So after five weeks and 92 hours of Spanish lessons, what were our final thoughts, and how did it compare to the travelling classroom in Ecuador?
As a small anecdote, editing this post from El Salvador a few weeks later (no spoilers, we’re still alive) we recently took a tour of the San Salvador national theatre. At first, being the only people on the tour, the guide asked if we’d prefer Spanish or English and we explained, as we often do, that we’re trying to learn Spanish and we need the practice so we’d prefer Spanish. A few minutes into the tour, an American family arrived (who appeared to be of Spanish descent) and requested English, leaving us in the slightly awkward position of having the remainder of the tour given to us in Spanish only for the guide to then switch to English to repeat it to the Americans. Whether he realised that English was our native language or not we’ll never know but, thanks to his clear intonation I was pleased to see, when he repeated each section in English, that I had understood 80-90% only missing the words that just aren’t in my vocabulary.
So, it’s clear that we have definitely improved, for me, my better understanding of the language means that when I’m reading I’m better able to recognise conjugation of words and correctly identify the tense. I’m finding it easier to compose sentences especially when I’m writing and have more time to think it through. I also found the Spanish lessons much easier to understand than last time and learnt more as a result. My speech was definitely the weakest area of my Spanish when we started and it has also improved with the result that I’m finding it easier to make more complex requests. This isn’t to say that we’re fluent or ever find it easy, when people speak very quickly, drop consonents, or do both at the same time (which I am very guilty of in English!) it’s quite normal for me to start only catching as little as 1 word in 10! I now feel however like the key to improving my Spanish is practice, whereas last time I was surprised after 4 weeks how much there was still to learn!
Outside of the Spanish lessons we also had a great experience with the group. Despite the ages ranging from 19 to 57 we were all able to enjoy the activities together from cooking and dance classes to ziplining, white water rafting, and the catamaran tour, as well as the trips to the San Blas Islands and Tortaguero. We really enjoyed the time that we spent together and were really sad to lose the group after four weeks. We still have a WhatsApp group and although most are now at home, Laura is taking a similar route to us, albeit slightly behind, so there is a chance that we’ll be able to meet at some point.
We had a few teething issues at the beginning, which were due to staff taking on the travelling classroom for the first time, and instead of the promised guide throughout the (first) four weeks we had a few different people accompanying us when they were available. As expected, we had different teachers each week and they all had different approaches but left feedback for the next place which helped keep things going smoothly. It also meant that in the second week when we struggled with a group of six and the teaching was less effective, it was only for a week. Our feedback from this week was taken on-board, we had a lot of support from Ingrid and the team, and were split into smaller groups which really helped.
Overall the standard of teaching was excellent and, especially in comparison to our experience in Ecuador, even with the least effective teacher in the largest group we still felt that we made good progress. At the end of the fourth week we opted to do the A2 exam which is offered as part of the overall package, although neither of us needs this certificate, passing this was a good confirmation that we have learnt a lot!
The course cost us $3279 each, an increase on the base cost of $2450 due to the extra week and our upgrades to private rooms in all locations. The price also included all Spanish lessons, accommodation, breakfasts, travel between locations and big activity every week plus cooking and dance classes every week. It also made it very easy to get back into travelling as everything was booked and all transport organised for us. The activities included were well organised and great fun, and the cooking and dancing classes were different every week so you didn’t get bored of them.
It was made clear on booking that accommodation would be in hostels, and we were able to upgrade to private rooms throughout. We did find the standard of hostels a little worse than we’d experienced in South America, although that being nine years ago and us now being in our 40s doesn’t help with that comparison! There was only one hostel we definitely wouldn’t stay in again, and thanks to Ingrid we were able to sleep elsewhere for a couple of nights to get some better rest.
I’m so pleased we went for the travelling Spanish school as it really was the perfect start to our adventure learning Spanish, it provided a little more structure to kick off our trip in the right way and gave us enough time to really improve our Spanish without being tethered to a single location! Overall we’d thoroughly enjoyed the travelling Spanish school and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. If you are interested in following in our footsteps, check out their website: www.travellingspanish.com
