International Travel News - ITN

After years of "New Years resolutions" about learning Spanish, I finally did it.

I spent five weeks in September-October in an intensive Spanish program.
If I ever was to do it, an intensive program was the way to go. After reading up, calling around and checking references, I picked Academia Latinoamericana de Español in Quito, Ecuador.

Why Ecuador? Spanish schools seem to be proliferating throughout much of Latin America these days.

Talking to friends who had studied in Mexico wasn´t encouraging - the schools were not up to par, although that was based on old information. Guatemala is over run with U.S. students, which would make it hard to escape English and really immerse myself in Spanish. Ditto for Panama plus it was rumored to be less safe for tourist. As for Argentina, Ididn´t want to come home with a "funny accent".





This left Ecuador. Besides, I hadn´t been there yet in my explorations of South America. Quito is teeming with Spanish schools, and Academia Latinoamericana is certainly not one of the cheapest, but I´m convinced after my time there that it is the best (and I checked out several others while there).

The Admissions office at ecuador@access.net.ec or www.latinoschools.com (I highly recommend you to check their web page) made planning the trip a breeze. For $255 per week I got 20 hours of Spanish with a university - level professor, teaching material, plus room and board with an Ecuadorian family.

All the families that participate in the program are well screened and truly add to the learning environment. All families provide a private bedroom with bath.
Breakfast- dinner plus laundry facilities and airport pick up. The best part of living with my family was the day-to-day interactions and exchanges with them.

As for the Academia, it´s set in a grand house -a former consulate- with huge walled garden, a sauna, turkish and jacuzzi in the basement. There are playing fields.
Although at over 9.000 feet in elevation you don´t find many students exercising.



The professor were great! The Academia caters to all levels of instruction, from beginning to nearly fluent. Instruction is typically from 8:30 am to 1 pm with 30 minute break in the middle in which teachers and students can gather together in the garden to share coffee and conversation. There is an afternoon session as well for those wishing to study six hours per day.

On the weekend I would did goodbye to my family and hop a bus (the Quito main bus terminal is very easy to use) to see the countryside. While the Andean village of Otavalo with its great markets was my favorite, another highlight was the town of Baños. I understand can be very touristy but I picked a cool, misty weekend and the people I saw all appeared to be Ecuadorian.





The high point of the whole trip was eight days in the Galapagos Islands. I arranged the trip while in Quito. I took a couple of weeks to pull it off. I visited many travel agents, telephoned (in Spanish), compared information, studied schedules, haggles over prices and with just plain good luck was able to get a good deal. Unfortunately, for me, one week in the Islands was only enough to whet my desire to see the rest.

I was fortunate enough to start a new job upon returning to the States, one that kept the whole trip alive for me. I am now with a tour company. I get to talk about the Galapagos and mainland Ecuador every day, and my new-found Spanish skills come in handy for calling and sending emails to South America!

Now if I could just do something about that old resolution to learn to play the piano...

Mark Granthan
Soquel, California

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