II have taken over ten online language classes from various schools in French, Japanese, Chinese and Italian, and I looked forward to working with Berges on an efficient, cheap solution to learning Spanish. I loved working with the various teachers, especially Silvana, who kept the coursework interesting by offering her anecdotes and conversation practice for the first 10 minutes of each class. Berges uses the Graf Method, which is great for learning Spanish basics and practical grammar. The classes, unfortunately, mostly focused on grammar, even though conversation should be embedded in language learning. (I understand Berges had conversation classes, but the Basic Conversation Course is only available if you are taking or have completed Level 4.)
Each class had various levels of Spanish learning per student (understandable), but many of the slower learners held the class back. People taking a single trial lesson disrupted the course more often than usual, and I felt the teachers tried to incorporate them into the class structure, but they never returned. The teachers did their best, and I enjoyed working with one of them. However, in another class I took, the teacher was sporadic and was replaced by two teachers on multiple occasions before another teacher completely replaced them. You get used to learning with a certain teacher, and I understand things come up in people's lives, but communication with the students regarding this was not handled appropriately.
Regarding the homework and the book, I could have been more impressed with the quality of Berges' book. I had ordered a physical copy from Amazon before the administration put them on the website halfway through my course. When I received the book, it was damaged and felt cheap. The text in black-and-white A4 paper with some grammar mistakes, which the teachers would point out, cheapened the product greatly. The homework also was just translation and paragraph writing, which is good, but it could be better (there's also no answer key). The reading could have been more inspiring and interesting than other language class workbooks I've used. Every class homework took 30 minutes to cover.
I won't get into the website as I've seen a major improvement since I started. Still, many Berges teachers need to mention the podcasts and other media available, which is a shame because it was very hard to find other media and materials for learning Spanish with Berges. Other teachers at different language schools knew of readily available workshops that Berges lacked. There should be more workshops outside of grammar and conversation that includes culture, happy hour, a book offer, or even doing yoga in Spanish.
Overall, it's a good language school and program that can learn much from student reviews. I have seen improvements with the website; the staff, especially Victor and Silvana, were amazing with communication. Much more progress can be made to distinguish Berges from other language schools, as I want to see Berges succeed with its great potential. read more