Total SPANISH Immersion! Study Spanish at Intercultura
Written: Nov 20 '00 (Updated Dec 04 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: very organized, lots of activities
Cons: hummm? can't really think of any
|
|
|
| rachelcaron's Full Review: Costa Rica |
Looking for a fun and fast way to learn Spanish? Want to enjoy the beautiful beaches, friendly people, and salsa and meringue dancing in Costa Rica? Come study at Intercultura: Centro de Idiomas in Heredia, Costa Rica.
I found Intercultura on the internet. They have a very informative website and are very quick responding to questions and concerns.
Stay with a Costa Rican Family
Intercultura offers students the choice of staying with a Costa Rican family. This, I highly recommend. This is the best way to improve your Spanish. A helpful hint: ask to be put in a family with kids your age. I stayed with a family with kids my age. I hung out a lot with my host brother and his friends. This is a great way to learn more about the culture as well. Don’t worry if you are traveling alone. They set this up before you even get there. A few weeks before you arrive they send you all the information about your family (names, ages, address, …).
Structure
Intercultura uses a variety of methods to ensure the students obtain total immersion. This means that they incorporate all aspects of language acquisition: conversation, grammar, reading, writing, general comprehension and idiomatic expressions. In the classes you will read the newspaper, watch Spanish television, read stories, and have discussions on a variety of topics. Part of the experience of total immersion includes getting out and practicing what you have learned. So, they also offer field trips once a week to places such as museums, coffee plantations, volcanoes, markets, and restaurants.
Intercultura is very organized. I was impressed. They have 13 different levels of classes. The first day you are there you take a test (oral) so that they can determine which class to put you in. At first they put me in level 5 and I thought It was too easy. I told one of the directors. They are very accommodating there. She asked me a few questions about how long I had been studying Spanish and then she put me in level 7- where I felt I belonged. The classes are from 8:30-12:30 (morning session) or 1:30-5:30 (afternoon session). They also offer private lessons in the afternoon.
The classes are very small. They have no more than 6 students and most of the time my classes only had 3 or 4 students. All of the teachers are highly qualified. They have university degrees in Spanish and teaching certificates.
Graduation
A very nice perk is the graduations. Every Friday at 10:30am they have a ceremony for all the students that are leaving to go home that week. They present them with a certificate and the students make a short speech about how much they learned, had fun, and they thank their professors. Then everyone enjoys a big buffet of fresh fruit, most of which I had never seen or heard of before.
Activities
There is a wide selection of activities to participate in after classes and on the weekends. Dance classes are offered twice a day Monday through Thursday. There are cooking and music classes. Cultural activities to theaters, concerts, and soccer games. Intercambios where the Spanish students and the English students meet and take turns taking in the different languages. Intercultura host excursions on the weekends to many places in the country. They also offer volunteer opportunities. These are very flexible. You pretty much say when and where you would like to volunteer and they are very happy to receive your help. I volunteered in a nursing home and had the best experience.
Beach Week
One of the things I enjoyed most was the beach week. One week a month students can choose to have classes on the beach in Jaco. You stay in a nice hotel right on the beach with a swimming pool and have classes on the patio of your cabin overlooking the pool. You share a cabin with a few students that is equipped with a kitchen so you can have fun trying to make Costa Rican food. But mostly, you end up eating at the restaurants nearby.
So....
So, if you are looking to have a great time, learn a lot of Spanish and Costa Rican culture, and enjoy the beauty of Costa Rica come to Intercultura: Centro de Idiomas.
$$$
Oh here I copied and pasted the pricing information from their brochure:
Prices for Spanish Language, Culture and Homestay Programs, effective Jan. 1, 2000.
Group Classes: Courses consist of four hours per day intensive language study from Monday to Friday, mornings and afternoons. Prices include course and registration fees for both the Heredia and the Jacó campus, textbook, and all materials.
WITH HOMESTAY:
1 week.........................................$345
2 weeks...................................$625
3 weeks........................................$900
4 weeks........................................$1095
after 4 weeks..............................$265/week
WITHOUT HOMESTAY:
1 week.........................................$245
2 weeks.............. .........................$430
3 weeks........................................$615
4 weeks........................................$700
After 4 weeks...............................$175/week
PRIVATE CLASSES: $15 / hour
ADDITIONAL HOMESTAY: $100/week
The following activities are included free of charge for all language students:
Latin dance classes (daily); Latin music and cooking classes (weekly); Spanish film night; disco & theater excursions (students pay admission only); lectures/tertulias; intercambios; monthly cultural events calendar; and use of tour/travel planning resources.
Homestays include breakfast, dinner, laundry service and private room. In the Jacó campus, food is not included and accomodations are shared.
Weekend excursions are offered at an additional cost. Friends and family are welcome to join us on these trips when space permits.
For more info:
For more information go to: www.spanish-intercultura.com
Or contact:
INTERCULTURA
COSTA RICA ADDRESS: P.O. Box 1952-3000, Heredia, Costa Rica, Central America.
U.S. ADDRESS: CAE/SJO # 320, P.O. Box 025369, Miami, FL. 33102.
TELS: +(506) 260-8480 / 260-9243. FAX: +(506) 260-9243.
E-MAIL: info@spanish-intercultura.com
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
rachelcaron
|
|
Member: Rachel
Location: Texas
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 41 members
About Me:
Recent college grad trying to make a few extra bucks. Help me out please? :)
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.