Part time 10-week courses:

• Our 10-week courses are well established and extremely popular and are ideal for those who prefer to study less intensively, have long term aims for work or personal reasons or are simply studying for fun.
• Our 10-week courses are 20 hour courses. Studying from 18.30 - 20.30 one evening per week can fit into everybody's schedule.
• These classes are a great opportunity to get to know the language in depth and your class mates and teacher as well.

Fast Track 5-week courses:

• These courses are perfect if you prefer a more intensive learning experience or have only a few weeks before a trip abroad.
• Our 5-week courses are 20 hour courses, with classes two evenings per week from 18.30 - 20.30 so you can really immerse yourself in the language in your spare time.
• This course is a great way to build confidence before using the language more frequently at work, socially or when jetting off on holiday, a gap year or business trip.

1-week Intensive Courses:

• These courses are ideal for people looking for a quick intensive language boost, as an introduction, refresher or targeted preparation to achieve fast results.
• Our intensive courses are 15 hour courses, taught over one week, Mon-Fri, for an intensive immersion in the language.
• This course offers fast results and similar benefits to full immersion abroad, making it ideal for targeted preparation in a short time, ahead of a trip abroad for example.

Weekend Crash Courses:

• Our weekend crash courses are ideal for a language refresher or for first time learners who want to get a feel for the language in a short space of time.
• The course is 10 hours long and will span over two consecutive Saturdays (10.30-16.30) so you won't have to give up your whole weekend or week nights to do it.
• This course is ideal if you don't have much time to spare before your travels or are simply interested in doing something different for a couple of weekends.

All our courses are:

• Friendly and great for meeting people!
• Fun, interactive and stimulating!
• Extremely good value for money!

Academically they all:

• Cover the grammar and structure of the language as well as focusing on speaking and listening
• Are taught by fully qualified teachers who are native speakers or bilingual
• Are directed by the Academic team here at Cactus

The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover over a 10-week period, and include typical themes, grammar and vocabulary fields. They are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers may decide to adapt their learning plans to the specific level, aims and interests of their classes.

• Business
• Arabic
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Chinese (Cantonese)
• Croatian
• Czech
• Dutch
• English
• French
• German
• Greek
• Italian
• Japanese
• Polish
• Portuguese Brazilian
• Portuguese European
• Russian
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Thai
• Turkish

The course you take depends on a variety of factors, such as:

• your current level in the language
• the level you wish to reach
• the amount of time you have in which to learn the language
• your budget
• your location

Use the guide above for a quick overview of the different course types, then click on your preferred course for availability, locations and full course details.

All our group courses are academically sound and promote long term aims with the language. The teaching is communicative, challenging, interactive, fun, and engages and stretches our students.

Our teachers are qualified and experienced language trainers, and are all native or bilingual speakers. They have been interviewed by our full time Academic Team, and have had their references followed up. We assign classes according to the strengths of our teachers and work with them to ensure the quality of course delivery is excellent at all times. We have also introduced a comprehensive Teacher Development Programme at Cactus, which incorporates a range of seminars, classroom observations, same-language teacher forums, regular newsletters, and information on methodology and hands-on teaching techniques. Our teaching philosophy is based on looking at ideas, asking questions, and meeting challenge.

Our courses are monitored throughout. Feedback is gathered from you by online questionnaires and acted upon by Cactus wherever appropriate. Teachers are consulted and provide direct input into course syllabuses and materials. By learning with Cactus, you enter an ongoing dialogue between you, your teacher, and us. We aim to provide a clear learning pathway and ensure you make real progress in the language of your choice.

Cactus need a minimum of 4 students to run a course. In the event that we do not have enough students to run your class at your chosen centre, we may ask you to move to another centre as close as possible to your chosen location, to join a class that is definitely running. We will email / telephone you to inform you of this.