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Baker · Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

Anyone have a good experience with a spanish school in Cuenca?
I'm looking for preferably 1 to 1 lessons with flexible times, maybe a field trip or two.

I would prefer to stay in a student guesthouse with other students if possible, but happy with a decent hostel as well.

Drak · Joined: 11 Jul 2006 Posts: 5

All lessons in Cuenca are one-to-one. The exception is if you come in a group and everyone in the group is at the same level. In those cases, the school will offer group lessons at a discount.

I don't know of any Spanish school that has a student guesthouse. Many of the school will arrange a homestay in which other students will be staying at the same home. The only drawback to a homestay is that some are located a good distance away which requires taking a taxi (or your host family will drive you) or a long, long walk to get to school. If you decide to stay at a hostel, there are plenty to choose from.

There are four major Spanish schools in Cuenca: CEDEI, Estudio Sampere, Simon Bolivar, and Si Centro Spanish School. All require at least 20 hrs per week of lessons. Finding a good teacher is the real challenge. Some of the best colleges and universities in the world have BAD teachers. It's a roll-of-the-dice if you'll get a good teacher. I attended Simon Bolivar and I had two of the worest teachers ever so I lost on the roll-of-the-dice. I was so frustrated at getting lousy teachers that I left Simon Bolivar and finished my Spanish studies at the smaller Abraham Lincoln Center (a/k/a, Centro Cultural Ecuatoriano Norte Americano). At my level, the Abraham Lincoln Center was a better choice since the instructor really concentrated on working my conversational Spanish. I learned more in one-week at Abraham Lincoln Center than I did in two-weeks at Simon Bolivar. If you decide to attend Simon Bolivar, pray that you don't get the same teachers that I had.

Of the four major Spanish schools in Cuenca, most foreign students (US) attend CEDEI since it has relationships with US colleges and universities. For this reason, I think CEDEI has better quality control over their teachers since the US schools are probably monitoring their students' progress. The students who I've talked to who've attended CEDEI had nothing but good things to say about it. I've also heard good things about Estudio Sampere. Si Centro relocated to Cuenca from Banos so I don't know much about them, but it looks promising.

Good luck.