Get what you pay for?
Let me start by saying I'd love to give Conversa Idiomas a strong review. Several of the staff are well-meaning and fun to spend time with. And, to be fair, the school is well-located, affordable, the class sizes are small, and the best teachers are very good.
I attended an 'intensive' two hours per day elementary Spanish language programme for three weeks in November and I think my Spanish has improved.
However...
The school is small and this is also its greatest weakness.
Certainly in November it was only able to offer a 2 hour per day programme (hardly intensive) and not any of the other major programmes advertised on its web site. The cohort ranged from 2 some days to seven at most, and the range of language skills is quite wide. For me, at least, there was no test prior to joining the programme, presumably because there was only one class available. The 3 or 4 hour per day programmes were not available.
Turning to the school facilities - it is a small number of classrooms with a white board in each - that is it! No areas for networking (and the coffee vending machine has not been functioning for a long time, apparently); no use of ICT or language laboratory type facilities for when you are not in class. Quite a large turnover of teachers (I had three different ones over the period) and modest if any handover and continuity between them. No extra-mural activities and tokenistic pastoral care.
I think it's probably OK for the casual expat who wants to pass the time of day dabbling in Spanish language, and it is cheaper than many other schools. But it's not for the serious learner...and 'you get what you pay for!' read more