalan the same as Spanish?
No. Catalan is its own Romance language, with its own grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, regulated by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC) since 1907, the same way Spanish is regulated by the Real Academia Española. Catalan actually developed alongside Occitan, which is why some features, like certain vowel sounds and vocabulary, sit closer to French than to Spanish. Around 10 million people speak or understand it, mainly in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and Andorra, where it's the official language.
Can I learn Catalan online from anywhere?
Yes. All lessons run online via video call, so you can learn Catalan from anywhere in the world, as well as in person if you're based in Berlin.
Do I need to already speak Spanish to learn Catalan?
No. You can start Catalan from zero, regardless of whether you speak Spanish. I can support you in English, German, or a bit of French if you need explanations in another language, but I also use methods that don't rely on a shared language at all, which some students prefer from the start.
How long does it take to become conversational in Catalan?
Most motivated adult students reach basic conversational ability (A2 to B1) in three to six months with regular weekly lessons, faster if you already speak Spanish, French, Italian, or Portuguese. Reaching a comfortable B2, enough to hold work meetings or follow a conversation among native speakers, usually takes twelve to eighteen months. The two biggest factors are consistency (weekly lessons beat sporadic ones by a wide margin) and how much Catalan you're exposed to outside of class, listening to Catalan radio or TV, reading signs, trying to speak it in shops. As we say in Catalan, poc a poc i bona lletra, step by step, and with care. I'll give you a realistic timeline based on your starting point and goals in our first session.