Spanish Classes

[WindyCityJames]

I liked Expanish...UBA was great too...I just didn't think it was as fun...the students, the teachers, etc. I did look at ECELA in Recoleta but they wouldn't even let me take a placement test before I paid so I thought that was a big red flag. IBL was the first school I went to and I found the material to be dated and the classroom exercises to be tedious. I also did private tutoring but both tutors were less than reliable and would often cancel or change the class time at the last minute.

 

[WindyCityJames]

Most schools in BsAs do charge about the same price...around 200 USD for 20 hours a week so there doesn't seem to be much wiggle room with that. I also have a decent budget so cost was not a factor for me but I know other people do have to budget a bit more carefully. If you try a school and you like it, they will often have discounts for the longer you study there. You may also want to investigate private lessons. I did those at Expanish as well and I found 10 hours a week of private to be very helpful with building my vocabulary and my usage of the subjunctive. I would definitely say to look out for the hard sell and also ask if you can sit in on a class. If the school wants your money upfront without taking the time to introduce you to the school then I would say walk away and don't look back!

 

[DerAchtundzwanzig]

I think it's pretty obvious that WindyCityJames works for Expanish. Just look at this selection of phrases he wrote - do they look like something an objective former student with no vested interest would write?

"[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]It is intensive and you are expected to do you homework but I found it fun."[/background]
[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]"[/background][background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]IBL was the first school I went to and I found the material to be dated and the classroom exercises to be tedious." [/background]
[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]"[/background][background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]I also did private tutoring but both tutors were less than reliable and would often cancel or change the class time at the last minute."[/background]

And this one is terrible... It's just as if you were talking face to face to an Expanish agent:

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]"You may also want to investigate private lessons. I did those at Expanish as well and I found 10 hours a week of private to be very helpful with building my vocabulary and my usage of the subjunctive."[/background]

 

[trennod]

I agree with Der & Ceviche haha. But I sweat I am not a troll

As I mentioned, I will recommend you a really good private teacher if anyone is heading down that path. She was actually recommended to me by a fellow forum member when I first arrived here and she is very good.

I can also tell you a school to highly avoid (unless they have improved considerably in the last 18 months)!!

 

[murvee]

I can confirm that WindyCityJames is NOT a "troll". I have met him in person and know that he has studied at all the schools he mentioned. I feel like he is just someone who is passing on their personal experiences and if it means recommending a specific school that worked for him. Isn't that what the person in the original post asked for?

Why do you think 200 USD per week is an expensive amount for a Spanish school? That is 10 USD per hour which seems quite reasonable for a small group class - that is the market for Buenos Aires at the moment. I remember when most schools were around 130 USD just a few years ago but the cost of living has obviously risen since then.

 

[sleslie23]

I have never studied at Expanish, but I have friends who used to teach there. According to them, it all depends on which teacher you get, but it general it is not very good. They don't pay very well, so most good people leave for the greener pasture of private lessons.

It's probably a good place if you are more interested in interacting with other students. Probably not the best place to actually learn Spanish.

Another option similar to UBA's Laboritorio de Idiomas is el Centro Universitario de Idiomas:

http://www.cui.edu.ar/

They charge more or less the same as UBA. I've never taken Spanish courses there, so no clue about the quality. But I have studied various other languages for over 4 years. It's not the best, but not the worst.

 

[trennod]

Seriously, I would never go back to one of the tourist schools personally, but your best bet I would think is to go along for a class or two and try a couple out. Things can change very quick and the teacher quality even in the schools can vary.

Even the school I went to let you sit in on a class for half the day (2 hours) to see if you fitted with the level etc.

Another thing I would recommend is NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES pay for more than a week up front. A lot of the schools have people coming and going every day (including both teachers and students), your experience may change from day to day let alone week to week. Ignore the discounts, in the long run it may not be worth it.

The best thing about the spanish schools is the social side, but if you have the cash and other options to make friends/have a social life, you really cant go past a private teacher, one on one. Particularly once you have a little grammar under your belt.

To put it in to perspective price wise, say a school charges USD 200 a week and the classes are 17.5 hours a week (4 hours a day, 5 days a week less .5 hr break), it works out at about USD 12 an hour.

I am not sure exchange rate they use at the schools (assume its not official?), but my teacher (university qualified in lenguas, has a psychology degree and years of experience) charges 100 pesos an hour which at the official rate is about USD 16 an hour and at the current blue USD 12 an hour. And, I know there are very good teachers that teach at the schools that charge privates outside @ 80 pesos an hour (and I am sure there are even ones out there you could find for 60-70 pesos).

 

[WindyCityJames]

You are completely right, I could have been extremely lucky with my professors at Expanish and extremely unlucky at IBL. Again, UBA has great programs as well but I just happened to have had much more fun at Expanish. I am just trying to give you mine opinion of my experience since I did attend Expanish.

Another example, if anyone is interested in Portuguese, is Caso do Brasil on Callao just north or Corrientes. It is an excellent Portuguese school. The school itself is an old apartment building and the materials are excellent. What fascinated me there was I was the only native English speaker and the other students spoke little to no English so it was an interesting twist on learning Portuguese. I took 4 weeks of Portuguese 1 which is at the A1 level. They also offer Spanish too but I believe it might only be for Portuguese speakers.

Lastly, I took 6 weeks of Intensive Swedish 1 at Instituto Sueco. The class was taught entirely in Spanish, which actually helped me with my Spanish. I thought it might have been more effective to only use Swedish but that's the way it is done. It was the most relaxed of the classes I have taken in Buenos Aires and I was one of three students.

I like learning languages, I guess it is a hobby of mine, and I am happy to discuss with anyone my experiences at the schools I attended and I am also happy to tell you why I didn't choose other schools. And if anyone at Expanish is on here, I would be happy to represent your school in any sort advert or commercial. If that happens, I will let you know that I am working with Expanish and then you can be free to accuse me of trolling!

 

[robwerwe]

[background=rgb(230, 230, 230)]WindyCityJame [/background]
You previous posts seem to indicate you've been looking for German, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.

Looks like your trying to learn a lot of languages there...

 

[sleslie23]

I second WindyCityJames post about Casa do Brazil. The classes are good and the materials are interesting. I took a Portuguese class at CUI, but it was boring and overcrowded.