Writing this review as an onboarding student, the counselor representative failed to take any pride…read morein supporting an onboarding student or make the experience encouraging. Israel from the EOPS stepped up and gave me a detailed and went above and beyond to take time to set up an appointment with a counselor to get into late start classes.

This is actually my first Yelp review and probably the only one I'll ever write, but I felt…read morecompelled to share the incredible experience my son and I had with one of the staff members at Miramar College. My son is planning to transfer to Miramar College from another community college with hopes of eventually attending UC San Diego. Unfortunately, he had a difficult experience with administration at his previous school, so we were already feeling pretty discouraged and overwhelmed trying to navigate the transfer process. We attempted to contact the counseling office and called several different numbers without any luck. Finally, we tried another number we found on Google, and to our surprise, someone answered. We explained our situation, and the gentleman we spoke with apologized and explained that the entire SDCCD district network was currently down. Even though he worked at an off-site location and had limited access because of the outage, he still took the time to help us. He asked whether we were military affiliated, and when I explained that we were not and had simply found the number online while searching for Miramar counseling, he immediately said, "No problem, I'm here to help you." From that moment on, he went above and beyond. He patiently walked us through everything my son needed to get started with the transfer process and assured us that once the systems were restored, he would follow up with additional links and information. His optimism, kindness, and genuine excitement for my son's future at Miramar College were truly a breath of fresh air. By the end of the conversation, we both felt relieved, encouraged, and excited again about this next chapter. A few days later, just as promised, we received a detailed email with links for transcript evaluation, counseling appointments, financial aid, and additional resources. We want to give a huge thank you to Mr. Ron at the Miramar Base for his professionalism, compassion, and willingness to help complete strangers during a stressful time. People like him make such a difference. We only wish we had base access so we could thank him in person. We sincerely hope Miramar College administration sees this review and recognizes him for the outstanding support and care he provided.

Here is my review after 5 years of classes…read more TL;DR: Pura Buena Onda is hands-down the best place to build real-world Spanish speaking confidence in fun, small-group Zoom classes. Beyond dramatically improving my conversational skills over the past five years, it even helped me build wonderful lifelong friendships! Prior to PBO, I took a Spanish course through UCSD's continuing education program. That class was very conventional, with a heavy focus on grammar rules and writing. What I love about PBO is its complete focus on real-world conversation and communication. What makes PBO stand out: Small, Engaging Classes: Each 90-minute Zoom session is capped at just 6 students, allowing everyone ample time to speak. Natural Conversation: Classes feature random topics or guided question lists. Teachers let you express yourself while gently correcting grammar and pronunciation along the way. Post-Class Notes: After every session, you receive chat notes summarizing feedback and new vocabulary for quick revision. Bite-Sized Grammar: They incorporate quick "mini-lecciones" right when you need them--just enough grammar to support your communication without slowing down the flow. Community & Connection: Beyond learning Spanish, I've made wonderful friends through these classes, and we now meet regularly outside of class. What a fantastic bonus! Their core philosophy is that language is about connecting with other human beings, not being grammatically perfect. They encourage you to use everything you have--gestures, facial expressions, and whatever vocabulary you know--just to get talking and build confidence. I've been taking lessons with PBO for five years and have steadily progressed through their levels. Even though I could probably progress faster if I practiced more outside of class, I am thrilled with where they've brought me. Whenever I travel to Spanish-speaking countries, I feel excited and empowered because my ability to communicate improves every single year. PBO has been so inspiring that I've even thought about starting a school using their model for my own mother tongue! If you want to actually speak Spanish, look no further.

I've been at PBO for 1.5 years and have seen great improvement with my Spanish, have met many…read morewonderful people, and been able to attend events outside of class hosted by PBO. If you're thinking about it, DO IT! Thanks to Carolina for helping me get through A1 and A2 Spanish ‍

I've tried other conversation based learning in San Diego and Culture and Language center is light…read moreyears ahead. My teacher Izak is exceptional and Lalo, the owner , is incredibly professional, responsive and he cares greatly about his business/students. There are always extracurricular events such as trips of nights out and it great to build a community and friendships. The model is to have only 4 students per teacher and this makes a huge difference, furthermore, there is a curriculum on which the class is based on. So we spend a portion of the class chatting, a portion learning and the third part is to practice what we just learned. I always feel like my spanish improves after every class and I cannot say the same for the other conversational based learning.

My husband and I are enrolled in weekly classes here and we LOVE our experience! We both met with…read moreLalo to begin with for placement, and he was so kind, personable, and reassuring. Through my conversation with Lalo, a lot of my anxiety immediately melted away. Once we were placed, we signed up for weekly classes based on our skill level and have had nothing but a positive experience. Our teacher is Andrea - she is charismatic, professional, and skillfully integrates on-the-fly lessons to our broader goals (i.e., when we are confused by a concept Andrea organically integrates it into our lesson and explains it in such a clear way). Everything we do is in Spanish - 45 minutes of conversation, then 45 minutes of lessons/activities/homework review. The Culture and Language Center has really helped cure so much of my speaking anxiety and given me a lot of confidence - now I feel safe to speak, play, and even make mistakes. :) I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this program to anyone. If you are on the fence, you won't regret this experience!

My husband and I have been studying Spanish here for almost a year. We love our teacher, Yolanda…read more She is very helpful at explaining things and has patience when you don't quite grasp the information. She always makes it fun. Which I find as a great motivator. I look forward to going to class every week. She is great at making a personal connection with her students. My only criticism would be for the owner to include your book with the price of the lessons. It seems a little silly to charge a fee for lessons then a separate $30 for each book. The learning materials are written by the owner Luz. She clearly has thought out each lesson plan and the books are excellent. Overall, whether you are a true beginner, have a little Spanish or are Advanced this is a great place. Most of the other students we run into (from other classes) speak excellent Spanish and have been studying with them for years. Highly recommended.

Over the past 5 years, I have tried several language schools in my quest to learn Spanish. The…read moreother schools are exclusively "online teaching" and have registration systems that are difficult to work with and require questionable security commitments. I was hacked because of one of these exposures. With Spanish Language Center, you contact them, find a lesson time and teacher that meets your needs, show up and get a great person to person lesson. Payment takes place at the first lesson... in person! The owner, Luz Kutchins in the author of a complete course for Spanish Learning. Spanish Language Center is "Numero Uno"!

Both my kids, 10 year old daughter and 8 year old son have been attending Jackie's Spanish Tutoring…read morefor the past 3 months. They had no background of the language and were initially apprehensive. But Jackie made the whole learning experience so easy and seamless. My kids were the youngest students of Jackie and the way she approached their tutoring aligned to their ages is very impressive. In just three months they have gone from no knowledge of Spanish to be now able to frame sentences. And to add to it both my and my hubby also seem to have developed an interest and we are learning from our kids.What an amazing teacher to create such an interest in a family where they had no idea of the language. Highly recommendable to any background, any age if you want to learn Spanish.

Jackie is such a FUN teacher! She has a great sense of humor and fun personality. My husband and…read moreI had only 2 months to learn some basic Spanish before our trip to South America. I would have liked to work with her longer, but the time we did have she pushed us to pronounce words properly and use the language properly as well. I highly recommend Jackie! She clearly loves her work and it shines in her teaching!

We have used Rose's services at San Diego Translation Center on multiple occasions. We are a large…read moreimporter and communication with Chinese suppliers has always been challenging. Her knowledge of the language and identifying the unique personality of each company representative is invaluable. She is patient, listens well, extremely professional, and is uncanny at understanding each unique communication taking place and what we as the customer are trying to accomplish. Would recommend Rose at the highest level to any company or private individual in need of her unique skill set.

I love working with Rose, our company hired her two years in the row already for our annual…read moreconference in San Diego. Her expertise, friendliness, and language knowledge had helped us a lot in communicating with vendors.

In my experience, I am happy with the school there. The teacher was awesome and caring especially…read moreCindy. She is an excellent teacher! My daughter loved the school there.

Hours of operation - poor Communication with parents - poor…read moreFood - poor - not provided Education - hard to say .. I think they are great teachers just were very lazy with my son, read my review. Professionalisms and ethics - poor In order to avoid accessory emotions involved I took some time before posting my review. First of all, I don't think this is bed daycare. I was unfortunate to have very poor experience there and I am sharing my subjective opinion. We are bilingual family and we value idea of teaching child language since early childhood. This place seemed absolutely fantastic idea. Cindy was very knowledgeable and spend whole hour with me on first interview. It seemed excellent place for us. We agreed on day when to begin full time program. Unfortunately, she forgot everything we spoke about at our first day of attendance, who we are and what languages our child speaks, forms that needs to be filled out , etc.. She just wasn't ready for us. But this seemed understandable two month has passed, she may have forgotten. After one week of attendance we were informed that the daycare will be closed on Fridays. This was a bit disappointing because me and my husband both work and we look for full time daycare. Again, we understood that, Cindy kept referring on COVID situation, sad to find that at the last moment though.. We decided to wait and see how are son is doing there and hired nanny for Fridays. When I picked my son from the daycare I asked what did you do guys today? What were you learning on circles? What Spanish word did he hear? Emelda got very confused by my questions. And the answer was simply - Nothing, just playing. He is too small to learn. He did great today, pooped twice, didn't eat much.. Here is the point when I got questions... I pay $1270/mo for 4 days I have to cook myself lunch and snacks for whole day The time is NOT 7am-6pm(google and yelp business time) , It is 9:00am - 4:30pm - that the actual time when kids are there. AND I receive such answer... He is too small yet... When I started to express my concern Cindy told me that It is not good to FORCE my son learn Spanish .. She must be forgot that we have 3 times a week Spanish teacher coming and spending 4 hours each time with Jacob since he turned 1 year old.. the teacher is psychologist she teaches him through the play.. and then I hear this... Of course after I reminded that Emelda gave me detailed report and she really worked with Jacob. When I told to Cindy that we would like to leave. Cindy said that there is no problem with that and she said it is good, because they plan to close temporarily.. She refused to return Deposit and was very surprised that I asked about that. Of course after written request she had to return it, again referring to unusual COVID situation, mentioning that all parents were very understandable except me.

As a native Cantonese speaker, it is difficult to nurture the language and heritage in San Diego…read more We looked around and found CSSD when our child turned 4. Our hopes were (1) to connect with other Cantonese speakers in the community and foster a social/cultural context for using Cantonese, (2) foster Chinese literacy. Going on Year 3 with CSSD, Ms. Cassandra and her school team have been proactive in seeking family feedback and enhancing instruction. Every Saturday in Cantonese class, the children learn in a non-traditional format. Having learned from my own peers who went to Chinese school, we had been concerned about the lack of engagement and retaining learning via rigid instruction (e.g., sitting, listening, drilling). But here at CSSD, we deeply appreciate the interactive approach in instruction - weekly themes, hands-on activities such as calligraphy, cooking, projects, and using different media - music, videos, stories. Of course, weekly home practice is still a must and much appreciated. For those that don't speak Cantonese well, the teacher has been helpful by providing pronunciation recordings for supporting home practice. As the school year winds down, each class also prepares for and performs each May during the graduation ceremony. It is always amazing to witness their progress. CSSD also has many community events. Ms. Cassandra often informs families in community events, and we are really grateful for those opportunities. Last, we were invited to watch NeZha 2, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It is crucial that my child gets to experience the Chinese culture through popular media, as other children living in Chinese-speaking countries would experience. I highly recommend CSSD for their Mandarin and Cantonese programs!

This school provides a solid Chinese language education and is the only one to provide options in…read moreCantonese and Mandarin. The staff are warm and family.

Spencer is the greatest of all time. I'll take him over Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and Usain…read moreBolt any day. I graduated from one of the top universities in America, and I can confidently say that Spencer is better than nearly all of the professors there. Seldom can you find a teacher who is overflowing with knowledge, is able to convey that knowledge concisely and effectively, and manages to not display an ounce of hubris. Not only is he a walking EMS encyclopedia, he genuinely cares for his students. He wants everyone to succeed, and it shows in both the way he teaches the class and how he treats his students. His lax and understanding nature creates a more comfortable environment that fosters growth and learning. After graduating from the class, I feel fully prepared for the NREMT. But more than just an EMT class, I feel that I have learned an incredible amount of practical knowledge that I can utilize for the rest of my career in medicine. For more of the logistical stuff, I took the 5 week full-time course. It's a lot, but it's manageable--especially if you have a background in science. I was able to score above average on all the exams by basically just listening to Spencer's lectures. I PERSONALLY did not feel the need to read the book or go over the PowerPoint slides, but they are both great resources for additional help. I think the fact that I was able to do well in the class simply based on Spencer's lectures is more a reflection on his ability than mine. Random tips: -There is no wifi. So if you want to be connected to the internet, consider getting a Wifi hotspot for a month if you don't have it already -There's a Keurig machine -Don't worry too much about the uniform. You need it before your ride alongs that are scheduled usually 2-5 weeks after the beginning of the course. Of course, you will look goofy if you are the only one not wearing the uniform during class, but don't worry too much if you don't have it prepared by the first day of class -You need to print a lot of things. Just be aware of this and prepare accordingly. -I highly recommend a restaurant called "Tadian". It is super close by, inexpensive, and tasty with great customer service.

I loved my experience at WestCoast EMT San Diego doing the accelerated-fulltime course. Our teacher…read moreSpencer was so experienced and fun to have and made sure we learned what we needed to be prepared. We also had some skill instructors that were amazing including Mark who will soon also be teaching there too . I also had another amazing teacher named Danielle who filled in one day and helped with skills on a different day. I will miss that experience.