earning a new language is an everyday commitment – but that doesn’t mean the students and teachers can’t take a breath and celebrate their accomplishments along the way.
Key Languages, which has taught hundreds of Key Biscayne residents and other South Floridians Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian and English since opening in 2003, will do just that Friday to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.
Owner Cassia Silva plans a champagne and jazz reception at the school, located at 800 Crandon Boulevard, Suite 101, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, May 17. Silva is inviting past and present teachers and students, and all residents are welcome to stop by to help them celebrate.
“With learning a language, it’s an everyday thing,” Silva said. “The celebration is just a moment to stop to take a breath and be happy the business is moving forward.”
And moving forward it is.
Key Languages started offering private adult lessons 10 years ago, and since then has expanded to include a thriving youth program and classes for corporate clients.
“At first we didn’t have a children’s program. Now we have a very strong program after school,” said Silva. “We have students as young as 6, up to 15 or 16. It’s a wide range.”
Silva and the other five teachers at Key Languages have also embraced corporate lessons, a part of the business Silva hopes to expand in the future.
They also continue to offer private lessons for adults.
Through it all, Silva has heard plenty of reasons for wanting to learn a new language: for adults, it’s often travel-related; corporate clients typically do business overseas and need their employees to be comfortable communicating in other tongues – for example, Silva said, Brazil is a major growth area right now, so she has a lot of corporate students learning Portuguese.
As for kids, Silva sees two types of students:
“They either want to learn a foreign language, or it’s a heritage language – the parents speak the language at home, and the kids need to improve or learn how to write,” she explained.
Though most lessons are private, Silva encourages group work: “It’s more fun for the student and also for the teachers,” she explained. “People enjoy having someone to interact with.”
Silva has found Key Biscayne to be a rich source of students.
She noted the island’s proximity to Miami’s Brickell business district brings in a lot of corporate clients, and many Key residents travel abroad frequently, opening their minds to learning new languages. And, of course, the Village’s population is nothing if not multicultural: along with a strong South American presence, the Key is home to numerous Europeans, Silva said.
“It’s been a great place, because of the type of community we have here,” she said.
With that in mind, Silva looks forward to continuing to bring the gift of language to the Key.
After taking that pause to celebrate10 years of business, she said she looks forward to the day-to-day commitment of helping students become multilingual, which for Key Languages means staying up-to-date on the latest educational tools.
“Everything changes – technology changes; our society changes,” she said. “We have to keep up with those things. Our plan is to always be up-to-date.”
That’s especially true in terms of technology, said Silva, who started her company by offering lessons using computer software students had to use at a lab – but now provides materials that learners can access anywhere simply by opening their web browser.
Silva said as Key Languages looks forward to the next 10 years – and the decades after that – she will continue to embrace the tools students need to expand their horizons.
“We use language to talk to people – the technology is a tool that makes that easier,” she said.