My husband and I have taken classes at Academy don Quijote on 4 separate occasions, 4 weeks at a time. I cannot express to you how amazing the people and process are at this school. I want to describe a wee bit about their process. So, each week is sequenced and when start, they get you in a class as close to your level as possible, so it could be a High A2 or a low b1, or a middle A1. The professors have set goals through the weeks, although I have noticed that if no one is leaving in a particular week, they may go faster or slower to accommodate the class. The professors also allow for the class to veer off topic. You have to remember, if you are speaking Spanish, you are learning Spanish. For me, I have taken details notes in every class and in the corner of each page of notes is a list of vocabulary words that I learned that day. VERY helpful.
Their grammar lessons are excellent as well. I just finished a 4-week stint with them, and we focused on the Subjunctive. it's hard, but we learned about the subjunctive while discussing lots of different topics, in addition to reviewing grammar rules.
I want to highlight some of the professors for you too--
Virginia- she is wonderful, she is intense; keeps the class moving quickly forward while ensuring no one is left behind.
Alberto, I was lucky enough to have him for two different classes, A2 and B1, he is an avid reader and has so much additional knowledge that he brings to the table. He is a natural born teacher and can break things down into bite size pieces for you.
Sergio- he adds a competitive piece to the learning. He had us conjugating verbs on the white board in a race. VERY fun. he also challenges you to question yourself, rather than just correcting you.
Alesandra- she is Peruvian and brings an elegance to the classroom, she teaches Castillano but gives you the color of another country's dialect of Spanish. We had a long talk about what it means to be polite in Spanish. VERY helpful.
Elisa, so much fun, she brings her whole self to the classroom, and I live for it. She can also break down the grammar rules in a way to assist in learning, comprehension and application. Ask her how many languages she speaks.
Eva- i was lucky enough to have Eva for the past two weeks. She has a warm and caring passion for teaching. I feel like she truly enjoys teaching, more subjunctive work, which is highly confusing, but we worked so much on trigger words for desires, hypothesizes and subject changes that it clicks on when to use the subjunctive.
If you are looking for a school to take lessons at. this is the one.
Trust their process. it works. read more
