Maca is brilliant, a gifted natural teacher. She is able to engage my 2 wild boys in 45min lessons…read moretwice a week, and they love her! She makes Spanish fun and rewarding, AND she holds them to high standards of grammatical correctness, pronunciation, and expanding vocabulary. I'm forever grateful and in admiration of Maca's skill.

Maca has greatly improved our 10 year olds Spanish. We were in Mexico recently and our daughter was…read moreable to speak and understand Spanish so much better than before we found Maca. I highly recommend her!

I've been studying ESL at Berkeley Adult School since 2024 and I really like it here. The teachers…read moreexplain clearly and make learning fun. The classmates are nice and come from all over the world. I can feel my English getting better and I'm so happy I joined this school.

I took a class with Crystal Graves who has to be one of the worst instructors I've ever had. The…read moreclass was on Zoom. Most of the world has been using Zoom for years and has an understanding of how to use this platform. Ms. Graves has chosen not to master online instruction. Due to her poor instruction, the class was very disorganized. Also, it would have been nice if she had a quiet space to teach without personal interruptions. The final kicker was trying to get students to buy things off her Etsy site. I felt the class was a waste of time and dropped it which is sad because it could have been so much better.

Hi, I highly recommend this Academy and in particular our great teacher Francesca Lorenzon…read more Francesca is an excellent teacher, who truly cared about me and the rest of our class. She made sure that we learned about culture, geography and language. She always welcomed our questions and was just fun to be around. This carried forward into the overall classroom experience where all had a good time and ended up going out to lunch every few weeks. I studied Italian for eight months to prepare for my trip to Italy and highly recommend Francesca and the Academy. Joe

I have been taking Italian language and literature classes with Polyglottist Language Academy off…read moreand on since 2017. I initially started taking classes because I had planned a trip to Italy for the summer, but after my trip I was motivated to continue. I have since returned to Italy 2 more times. I've taken Italian classes with several instructors including but not limited to Sole, Valerie, Cinzia, Oscar, and Francesca. I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every class. The instructors are knowledgeable, patient, and eager to create a positive and enriching learning environment. Olga has been even more accommodating in light of the difficulties that arose with COVID-19 social distancing protocols, even allowing classes to take place on Zoom. I would 100% recommend taking classes with this academy!

I have been taking classes at Centro Latino for 4 years now. The entire time I have been working…read morewith Ximena, and she has been so great as a teacher. She cares a lot about my learning individually and is constantly catering the class to my strengths and weaknesses. We play fun games, listen to spanish music, learn about the history of various countries and their people, and do it all in spanish as a double-learning opportunity. I went from not remembering any of the spanish I learned in high school to being able to understand and converse more confidently than I ever have. The classes have emphasized proper grammar but also really help with interacting socially and in certain situations with spanish speaking people. I have used the skills I've developed to have many full, 30+ minute conversations with people in spanish speaking countries, and it's given me an opportunity to connect with people I wouldn't have otherwise. Highly recommend them.

I like the teachers in this school. They are engaging and knowledgeable in their grasp of Spanish…read more However, the school has little control over what is actually taught in class. I recently finished beginner 1 and moved on to beginner 2 with a different teacher, and found it almost impossible to adapt to. It turned out that my first teacher combined materials from different sessions. Also, the teacher in the second class was giving out handouts and assignments from an older edition of the textbook. As a result, even though I bought the book, I still had to copy the items from the teacher's book because each edition has different page numbers and homework questions. I wish there could be more uniformity in this school.

Incredible professional staff, our children have really loved going there and we have seen their…read moreChinese skills blossom. They look forward to it and have built meaningful relationships and friendships here too. The enrichment classes have even helped our kids, love math! The staff treat our kids like their own, and we have even done the summer camps there because our children love it so much. 10 stars!

Transitioning away from 2.5 hour/day hybrid school, Su Yun was so great for my two kids (and their…read moreadults) this summer. Having a solid block from 8am - 6pm at summer camp for 3 weeks was a nice throwback the the old, pre-pandemic normal days. My kids (ages 5 and 8) loved the hands-on STEM projects and outdoor time at the nearby playgrounds. We loved that they were able to make new friends, play and have some Mandarin language exposure. Weekly photos of what the kids did at camp were also shared which was nice because often times they forget details of their day and it helped to facilitate more conversation about their days. Su Yun was also really great about ensuring (as best they could) a safe environment with all the COVID prevention protocols in place. The summer adventure was completed without any issues or outbreaks. The staff was also so thoughtful! My younger son's birthday happened while at camp. We didn't say anything and then he came home with a small little goody bag of snacks and small little treats like pencils/erasers. It was a nice little surprise gift. With all of that said, we will definitely look into returning again next year!

My kiddo finished her first year of after-school programming at Hanwen and is looking forward to…read morenext year. She's attended other Chinese-language programs in the past but shared with me that she's learned the most at Hanwen (from songs to zhuyin to full characters). On top of that, there's a great student community and they have fun activities like kung-fu, too. Thanks for running a great school, Ron and team!

Our daughter (5 yrs old) currently attends Hanwen's afterschool program and she loves it. In…read moreaddition to the Chinese language classes, she is also enrolled in a mindfulness class (her favorite), a kung-fu class, an abacus class,and a yoga class. The instructors and the founder (Ron) are all highly engaged, supportive, and friendly. The program is very well run and offers a wonderfully enriching environment and an extensive assortment of activities. Our daughter reports to us on a daily basis (in Chinese) about things she learned and things she enjoyed doing with her new friends. We highly recommend the school to all our friends and enjoy being a part of the community.

My 20m old attends L'Academy and she loves it every time I tell her shes going to "La Escuelita"…read moreshe gets sooo happy and she starts jumping and clapping. She comes home singing a new song every week either in Spanish or in English. I love how I can see her through the day throughout pictures (they use the 1core app) I can see her face and see if shes been happy or sad and I just love love that. She loves her teachers they are nice and sweet. I love how efficient Ms. Rachel is always answering questions and concerns on a timely manner. I definitely recommend L'Academy and my baby will also be attending here when shes old enough. Great school great services. Thank you for all you guys

Our child was a part of L'Academy from age 18 months to 4 years old, entering their toddler class…read moreand eventually moving to their Mandarin class. We really cherished our experience with L'Academy. L'Academy has a great balance of play and learning. Their outdoor playground is really interactive, and I appreciated how dirty my kid would get at school. He would also surprise us with how much he learned. The hours are really great for working parents, and there aren't too many school closure days. They also are very accommodating of allergies. Rachel was a really great director. She was easy to communicate with, and she was very involved in our child's care and education. I liked how she would send out newsletters and implemented new ways for us parents to get involved. They also take a lot of photos and videos that they share on a daily basis so we could get a peek at what our kid was doing. My kid loved reading, and Rachel would always make sure there were new books available in the subject he liked. Ava Laoshi, the Mandarin teacher, was very caring and loving. My kid still talks about how much he misses her. My kid picked up a lot of Mandarin, even though we barely speak it at home. I was impressed at how my kid enjoyed learning Chinese. He would always sing the songs he learned there and he would try to engage us in conversation. It was really clear to us how much Ava Laoshi shared her heart with our kid. L'Academy also was a great place for us to meet other parents. They often have parties or events for us to attend. From our experience at L'Academy, we ended up making a lot of friends and we now have a little parenting community together.

I am fluent in Spanish but have a daughter whose Spanish I had neglected. She was 5 years old and I…read morethought it was too late to do anything about it, until a friend in the same situation recommended PrekSpanish to me, and I am so glad she did! At PrekSpanish they don't just deliver a Spanish class, they give you cues, leads to continue generating simple Spanish language situations at home, in a playful and natural way, which is exactly what I was looking for. Their method requires parent participation during the class, so be prepared to work along with your child. They have an incredible rapport with children, and the classes are variegated and quite imaginative. Spanish is now gradually making its way back into our home, I am very thankful to Prekspanish.

From the owner: PreKSpanish is a Spanish institute, specialized in kids from 18 months to 5 years old. We employ a…read moreholistic teaching method which is one of the best ways of learning to speak Spanish, rather than dividing the language into neat and tidy (yet disconnected) compartments. That means no more vocabulary lists or verb conjugations! With this program, children develop Spanish in a meaningful way while having fun through games and songs. We use day to day activities, like "Let's take a bath" or "Time to set the table" to learn in class and at home. Repetition and fun are the keys to a successful program that leads effectively to learning a language. For older kids (3-5 years old) we developed a new class with well-known stories, like "The Little Red Riding Hood" with a twist to make it even more fun. We have two levels: -Ages 18 months to 2 years old -Ages 3 to 5 years old Our locations include Berkeley, Albany, Alameda, Oakland, and soon Walnut Creek