Spanish Group

[ronsat]

In 2012 I went to Nicaragua. I spent two weeks in Granada at the Nicaragua Mia School ( http://www.spanisheducatenicaraguamia.com/ ) and a week at the Metropolis School in Leon.

In each of these schools the normal schedule was 4 hours of one-on-one classes in the morning - and some activity (cultural visit) in the afternoon.

The Nicaragua Mia school in Granada was great. They put effort and planning into their afternoon activities. I was happy with my teacher - as were the other students. And the homestay was good. In my case, my Spanish was good enough to focus on conversation practice - and the classes were interesting - and we had very candid conversations about Nicaraguan culture (and systemic corruption). The teacher did, however, introduce grammar topics - but at a level suitable to my ability.

The school in Leon wasn't quite at the same level. The teacher I had for several days was really good - pushed me to talk a lot. However, the organization level wasn't up to scratch. Part of the problem was that, at the time, there were only a couple of students, and so it was hard to organize the activities in a way that made economic sense.

Nicaragua itself was friendly and easy to get around on local buses. Not a lot to do or see compared to previous trips to Quito Ecuador and Arequipa Peru, but interesting nonetheless. My main problem was with the heat. 35C and humid every day - and certainly no air conditioning anywhere.

[ronsat]

In 2013 it was Colombia. I spent one week in Leticia and two weeks Medellin. First the review of The Amazon Spanish School in Leticia

Leticia is on the Amazon - on the border of Brazil, and Peru is across the river. You can only get to Leticia by boat or plane - so it is isolated - and also fascinating.

This isn't the place to go for your 6 month immersion program to really nail down Spanish - too epxensive - but it is a really interesting place to go for 1-3 weeks that combines a good language school with a great learning experience.

Alejandra, runs the school out of a hotel that she also runs - The Amazon B&B. The hotel is somewhat similar to a small Caribbean resort - but with simply incredible service to help you feel at home and select the right tours to go on - all in Spanish - though Alejandra does speak English, Swedish and some French. Have a look at the TripAdvisor comments to see the universal praise for how Alejandra makes each visit interesting.

My teacher was good, competent, patient with a clear love for the Spanish language. As in previous years, the courses concentrated on conversation, but she introduced lessons to address faults that I was making frequently.

It is more expensive than schools in Peru or Ecuador - but then Colombia is a more expensive/developed country - and the experience of seeing the Amazon wildlife and the indigenous settlements is well worth it.

I won't bother with a review of the two weeks in Medellin - since that school seems to have disappeared off the face of the Internet.

[ronsat]

In both 2014 and 2016 I spent a couple of weeks in Antigua. This is the place for inexpensive language courses. The complete package - four hours of one-on-one courses, afternoon activity, plus homestay with three meals per day runs around $300 per week. You can go cheaper if you have fewer hours or group classes. And you can get relatively cheap flights from Toronto to Guatemala City.

In 2014, I went to Don Pedro for 3 weeks - http://www.donpedrospanishschool.com/ . This was the largest school I went to - with about 40 students at the time I was there. They only offer one-on-one classes and I and the other students were pleased with the quality of teaching. Since I was focused on conversational practice, I can't talk about how they would be at teaching grammar or preparing you for Spanish proficiency exams - but was told that Tecan Uman (see below) was better for that.

What I liked about Don Pedro was the additional activities. They arranged weekly meals with people from neighbouring villages and receptions to get to know the other students. And since, when I was there, most of the students were independent (as opposed to being part of a school group) - they were very interesting and fun to meet.

Last year I went to Tecun Uman - http://www.tecunumanschool.com/ - for a couple of weeks. Used the same homestay as with Don Pedro - as it was a great environment with 8 rooms for 8 students, each with an ensuite. The teaching was good- conversational with grammar lessons introduced in response to problems in my Spanish. While the afternoon activities interesting, there was only one other independent student. The other students were members of high school or college groups - and would stick together. So socially, it wasn't as interesting as the other schools. Of course, this situation can change dramatically from one week to the next.

[FrannieB]

I will jump in and add - I also prefer to do short bursts of immersion and home study at home. About a year ago I took a class and it was kinda crazy expensive - somehow I got in my mind I could travel and study for the cost of classes. Thus my began the last incredible year and ronsat I am thankful for the link to Peru - On my list for a January or February trip depending on ticket prices.

My way of getting to central America in a round about way. I live in MN where the cost is ridiculous to fly. I have found by flying to Chicago on a separate flight and booking my flight from Chicago I can usually get where I want for about half the price - it does include 2 stops, however from Minnesota there very few direct flights unless you're going to Mexico.

Last summer 2016 I studied in Habla Ya Panama for 4 weeks:
2 weeks at their Panama City campus
1 week at their Boquete Campus
1 week at their Boca del Toro Campus

It was a good school - they have their own workbook series and you spend about 3 weeks on a level. You get writing, reading and speaking practice. All my teachers were wonderful. I would say I really got the basics down from my lessons, however being in a class setting with up 5 other people wasn't the best for my learning style. Also lots of young folks in Boca - I didn't get lots of homework so 4 hours of class was what you got unless you did additional studies on your own. Most people took some 1-on-1 lessons during the week.
I would return to Panama or Boquete - not so much Boca's great memories but not the town for me. The teachers at all the sites were great and go out of their way to make sure everyone is included in a group, the lead lots of great activities that lots of people attend.

December 2016 - Family vacation in Tulum - this is a place I would like to study one day - got lots and lots of speaking practice in.

March of 2017 - Guatemala - Sol Latino http://www.spanishschoolsollatino.com/en/index.php In quetzal - did a homestay - loved my teacher - homestay was okay. Loved quetzal. My teacher was amazing many people make great progress at Sol Latino. Several people had been to other schools and come to Sol Latino because they had been disappointed. I did 5 hours of language learning a day - I probably touched intermediate for a day and then I returned home and wasn't immersed enough. They do many activities the afternoon, however, I was there was a large group medical students who were learning Spanish who had been there for a bit. So, I really didn't connect with people like I did at Habla Ya. I'm sure it would be different if I wasn't with the large group of medical students.

June 2017 - Guatemala - I am going to San Pedro in Antigua - I visited Antigua for a weekend and fell in love hard - so I'm going back for two weeks.
This time - I have done a ridiculous amount of studying before I go to get as much grammar down as I can so it can be mostly about conversation practice.

On the short list:
Ecuador
Honduras - on this trip I was going to study for a week in Honduras but decided I wanted to just stay at one school
Return to Boquete Panama

Hope this helps someone else

[BOLIO]

I may not invoke this for some time, but since we are on the topic of international travel (I love the idea of short immersion bursts as ronsat described), I like the idea of planting seeds and planning far in advance of actual need. I live in an ideal city (Houston) both for international travel and Spanish immersion. We have two major airports, IAH and Hobby. For those of you who have done it, where would you go for Spanish immersion if you were in my shoes? Given my proximity to Mexico, that is a very real option (both via car and airways). My local friends give me very mixed responses about traveling in Mexico now. Some of them flat out tell me not to risk it due to dangerous times though they may be speaking of their specific region. Others are more optimistic and encouraging. I am a tall 30 something white gringo that definitely would not blend in. I have traveled to Costa Rica once before and stayed in San Jose for one week (great experience but it was dangerous). I may not have strong language wanderlust but I am prone to exploring and enjoying a city on foot (alone). San Jose is/was a very dangerous city in that respect and I'd like to plan for a safer experience going forward.

I have a strong feeling that I may just sit back and listen to answers to ronsat's question as spending time in language immersion schools sounds like a fantastic option.

I know this is a bit dated and have zero knowledge of any language schools in the Cancun area. But you and I live in the same area and I just found this really cheap flight to Cancun out of IAH. $207

http://m.momondo.com/results?cur=USD&o= ... ops=direct

I paid quite a bit more for mine as we just returned from Isla Mujeres. Anyway, the schools sound like fun and I would look into Guanajuato (Very beautiful), San Miguel de Allende and San Cristobal de las Casas. The only problem with the first two is, there are MANY English speakers there.

All the best,

BOLIO

[iguanamon]

Many times a lot of information gets hidden in member's logs that not everyone sees. So, I want to point out that member kunsttyv has a new log discussing Spanish language cinema. Well worth dropping by to read!

[jsmith12]

I'm trying to find somebody (or a few somebodys) who would like to form a Spanish reading club. I posted in the Solo Español forum, but I thought I'd post again here to make sure people see it. Link below.

https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6026

[kunsttyv]

So far in my Spanish journey I have done nothing but to listen listen listen all the time. Even when I've been reading, I've been listening along (audiobooks, courses). But what if my listening comprehension could be even better if I propped it up with more vocabulary from reading? Hearing blaurebell say that her French listening is better than her Spanish due to more intensive reading made me worried. So I installed Learning with Texts (LWT) on my NAS and have started to read intensively, blaurebell style. Why not? After all, reading is what I wanted to get out of learning Spanish to begin with.

I've been reading Niebla by Miguel de Unamuno and I'm shocked by my lack of comprehension, that is to say lack of precision. When I've been reading (and listening) earlier I have been thinking that I understand most of what I read. Turns out I was leaning too heavily on context, and now that I really have to write down the meaning of new words I encounter I see that I don't really understand shit.

How healthy to be torn down from my pedestal once in a while, to have my confidence shattered.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to the genius who single-handedly wrote this great program. It's full of useful features and has been working flawlessly so far. I set up LWT with WordReference as the primary dictionary and Forvo as the secondary in case I want to hear the words spoken. I like that in the full screen mode in Chrome it's really a fully integrated distraction-less environment for intensive reading. No need to leave the page. And since I set it up on my NAS, it's available on all my devices.

[the1whoknocks]

Kunsttyv, your thoughts resemble the ones I had after reading one of blaurebell’s latest log updates. Do you plan on reviewing the words after you write them down, or will it be enough to just become familiar with their definition and wait until they’re encountered again?

Funny, not so funny story, regarding listening comprehension and context:

About two days ago and three co-workers and I were chatting in Spanish. To excuse himself, one of the guys said, “manaña nos vemos,” or so I thought. So I broke conversation and responded, “cuidate, nos vemos.” One of the other guys looks at me surprised, and in Spanish asked, “did you understand what he said?” I assured him that I did, although I thought something was off. Well, turns out the first co-worker said, “manaña nos wachamos.” Had that not been pointed out, I would have gone the rest of my life without knowing that.

Before then, we had been talking about the prevalence of Spanglish among some in Mexico … so it’s natural that one of the other guys drew my attention to what was said. Now, I’m not sure why I heard “manaña nos vemos.” Only three words, and I mis-heard them. This, from someone who spent a fair amount of time doing transcriptions early on. It could have been a fluke, but precision is something I can work on. What has become clear, after this experience and trying to read more complex works, is that I too would do well reading a few books intensively. I'm going to give it a try, but probably with different tools.

Speaking of listening, I stumbled on a site with well written reviews of a good selection of telenovelas . I share author’s take on the few telenovelas that I’ve watched. Pity it doesn’t have a more active community, that would make it even better.

EDIT: Spelling

[kunsttyv]

Do you plan on reviewing the words after you write them down, or will it be enough to just become familiar with their definition and wait until they’re encountered again?

Last one. The way it works is that you'll write down the definition of unknown words the first time you encounter them, along with a difficulty rating. The next time you see the same word form (it could be in any text), it will come with a color coding corresponding to the level of difficulty you gave it. If you know it better this time around you can adjust the difficulty, until you eventually mark it as "known".

This way we don't need to review words, we can just read on, because the words will appear again and again later on, and if they don't, they are probably not very important.

Check out blaurebell's awesome guide. It should be the canonical introduction to LWT around here.