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In honour of my second day at Spanish school, I'm going to delight you all with a mini-review of the school and an overview of studying Spanish in Bogota.
My school is called International House, in La Candelaria (the historic centre and closest thing Bogota has to a tourist district). It's a fairly typical Spanish school, lots of small classrooms, nice open air patios with coffee etc for students to chill out, all and all it's no different from most of the language schools I've been to, except it's probably the prettiest. My teacher comes complete with grammar-enthusiasm (a plus in my books, although no one elses), a bow tie, blazer and fedora. I can't tell you how delightful I find this man. He's about nine feet tall and flails around in excitement at the front of the class. Despite his excessive racism towards Spain (won't let me use the word piso!) the quality of teaching is very high, and from what I've seen of the school that seems the standard. From having investigated the other, similar schools in Bogota, I would definitely recommend this one the most. Friendly, professional and the same price as everyone else ($200 per week): they provide a cultural activity every afternoon (museum trips, Colombian food, salsa lessons etc) and also teach English classes, private tuition, CELTA certificates and DELE prep. I've been to many little language schools for the odd week or two, in several different countries, and so far this is my favourite.
Of course, this is only appropriate for people who want a couple of weeks of lessons. For people on their year abroad or intercambios, the universities are the place to be. This is always guided by your university's options, but I'll tell you what I know. The Javeriana is the most famous, and does a six week programme that looks good. Most universities offer a programme for foreigners studying Spanish, but it's always organised by semester and needs to be arranged in advance. It also requires a student visa, which the language schools do not, so it's really only appropriate for people coming for university. There's a ridiculous amount of universities in the city, some in good neighbourhoods and some in bad (ALWAYS check!). My favourite so far, however, is La Universidad Las Andes. Supposedly one of the best, and certainly the most expensive, it's freaking beautiful. I mean it. It's enormous, and elegant, and beautifully colonial (architecturally speaking). It seems like their programme offers a good selection of classes, more than just language, and its smack in the middle of the student district, which is pretty, safe and generally appealing to those of a student-esque age. Getting off the transmilenio at Las Aguas, the end of the line, you follow a steady stream of students up the hill, lined with fountains and fruit carts, until at the top you get to all the giant university buildings, which are some of the best guarded I've seen, both by private security and by the army. If you're coming to Colombia on an intercambio, it's worth looking into.
Which brings me to my most important point: why study Spanish in Colombia? Of aaaaaall the Spanish-speaking countries? Because it's perfect for it, that's why. Although expensive to fly here, it has the typical South/Central American benefits of being much cheaper to live, as well as being smack in the middle of some of the most exciting backpacking destinations in the world. Not to mention, you're only a $200 dollar flight away from Aruba... However, because of the problems of the past, it's not as trampled by tourists as pretty much any other country in Latin America. This also means that the people here barely speak English, which is its most appealing quality for students of Spanish. Your Spanish will almost always be better than most Colombian's English, even those doing degrees in English are only at an Intermediate standard. And because tourists are still such a rarity, you will find no shortage of Colombians to talk to, although possibly while staring at you in blind amazement and confusion. They're eager to learn and eager to make friends with the new influx of outsiders, so it's the ideal chance for a student of Spanish at any level to get in some authentic practice. Not to mention, Colombians are known for speaking the clearest, most correct form of Spanish in all of Latin America. As an excellent base for starting to learn or a place to perfect your existing language skills, I genuinely think you can't do better than Colombia, and I hope that more universities will start offering placements here, in the city of universities.
(Also the fruit. You must all come and try the fruit.)
x Erin x
- comments
Christine Jones I love the sound of your teacher he sounds like Dr Who
Marco Hi there. I left you a message on the messages tab of this site. Thanks
Joanne Keep up the good work Bandits!!