PRIVATE CLASS SPANISH PROGRAM

While we no longer require the use of masks in our classes, we can acomodate those who wish to have masked classes in private classes with both student and teacher masked. Please speak with us about your needs and we will also do our best to accommodate you with more outdoor group activities as is possible.

As we work to transition back to more group classes and activities, we will maintain these private class programs that we’ve managed during the pandemic while adding in a few more activities. As we move more towards our group classes, we may have to transition these to the afternoon, but we are going to try to continue to offer them concurrently with our group classes. Once we are able to return to group classes, we hope to maintain this structure but move the private class schedule to the afternoons.

OVERVIEW: We are currently offering a mixed program of one-on-one private classes, supplemented by group activities that include city tours, workshops, and intercambios that are designed to teach Spanish through immersive activities.

GENERAL SCHEDULE: The private classes will currently run, Monday-Friday in the mornings and run based on your selected program. If you prefer afternoon classes, we will attempt to accommodate you in that.

PROGRAM OPTIONS FOR CLASSES:

  • SPANISH ULTRALITE—15 HOURS A WEEK—

    • Includes daily private classes (1 hour per day), plus 10 hours of immersive group activities which always include a city tour, a cultural/language workshop, and four hours of meeting up with intercambios language exchange partners, as well as a rotating activity that could be a short urban adventure, an extended workshop (some activities take two days), a movie night, or even a “Noche de Juegos”, where you can practice chatting with teachers and students in Spanish at a local watering holea week.

    • Geared to students who struggle with sitting in classes but are eager to have more structure in their learning of Spanish and a base for engaging in other opportunities here, such as art classes, tours, etc. offered in Spanish or making friends here. We recommend taking advantage of Oaxaca’s opportunities to take art classes, tours in Spanish, museums, etc. to help booster vocabulary and practice and we can help students figure out to how participate in these other activities.

      COST: $2700MXN

  • SPANISH LITE—17.5 HOURS A WEEK—

    • Includes daily private classes (1.5 hour per day), plus 10 hours of immersive group activities which always include a city tour, a cultural/language workshop, and four hours of meeting up with intercambios language exchange partners, as well as a rotating activity that could be a short urban adventure, an extended workshop (some activities take two days), a movie night, or even a “Noche de Juegos” , where you can practice chatting with teachers and students in Spanish at a local watering holea week.

    • Geared to students who want immersive study but worry about either the price or two hours of classes, so we offer this slightly lighter option. We recommend taking advantage of Oaxaca’s opportunities to take art classes, tours in Spanish, museums, etc. to help booster vocabulary and practice and we can help students figure out to how participate in these other activities.

      COST: $3500MXN

  • IMMERSIVE SPANISH LEARNING—20 HOURS A WEEK—

    • Includes daily private classes (2 hours per day), plus a city tour (1.5 hours), a cultural/language workshop (1.5 hours), and two intercambios (at least 1 hour each) a week.

    • We recommend two hours as the optimum level of classes a day for structuring Spanish learning mixed with in-town activities. We recommend taking advantage of Oaxaca’s opportunities to take art classes, tours in Spanish, museums, etc. to help booster vocabulary and practice and we can help students figure out to how participate in these other activities.

      COST: $4100MXN

  • INTENSIVE SPANISH LEARNING—25 HOURS A WEEK—

    • Includes daily private classes (3 hours per day), plus a city tour (1.5 hours), a cultural/language workshop (1.5 hours), and two intercambios (at least 1 hour each) a week.

    • Geared for students who thrive in structured learning settings and want that extra push for their learning. We recommend taking advantage of Oaxaca’s opportunities to take art classes, tours in Spanish, museums, etc. to help booster vocabulary and practice and we can help students figure out to how participate in these other activities.

      COST: $5400MXN

  • SUPER INTENSIVE SPANISH LEARNING—31 HOURS A WEEK—

    • Includes daily private classes (21 total hours), plus a city tour (1.5 hours), a cultural/language workshop (1.5 hours), and two intercambios (at least 1 hour each) a week.

    • Geared for students who thrive in structured learning settings and have limited time to raise their language level. While the schedule leaves less time for in town exploration on weekdays, we recommend taking advantage of Oaxaca’s opportunities to take art classes, tours in Spanish, museums, etc. to help booster vocabulary and practice and we can help students figure out to how participate in these other activities.

      COST: $6800MXN

  • BUILD-A-PRIVATE-GROUP OPTIONS: If you have a group of more than one student interested in private classes at the same level, and we can offer multi-person private classes for these prices:

    • Spanish Ultralite—$1980MXN/student for classes activities or ($1700MXN/student if more than 2 students).

    • Spanish Lite—$2500MXN/student for classes/activities or ($2100MXN/student if more than 2 students).

    • Immersive Spanish—$3000MXN/student or ($2500MXN/student if more than 2 students).

    • Intensive Spanish—$4000MXN/student or ($3300MXN/student if more than 2 students).

    • Super Intensive Spanish—$5200MXN/student or ($4300MXN/student if more than 2 students)

**Please note that we will request a $1100MXN non-refundable deposit through PayPal to reserve your classes. All but $100MXN goes to the cost of the class. No fees are charged if all costs are paid in person, except on Monday of class if there hasn’t been a partial payment made earlier an extra $100MXN fee will be added to the price. **

The rest of the classes should be paid in cash, in pesos. If you would like to pay through PayPal for the rest, we will change a 10% fee for processing. If you cancel with more than 72-hours notice, we can change the dates of study or convert to online classes with no charge.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT EACH PART OF STUDY

PRIVATE CLASSES: In our private classes, teachers will work with students to make sure the classes are tailored to the students abilities, interests and needs. Our teachers use a communicative method of instruction that places importance on conversation, discussion and interaction between students and teachers, while strengthening all aspects of Spanish learning: speaking, listening, reading and writing. If you class lasts more than 2 hours, we often use two teachers for the class, so that students can practice listening to other speakers and not just get used to one teacher.

While other programs offer full days (40 hours a week) of private classes for “intensive study” we have found that students retain more, and engage more fully with more limited private classes that then engage students in other contexts throughout the rest of the day. We can recommend art workshops, museums, and other activities to the students along with our Immersive Group Activities to help supplement Spanish immersion and practice.

CITY TOUR: The city tour will be given in Spanish and is designed to help students learn to navigate culturally, geographically, and linguistically through the city. Each week we will have a theme that will help students get to know better the city, its cultures, histories, practices, and layout.

WORKSHOPS: Topics vary, but can range from art/cultural classes, to language classes. In the past, we’ve offered workshops on Politics in Oaxaca, cooking, walking/sketching workshop of buildings in the city, queer performance, slang workshops, piñatas-making, etc.! While topics vary, the goal is to offer to engage the students actively in learning and work comprehension and vocabulary while learning a new craft, skill or facet of the language.

ROTATING CULTURAL ACTIVITY: In addition to the city tour and workshop, every week we will have a rotating cultural activity—which could be a short urban adventure, an extended workshop (some activities take two days), a movie night, or even a “Noche de Juegos”, where you can practice chatting with teachers and students in Spanish at a local watering hole.

INTERCAMBIOS: We connect students with intercambios, who are locals here who are studying one of the students’ languages, either it be English, Japanese, German or French (etc!).

PLACEMENT: We offer classes at all levels and structure our classes based on the DELE system, whether you’re a true beginner or have been studying for years and are very advanced.  We will send you an online placement exam so we can figure out what class you should be in so our teachers can plan for you.

MATERIALS: All worksheets and reading materials for the classes are included in the price. We ask that you bring a pen or pencil, a notebook, and if you would like, a dictionary (including on your phone; we highly recommend the free SpanishDict for its fairly extensive collective of slang. For upper level students, we recommend using a monolingual dictionary. You can download one for your device, and we would recommend the Real Academia Española’s dictionary, which is free if you have a data connection).

OTHER ACTIVITIES: We would also recommend that you engage in activities outside of the school, such as art workshops, attending museums, or outdoor tours in the city or out in the mountains, pueblos, etc. Due to the pandemic, many places might require appointments in order to enter, and if you have questions, we can help you figure out how to make the appointments, or answer other questions.

We also offer free water, tea and coffee during our breaks.

MAINTAINING HEALTHY GROUP DYNAMICS: Please note that it is very important for us that we maintain good group dynamics in our school for both activities and classes. Our teachers are very experienced with groups and can handle various learning styles. We ask that our students do their role in maintaining a good group dynamic as well. In group classes, we group students by their closest levels. If we do not have other students in a nearby level, we will make other accommodations for the students. In general, though, group activities mean that the teacher is balancing the learning styles, etc. of all their students. If you have questions about your level or issues with classmates, let us know and we will discuss possible solutions.

If you need assistance in order to afford these classes, please see our Travelers & Cultural Exchange Scholarship page.

Sometimes we are able to offer partial week options if we have current group classes at your level.