BDA shorts
Jul 28, 12, 3:36 pm
Every once in a while there are messages here and elsewhere about people wanting to study Spanish in Latin America, asking where they should do so. As a data point, I'd like to give a review of my experience at Academia Latinoamericana de Español (http://www.latinoschool.com) in Quito, Ecuador. I studied there for five weeks in June and July.
My situation:
I needed to wait for a new work visa to process, but I didn't know how long it would take. The best estimate I could get was between two and eight weeks, and I would need to return to my home in the Caribbean and start working very quickly after the visa came through. I've gotten "travel for the sake of traveling" out of my system recently so I wanted to do something else. Learning Spanish seemed to make sense as a good use of my time.
Before I left I already had the basics of Spanish down.
Why I originally chose this school:
I was trying to avoid the Central American "meccas" of Spanish learning (roughly speaking and depending on whom you ask: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica) because, especially in the summer, I figured they'd be full of students and backpackers and far too backpacker-touristy.
I needed to stay relatively close to the Caribbean so that it wouldn't be painful to get back quickly. (This made deep South America locations like EZE and SCL less attractive.)
I wanted someplace warm and sunny, but not necessarily on a beach.
I needed a flexible program that could be started and finished at short notice.
Too many programs out there (especially in beach areas) are geared towards backpackers who want some casual classes. I was looking for something more serious.
I ended up narrowing my choices down to this school in Quito, and Universidad Pontificia Boliviariana in Medellin. There happened to be three public holidays in a row in Colombia right when I wanted to start, so I set off for UIO. I figured if, after a few weeks, I needed a change of pace, I could continue studying in MDE.
Registering and getting there / deregistering and leaving:
Incredibly easy. On a Wednesday I called them up (they don't answer the phone 100% of the time, and their Skype connection on their website doesn't work) and said that I was going to show up on Sunday. They said great, and over the next two days they sent me an email with logistical information and some details about the host family I'd be staying with. I could either pay through PayPal with a credit card (they charge a 4% fee to cover their costs) or cash on Monday. Paying for just one week to start with was fine. There are enough staff in the office who speak English that I was able to set up logistics with them when my Spanish wasn't good enough to keep talking.
Flights to UIO are expensive for some reason, and I needed a flexible return (especially considering I wasn't sure I'd be returning from MDE). So I used an AA AAnytime award (SAAver awards to UIO are nonexistent in the summer) and booked a flight for Sunday.
The mother from the host family picked me up from the airport on Sunday and walked with me to school the following morning.
The school was aware that I wasn't sure how long I'd be around and they were perfectly fine with this. Towards the end of each week I came in with payment for the following week. Midweek during my last week I told them I would not be continuing the following week. Again, no problem. That Friday they presented me with a completion certificate listing my level ("high intermediate," whatever that means), which could, in theory, be useful for visa applications or other situations where you need to present proof of language ability. I booked another AA AAnytime award for that Saturday, got bumped for a $600 voucher, and left for good on Sunday.
The school's flexibility is what sets it apart from other programs, making it perfect for my needs.
The other students:
A surprising variety of ages, nationalities, and situations. Being the summer, there were a lot of students from midwestern American colleges there on organized programs. For most of these students it was their first time out of the country (okay, some had been to Canada or the Bahamas), and they were stereotypical Americans (I mean this in a bad way). On the other end of the spectrum you had Europeans who were studying Spanish as a fourth language. Definitely more college-age people than any other age group, but you also had 14-year-olds on a "teen" program and plenty of people in their very early 30s. Lots of people coming on their own, but there was also a large group of Americans from a company of speech pathologists, a Korean software company, and about five guys from the US Department of State's Foreign Service who were obtaining "operational proficiency" in advance of their next posting abroad.
From week to week there were huge swings in the number of people at the school (I'd guess the highest was about 50). The school was set up very well for growing and shrinking with the student body.
Costs:
There are a variety of different programs you can do (and there's no problem changing up what you do from week to week). The "standard" program is four hours a day, five days a week of group lessons (up to five people in a room) and lodging with a host family who will feed you breakfast and lunch and do your laundry once a week. This costs US$290 per week.
UIO itself has a low cost of living. A decent lunch (a couple of courses with a drink) could be had for US$3.00 at one of the numerous nearby restaurants. Buses cost 25 cents to ride, and taxi fare for most places you'd want to go doesn't go beyond $2.50 (higher at night and in touristy areas). $14 gets you two movie tickets, two big Cokes, and a gargantuan (even by American standards) popcorn at the cinema.
Facilities and staff:
The school is in a good part of town along one of the main thoroughfares (6 de Deciembre), away from the tourist areas but "centrally located." The building itself is well-maintained and comfortable, and done up in a way that I would naively describe as "Spanish colonial"--note, however, that there's no heat. 24 hour security and the building is gated.
Free wi-fi and $1/hour for use of their computers. The quality of their connection isn't great and there are times when it can get really slow. There are internet cafes a 5-10 minute walk away which have better connections at $1-$2.50/hour.
Staff are outstanding. Everyone, from the director of the school down to the security guards, love their jobs and are very happy. They're all extremely warm and friendly and will bend over backwards to help you in any way they can. Teachers came out drinking with us a few times. At the same time they're also all very professional, know what they're doing, and have a lot of experience. From what I can gather staff turnover is very low.
Almost everybody stayed with a host family, which was a good way to improve your handle on local language and culture. They make sure at least one person in the home can speak some English. The apartment I lived in was comfortable and about a 10-minute walk away from school. The family treated me very well, like a guest (but not quite as a member of the family, which was how I was treated during my semester in Tokyo in college). Host families will always be a case of YMMV.
Curriculum:
On your first day you do a written and oral exam, which is used to place you in an appropriate group.
Four hours a day, five days a week, in classes with a maximum of five students. Heavy focus on conversation, to get people used to speaking and listening solely in Spanish. Classes are done solely in Spanish, with no English allowed to be spoken; if you don't understand what a word means, the teacher will describe it for you in Spanish. They go very deep into grammar as well, but I think they keep it practical instead of "teaching the test." They'll also point out regional differences and colloquialisms when appropriate.
Some weeks they'll show you a Spanish movie in half-hour chunks over the week. This is to help you get used to Spanish as it's spoken, especially in other parts of Latin America. Also, they'll have "activities" most afternoons which are supposed to help with rapid vocabulary recall. These are essentially versions of games like Pictionary and Taboo. As pedagogical methods I wasn't a fan of the movies and activities, but they believe in them.
I thought vocabulary teaching was weak--or maybe I just came in there with my vocabulary at a lower level than my grammar/conversation and never caught up. In any case, I think it would've been helpful to have devoted more time to vocabulary. As it was, there were no formal lists of words to learn each week, except for verbs which happened to be irregular in whatever tense you were learning right then. Other words were learned through osmosis.
At the end of every week you have an exam to check on your progress. The following week you always get a new teacher (so you get used to different accents and conversational styles) and your class gets shuffled up a bit to account for people coming and going or needing a slower/faster pace.
Homework varies from day to day. Sometimes it can be smashed out right before school starts, other times it's a good two hours at night. Sometimes worksheets, other times things like "write a two-page letter to your best friend."
I think a lot of the issues with the vocabulary and homework were really just ways to let you decide how much time and effort you wanted to put into studying. You could either quickly crank out the answers to questions on a worksheet, or you can sit down and really think about what each sentence means and make sure you understand it. Same with how much effort you put into figuring out the vocabulary.
On occasion the class will take the afternoon off to see a market or the President's house or some such. Provides some useful context (this is your best chance to learn the words for various fruits that you only find in Latin America and find out what they're good for, for instance), but at the same time most people spend their afternoons milling about anyway so it was good that these excursions didn't happen too often.
Other options for classes, if four hours of group lessons isn't your thing: You can add on two hours of private lessons on top of your four hours. Some people think this is overkill, others found it very useful. The private lessons are either in the classroom or the teacher will take you to a museum or market or somewhere so that you can have conversations in context. Other people have private lessons for the entire day. Still others will combine classes with a volunteer program, or came solely for a volunteer program--they pay the school a fee to set up the volunteer work for them; people generally didn't seem all that pleased with the quality of the volunteer work they got. Again, the school is flexible with the combination of lessons you do, which I liked a lot. Want a one-off private lesson tomorrow afternoon? No problem. For university students, you can also get college credit.
Extracurricular activities:
The school was very good about setting up after-school and weekend activities. These included trips to local museums, day trips out of the city to places like market towns and hot springs, and overnight trips to places a bit further out. One of the teachers even did a weekly salsa dancing lesson. Prices for all of these were reasonable (for instance, $20ish for a half-day trip to a market town two hours away, including transportation and guide) as package tours, but could be done much more cheaply on your own--and they'll gladly help you figure out the right buses and other logistics you need if this is how you want to do it.
I found good salsa lessons taught daily nearby. A couple of different studios, each charging wildly different prices. The one I found was $5/hour for group lessons with a teacher who spoke native English.
Final thoughts:
The school wasn't perfect, but I did think it was really good, and suited my needs (especially my need for last-minute flexibility) very well. Most importantly, my Spanish improved quite a bit.
I wasn't a big fan of UIO. It turned out to be much colder and drier than I expected, due to its high elevation, and I was caught unprepared. I consistently froze in the unheated classrooms, and no amount of chapstick stopped my lips from cracking. Nightlife is centered in the backpacker area, a somewhat sketchy part of town, and unless you really make an effort and speak to locals you're not going to find much that isn't centered around the tourist trade. Nobody was out on the streets after dark. People are surprisingly reserved and conservative (I was told this is different on the coasts and in GYE). There is a large park in the middle of the city (sorta like Central Park in NYC) which is pleasant to stroll around on weekends.
Personal safety is an issue. I never felt like I was in danger, but people got their bags and even jeans pockets slashed all the time, especially on the buses. Some of the tall blonde girls from Missouri were relieved of their possessions multiple times. This is one of those places where you need to take a taxi door-to-door at night.
Maintaining a low-carb diet here is problematic. White rice and/or bread are served at every single meal. They're not big on vegetables (aside from potatoes, plantains and similar starches) so make sure you take a multivitamin and a fiber supplement. Meat portions are very small. You may have better luck if you go to places that charge American prices for food instead of the plentiful $3 lunch places.
Everyone who went on trips outside the city really enjoyed them. I was trying to "experience" "city life" and stayed in town on the weekends, which didn't work out as well for me.
My situation:
I needed to wait for a new work visa to process, but I didn't know how long it would take. The best estimate I could get was between two and eight weeks, and I would need to return to my home in the Caribbean and start working very quickly after the visa came through. I've gotten "travel for the sake of traveling" out of my system recently so I wanted to do something else. Learning Spanish seemed to make sense as a good use of my time.
Before I left I already had the basics of Spanish down.
Why I originally chose this school:
I was trying to avoid the Central American "meccas" of Spanish learning (roughly speaking and depending on whom you ask: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica) because, especially in the summer, I figured they'd be full of students and backpackers and far too backpacker-touristy.
I needed to stay relatively close to the Caribbean so that it wouldn't be painful to get back quickly. (This made deep South America locations like EZE and SCL less attractive.)
I wanted someplace warm and sunny, but not necessarily on a beach.
I needed a flexible program that could be started and finished at short notice.
Too many programs out there (especially in beach areas) are geared towards backpackers who want some casual classes. I was looking for something more serious.
I ended up narrowing my choices down to this school in Quito, and Universidad Pontificia Boliviariana in Medellin. There happened to be three public holidays in a row in Colombia right when I wanted to start, so I set off for UIO. I figured if, after a few weeks, I needed a change of pace, I could continue studying in MDE.
Registering and getting there / deregistering and leaving:
Incredibly easy. On a Wednesday I called them up (they don't answer the phone 100% of the time, and their Skype connection on their website doesn't work) and said that I was going to show up on Sunday. They said great, and over the next two days they sent me an email with logistical information and some details about the host family I'd be staying with. I could either pay through PayPal with a credit card (they charge a 4% fee to cover their costs) or cash on Monday. Paying for just one week to start with was fine. There are enough staff in the office who speak English that I was able to set up logistics with them when my Spanish wasn't good enough to keep talking.
Flights to UIO are expensive for some reason, and I needed a flexible return (especially considering I wasn't sure I'd be returning from MDE). So I used an AA AAnytime award (SAAver awards to UIO are nonexistent in the summer) and booked a flight for Sunday.
The mother from the host family picked me up from the airport on Sunday and walked with me to school the following morning.
The school was aware that I wasn't sure how long I'd be around and they were perfectly fine with this. Towards the end of each week I came in with payment for the following week. Midweek during my last week I told them I would not be continuing the following week. Again, no problem. That Friday they presented me with a completion certificate listing my level ("high intermediate," whatever that means), which could, in theory, be useful for visa applications or other situations where you need to present proof of language ability. I booked another AA AAnytime award for that Saturday, got bumped for a $600 voucher, and left for good on Sunday.
The school's flexibility is what sets it apart from other programs, making it perfect for my needs.
The other students:
A surprising variety of ages, nationalities, and situations. Being the summer, there were a lot of students from midwestern American colleges there on organized programs. For most of these students it was their first time out of the country (okay, some had been to Canada or the Bahamas), and they were stereotypical Americans (I mean this in a bad way). On the other end of the spectrum you had Europeans who were studying Spanish as a fourth language. Definitely more college-age people than any other age group, but you also had 14-year-olds on a "teen" program and plenty of people in their very early 30s. Lots of people coming on their own, but there was also a large group of Americans from a company of speech pathologists, a Korean software company, and about five guys from the US Department of State's Foreign Service who were obtaining "operational proficiency" in advance of their next posting abroad.
From week to week there were huge swings in the number of people at the school (I'd guess the highest was about 50). The school was set up very well for growing and shrinking with the student body.
Costs:
There are a variety of different programs you can do (and there's no problem changing up what you do from week to week). The "standard" program is four hours a day, five days a week of group lessons (up to five people in a room) and lodging with a host family who will feed you breakfast and lunch and do your laundry once a week. This costs US$290 per week.
UIO itself has a low cost of living. A decent lunch (a couple of courses with a drink) could be had for US$3.00 at one of the numerous nearby restaurants. Buses cost 25 cents to ride, and taxi fare for most places you'd want to go doesn't go beyond $2.50 (higher at night and in touristy areas). $14 gets you two movie tickets, two big Cokes, and a gargantuan (even by American standards) popcorn at the cinema.
Facilities and staff:
The school is in a good part of town along one of the main thoroughfares (6 de Deciembre), away from the tourist areas but "centrally located." The building itself is well-maintained and comfortable, and done up in a way that I would naively describe as "Spanish colonial"--note, however, that there's no heat. 24 hour security and the building is gated.
Free wi-fi and $1/hour for use of their computers. The quality of their connection isn't great and there are times when it can get really slow. There are internet cafes a 5-10 minute walk away which have better connections at $1-$2.50/hour.
Staff are outstanding. Everyone, from the director of the school down to the security guards, love their jobs and are very happy. They're all extremely warm and friendly and will bend over backwards to help you in any way they can. Teachers came out drinking with us a few times. At the same time they're also all very professional, know what they're doing, and have a lot of experience. From what I can gather staff turnover is very low.
Almost everybody stayed with a host family, which was a good way to improve your handle on local language and culture. They make sure at least one person in the home can speak some English. The apartment I lived in was comfortable and about a 10-minute walk away from school. The family treated me very well, like a guest (but not quite as a member of the family, which was how I was treated during my semester in Tokyo in college). Host families will always be a case of YMMV.
Curriculum:
On your first day you do a written and oral exam, which is used to place you in an appropriate group.
Four hours a day, five days a week, in classes with a maximum of five students. Heavy focus on conversation, to get people used to speaking and listening solely in Spanish. Classes are done solely in Spanish, with no English allowed to be spoken; if you don't understand what a word means, the teacher will describe it for you in Spanish. They go very deep into grammar as well, but I think they keep it practical instead of "teaching the test." They'll also point out regional differences and colloquialisms when appropriate.
Some weeks they'll show you a Spanish movie in half-hour chunks over the week. This is to help you get used to Spanish as it's spoken, especially in other parts of Latin America. Also, they'll have "activities" most afternoons which are supposed to help with rapid vocabulary recall. These are essentially versions of games like Pictionary and Taboo. As pedagogical methods I wasn't a fan of the movies and activities, but they believe in them.
I thought vocabulary teaching was weak--or maybe I just came in there with my vocabulary at a lower level than my grammar/conversation and never caught up. In any case, I think it would've been helpful to have devoted more time to vocabulary. As it was, there were no formal lists of words to learn each week, except for verbs which happened to be irregular in whatever tense you were learning right then. Other words were learned through osmosis.
At the end of every week you have an exam to check on your progress. The following week you always get a new teacher (so you get used to different accents and conversational styles) and your class gets shuffled up a bit to account for people coming and going or needing a slower/faster pace.
Homework varies from day to day. Sometimes it can be smashed out right before school starts, other times it's a good two hours at night. Sometimes worksheets, other times things like "write a two-page letter to your best friend."
I think a lot of the issues with the vocabulary and homework were really just ways to let you decide how much time and effort you wanted to put into studying. You could either quickly crank out the answers to questions on a worksheet, or you can sit down and really think about what each sentence means and make sure you understand it. Same with how much effort you put into figuring out the vocabulary.
On occasion the class will take the afternoon off to see a market or the President's house or some such. Provides some useful context (this is your best chance to learn the words for various fruits that you only find in Latin America and find out what they're good for, for instance), but at the same time most people spend their afternoons milling about anyway so it was good that these excursions didn't happen too often.
Other options for classes, if four hours of group lessons isn't your thing: You can add on two hours of private lessons on top of your four hours. Some people think this is overkill, others found it very useful. The private lessons are either in the classroom or the teacher will take you to a museum or market or somewhere so that you can have conversations in context. Other people have private lessons for the entire day. Still others will combine classes with a volunteer program, or came solely for a volunteer program--they pay the school a fee to set up the volunteer work for them; people generally didn't seem all that pleased with the quality of the volunteer work they got. Again, the school is flexible with the combination of lessons you do, which I liked a lot. Want a one-off private lesson tomorrow afternoon? No problem. For university students, you can also get college credit.
Extracurricular activities:
The school was very good about setting up after-school and weekend activities. These included trips to local museums, day trips out of the city to places like market towns and hot springs, and overnight trips to places a bit further out. One of the teachers even did a weekly salsa dancing lesson. Prices for all of these were reasonable (for instance, $20ish for a half-day trip to a market town two hours away, including transportation and guide) as package tours, but could be done much more cheaply on your own--and they'll gladly help you figure out the right buses and other logistics you need if this is how you want to do it.
I found good salsa lessons taught daily nearby. A couple of different studios, each charging wildly different prices. The one I found was $5/hour for group lessons with a teacher who spoke native English.
Final thoughts:
The school wasn't perfect, but I did think it was really good, and suited my needs (especially my need for last-minute flexibility) very well. Most importantly, my Spanish improved quite a bit.
I wasn't a big fan of UIO. It turned out to be much colder and drier than I expected, due to its high elevation, and I was caught unprepared. I consistently froze in the unheated classrooms, and no amount of chapstick stopped my lips from cracking. Nightlife is centered in the backpacker area, a somewhat sketchy part of town, and unless you really make an effort and speak to locals you're not going to find much that isn't centered around the tourist trade. Nobody was out on the streets after dark. People are surprisingly reserved and conservative (I was told this is different on the coasts and in GYE). There is a large park in the middle of the city (sorta like Central Park in NYC) which is pleasant to stroll around on weekends.
Personal safety is an issue. I never felt like I was in danger, but people got their bags and even jeans pockets slashed all the time, especially on the buses. Some of the tall blonde girls from Missouri were relieved of their possessions multiple times. This is one of those places where you need to take a taxi door-to-door at night.
Maintaining a low-carb diet here is problematic. White rice and/or bread are served at every single meal. They're not big on vegetables (aside from potatoes, plantains and similar starches) so make sure you take a multivitamin and a fiber supplement. Meat portions are very small. You may have better luck if you go to places that charge American prices for food instead of the plentiful $3 lunch places.
Everyone who went on trips outside the city really enjoyed them. I was trying to "experience" "city life" and stayed in town on the weekends, which didn't work out as well for me.