I got the livingsocial deal and thought it was a great bargain- it was clear to me when I bought it that when 300 something other people have bought the thing that I needed to go ahead and register for a class so I had no trouble getting what I wanted. I went to a false beginner class but realized at the end that I might have been more advanced than I thought when I signed up. I told my instructor that I think the class might be too easy, and she suggested that I contact the coordinator. I hadn't even made it home yet, and the coordinator had already emailed me saying that she heard I might need to go up to the next level, and that there was a class starting a few days later that I could join. I went to the new class and it was exactly my level (advanced false beignner) and I love it. The coordinator had told the teacher ahead of time so when I came in, the teacher greeted me by name, and when the coordinator came in to collect the coupons, she remembered me and there was no hassle with switching classes. I can't wait til my next class! Tiffany read more

I read the previous reviews and despite what they said decided to try this company based on location alone. I started with a medium size class of students but by the second meeting 3 had dropped and 2 more dropped by the third meeting. I did feel like I was getting more attention for the small class size. However, I wanted to get more out of the class and felt that I was held back by one of the students as he needed additional help when the rest of us understood the concepts. I felt that their was no structure to the class. We would get assignments to help us learn verbs and practice structure and then the teacher would not ask for them. I would definitely look at other places before coming here again. read more

The only thing that saved my experience was my instructor, Cecilia. All of my dealings with Maria, the owner/coordinator were met with a disinterested and abrasive demeanor. On Maria's suggestion, I enrolled in the False Beginner class. When I mentioned after the first class that it was a substantial review and I didn't feel like I was getting much out of it, she suggested that maybe I move down, not up - clearly not listening and not at all helpful. Additionally, the building damn near requires a secret code to enter/exit, and our classroom was constantly moving and being invaded by cleaning crews. Cecilia however, was a delight, and the only reason I continued to attend class. She made herself available before and after class for questions, and tried to tailor homework to fit our individual interests. If you do decide to take classes here (though I would advise against it), Cecilia is your lady. read more

Pretty good language instruction, but unfortunately they are a little disorganized. We went through 3 instructors and multiple classroom/student changes before settling in after three weeks. The over zealous building security (twenty minute check in) is guaranteed to make you late for class, which will begin with or without you. Sorry folks, ningunos reembolsos. read more

I did a Spanish immersion semester in college and was hoping this would pick up where the semester left off (even though there's no relation between the two). I'm proficient in Spanish, and signed up for the Intermediate workshop. We spent a lot of time concentrating on the subjective tenses... which I rarely use conversationally. While it was good to study the grammar again, I bought the Groupon because I'm going to South America this month and was hoping for more of a refresher in conversational Spanish... I'd also like to note that my class started with 7 students - a good size group for this type of class. By the time the session was over, we have four additional students come up from the false beginner class. read more

I am currently attending Spanish for beginners, thought by Cristian Camillo. I am enjoying the course very much and I think that Christian has thought us a lot in a short period of time and in a very nice, fun way. I am thinking about attending another course after this. The coordinator, Prof Maria Aragone is very attentive and she make sure that the students are taking care of. read more

I have been working on learning Spanish for some time now. I took it in high school and college informally, but never took it very serious. Now that I was finally serious about learning, I was excited to see the Living Social deal for a Saturday four-hour workshop. I was nervous about not being able to keep up, but my instructor Maria (not the owner, different Maria) was extremely helpful, understanding and patient. I liked the workshop so much that I signed up for the eight week False Beginner course. I was excited to see that Maria was once again my instructor. The class has helped expand my vocabulary and gives you plenty of time to practice speaking since the classes are never larger than 12 or so students. We're now in our fourth week and the class has dropped down to about eight students, which is fine with me because it's more personal one-on-one time for the students. Maria is great about answering any questions and addressing any particular needs or interests we may have. I fully intend on taking their remaining courses (Advanced False Beginner, Low Intermediate, Intermediate, etc). Only down side is the building access. While it's a gorgeous building with a great location, the security is tight. You have to be let in by guards, swiped into the elevator, swiped into the learning center and again into the classroom. Though, in all fairness, they rent the building so this is all beyond their control. Overall I highly recommend the program for anyone who is serious about learning a language. read more

Lazos de Amistad is an organization that helps students learn conversational Spanish. I liked the location, teachers, time of classes (Tuesday evenings after work), and price of the classes. For the most part, this is a well-run organization, and classes are helpful in teaching students conversational Spanish. My only complaint is that there are different classes occurring at different levels at the same time, and the organizer is bad at understanding which class level which student needs to be in. It took me 2-3 classes in the 8-week program to correctly identify which class level I need to be in, and I had to fight with the program organizer throughout this entire process. If they would let students switch classes easier to obtain class levels most suited for them, then I would have given this organization more stars... read more

I signed up for the beginner course from a Groupon deal. I had looked for other Spanish classes in the area and this schedule fit my schedule the best. Knowing barely any Spanish at all, this class has really helped expand my vocabulary and understanding of basic grammar. The small class size is great, and the instructor required each student to speak in class. This helped with pronunciation and confidence! IDs are checked at the door, so go a little early. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. I've enjoyed my experience and would take more classes in the future. read more

The False beginner course was more like an extreme beginners course. We didn't really use the book, or follow chapters in our homework, or progress by building on what we studied earlier, or have quizzes, or anything like that, - we rather just kept repeating variations on "Hola, Como estas, mui bien gracias, y tu" for many, many weeks. I learned mostly about Nathaly's personal perceptions of her home country of Colombia (explained in English), more than any Spanish language acquisition. On the other hand, the administrative organizers seem very professional, organized and responsive. read more

I was meant to start at the 'false beginner' level, but within the first 10 minutes of class it became clear the teacher was completely unprepared for our lesson. She had no idea what to do with the group and instead of the conversation practice their website promises she was just doing long lists of vocabulary which were as useless as back in High School when you learned phrases like, 'the monkey is under the desk' that have no place in everyday life & use. The class size was small, which is nice, except that the levels were so varied it made things very difficult since one of the students barely knew 10 words while another spoke almost exclusively in Spanish the entire time. What's more, at the end of the class, the teacher actually told the entire group that 2 of the students were at the wrong level and would have to be moved to a lower class, which while true, seemed quite rude to do in front of the other students. I was so looking forward to brushing up on things and being able to start below intermediate but above beginner, this place was such a disappointment! read more

They do not honor the groupon or living social certificates. Mine didn't even expire yet and they said that the workshops are all filled. Beware of doing business with this company. read more

I paid for a workshop through one of those deals I get by e-mail. I signed up for a class before the expiration date, but they said it was filled. And, they're not willing to provide the money back. Horrible customer service. At least, the organization should reimburse people for their certificates if they're saying that the workshops are filled up. Please go to another language center that follows its own policy (specifically expiration date), good customer service, and honest business practice. read more

I enrolled through BuyWithMe voucher and got a great deal on an 8 week course in the intermediate level. I thought the instructor, Mariana, was very good in her ability to gauge speaking abilities of various students and tailor each class to our respective strengths/weaknesses. Mariana is great at making her students feel comfortable in the class, encouraging group dialogue, and presenting interesting and useful lesson plans. read more

I got a Groupon for $110 for an eight-week intermediate Spanish class, which is a great deal. I am on week 6 of the class right now, and it has definitely been a good refresher. Nathalie is a fabulous teacher and uses lots of real-world examples and useful conversational exercises rather than just going through a book. She also varies the format of the class every week. I have had a really good experience with the Lazos de Amistad classes. For the price I paid, they have exceeded my expectations. read more

I took the beginner level course. I liked that class are small. They helped with starting on a date I wanted. Could be moving faster and cover more material, but there were other people in the class that did not know much about Spanish or any other foreign language. read more

I had taken various classes at the USDA Graduate School in the past, but was always totally stressed out by the heavy traffic at the end of the work day. That's the reason I signed up with Groupon right away - hoping that a school much closer to my place of work would also offer good instruction. I had no problem whatsoever using my voucher and my hopes have been met. I ended up in a nice class with about a dozen students initially (the size twindled as time went by) and a very nice and interesting teacher, who encourages the students to talk as much as possible, neither constantly talking herself, nor over-correcting (which in my experience can sometimes discourage students from participating in lively discussions). We had a good mix of grammar and reading materials about different topics and were also asked to prepare little presentations. I would characterize the atmosphere in the class as relaxed and supportive. Many of the students were young professionals with some connection to Latin America and several are on their way to living/working there. I am curious to see if there will be a different group after the summer. read more

I just completed my second course with Lazos de Amistad. Both times I was in the low intermediate class and had slightly different experiences. I liked my first teacher a lot but felt he did not challenge us as much as I would have liked. My second teacher was amazing! She was extremely prepared for each class with worksheets, activities and games. I thought Maria, the organizer was very helpful and let me change my start date right before my first class due to a work conflict. Some peopel on here have complained about building security which, honestly takes about 3 minutes, not 20. Its a normal downtown DC office building and when 50 people all come at 6:58 p.m. its bound to take a few minutes to print out name tags. If you come a few minutes early there are no problems. Similarly scheduling rooms was not an issue. We had to move once after the first week because people move to different classes. I see it as a very positive thing that they let us change levels. Its tough to assess hundreds of students every 8 weeks for a class so I totally understand the difficulty. Honestly, it was not a problem for anyone in my class. Overall I am a fan of Lazos! read more

I used a Groupon for their Advanced False Beginner Course and I was really pleased with the classes. I took Spanish many years ago in high school and college and my conversation skills need a lot of work. The teacher was good at catering to different abilities in the class- understandably, everyone had varied strengths and weaknesses and was coming from a different background with the language. This probably can't be avoided, but it may have been helpful to have some kind of screening to sort students into different levels. My only other complaint was having to purchase a textbook that we didn't use very often. However, I really liked that the class was so interactive and not text heavy. The teacher kept things interesting and light-hearted, and with such a small group we all got to know each other. I enjoyed the classes and felt that my conversation improved in a short time. After taking Spanish in an academic setting for so long, it was great to study in a more relaxed environment. I'm hoping to continue taking classes in the future, although it will be hard to top that original Groupon deal. read more

I purchased a groupon for spanish classes here and could not have been more disappointed when I got to the first class. This language school has an extremely weird setup - my class was conducted in the KITCHEN of some office in downtown DC, and the instructor was somewhere between bad and mediocre. There were no blackboards/whiteboards or any clear handouts - we were told to purchase a textbook but didn't follow that either. Instead, the teacher had these large sheets of paper that she attempted to tape to one of the pillars in the kitchen, using tape that was clearly not made for such a purpose. As a result, these large sheets of paper kept falling off the pillar. Also, since one isn't meant to write on pillars, she was clearly having difficulty writing on the paper. The class had a generally depressing feel - how could it not, it was in the kitchen of some office and had these large sheets of paper continually falling. I highly recommend AGAINST attending classes here, even if it is with a groupon. I've attended classes at the International Language Institute in Dupont Circle, and while not perfect, they at least had classrooms, whiteboards, and some structure. read more

The Conversation Club course is very interesting. I believe that the culture of the target language is an important aspect of learning the language and since I have been a part of the group I have gained a rich cultural awareness which is definitely helpful in how I produce the language. There are quite a few things about the management that would turn someone off, but the advantages have far outweighed the disadvantages for me hence, my focus is on the positives. The teacher is great, my group members are from various walks of life and that creates an interesting learning environment. We read articles from Spanish newspapers together on current topics, discuss and give our own opinions. It is amazing how just one article takes us through many different topics in one class! The teacher's method of questioning is very useful in helping us to think and to challenge us in producing the language. read more