Spanish Language School in Guatemala?

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didier

I studied with a private teacher who had been recommended by a friend. This teacher had twenty years of experience, and because the instruction was one-to-one I found that classes could be arranged for our mutual convenience. She was broadminded, so we could converse about many topics without reservation; we spoke about politics, religion, the manner of peopleâ€™s lives. When I started with this teacher I already spoke relatively good Spanish. With her help I achieved an even greater fluency and accuracy with the language. In total I stayed in Antigua for six weeks, studying the whole time I was there.

While I was in Antigua I looked into the different Spanish schools located there. I found many of them have websites on the internet that are very informative, but these individual sites are naturally biased toward the individual schools. One very good website, www.123teachme.com, is an independent, non-profit listing of language schools located all over the world. Recommendations and comments are made by former students about different schools; each school is rated according to a five star system. Students classify their school according to the criteria described on the site. These criteria include program quality, accommodation, facilities, value for money, whether or not the school is â€œstudent friendlyâ€, and the ubiquitous â€œfun factorâ€.

There are thirty separate schools in Antigua that have been classified by the comments of former students; the only one to have been rated with five stars is Don Pedro de Alvarado Spanish School,antigua, guatemala http://www.donpedrospanishschool.com
E mail donpedro7703@yahoo.com. It is the only school to have achieved a five star rating, so for the moment, the Don Pedro school seems to be the most accomplished in Antigua according to this website.

Don Pedro is the only five star school listed. The best school in the four star category is the Central Linguistico Internatcional, email info@spanishcontac.com. Three star schools include Probigua, email info@probigua.org; La Union, email info@launion.edu.gt; Sevilla, email espaÃ±ol@sevillantigua.com; Proyecto Francisco Marroquin, email info@langlink.com; Academia Zamora, email info@learnspanish-guatemala.co... I will not list all of them as there are many more on the website. I would not recommend the schools that have only one star because their comments are disastrous! You really need to form your own opinion when you visit the http://www.123teachme.com website.

I also asked the opinion of my teacher about the schools in Antigua; she had worked in several of the schools over many years. In her opinion, the best schools are those which maintain a small group of loyal teachers, twenty teachers at most, in permanent employment. These teachers come to know each other and work together well over a long period of time. A good school will not seek freelance teachers only according to the numbers of students enrolled at any one time. To work in an optimal fashion a good language school will enrol between 15 and 30 students at a given time. If a school is large and tends to have 50 or more students you must be wary; it is very difficult to maintain more than fifty teachers who all have adequate experience to be successful. My own teacher recommends the Don Pedro de Alvarado Spanish School as first choice, followed by the Academia Alameda, email asa@intelgua.com, and finally the Academia Zamora (listed above).
http://www.donpedrospanishschool.com
http://www.guacalling.com/dps/school.htm...
I hope you make a good choice and are happy and successful with your studies! Didier

Anamaria UK

Don Pedro de Alvarado is a great school. I went there for two months. The teachers are all really experienced and I learned loads. Had a great time too; learned how to salsa dance with this dude who could really move his booty! The cuba's kick *** as well, and are really cheap. I liked everything about Antigua and I'd go back again in a New York second!

Nire00

I did one month of intensive spanish classes about two years ago in Antigua - it was a fantastic experience. Antigua is a great place to serve as a base for traveling to other destinations. I went to the Ixchel Spanish school and did a family homestay: http://www.ixchelschool.com/

I would highly recommend this school. The teachers are fantastic, plus the other students were a lot of fun - I'm still in contact with many people I met while I was there! Plus, price-wise, it was a really good value and definitely something i would consider doing again.

The only challenge with Antigua (this is for any school) is that you may tend to speak English often during your non-class time because the default language of most of the students is English. So another option is to take classes in one of the villages on Lake Atitlan, a slightly more remote area of Guatemala. After a couple weeks in Antigua, I had some friends move on to do a couple more weeks in Panajachel (check online for some places). Since there are fewer tourists in these locations, you tend to speak a bit more spanish.

Good luck!

**WAFFLE_WEENIE**

no..they are all great!

Emeve

The best Languajeschools are in Antigua among them is San JosÃ© el Viejo, known as the best of all. You can live with a family or in an appartment. Is up to you. You can learn also other lenguajes besides English. I recommend this or Proyecto Linguistico Francisco Marroquin. Good luck

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