Nicole’s prerequisite for our family traveling in Central and South America was attending Spanish Language School in an immersion style program. She found Rancho de Espanol in Costa Rica and signed us up for a week of a home stay with a local family and language school. The language classes were each morning from 8am to noon with a coffee break half-way through the morning. If we had the option Nicole would have had us spend at least two weeks in an immersion program, but we only able to spend a week.
Rancho de Espanol is run by Manuel his wife. Joy and Hope loved playing with their little boy.
Since it was off season, we were the only people signed up for classes. That allowed us to receive private instruction at a level appropriate to our knowledge of Spanish. Since Paula is already fluent, she spent her mornings by the pool working on her computer and enjoying Pura Vida.
Nicole’s Teacher — Lourdes
Nicole had taken 3 years of Spanish in High School but has kept up her knowledge through regular use. She was ready for some more advanced Spanish classes with Lourdes and focused on speaking in past tense and imperatives. Her classes were primarily spent in conversation.
Harmony’s Teacher — Sheiris
From Harmony: During our time in Costa Rica, we took a week of Spanish classes at Rancho de Espanol. We picked up a lot of Spanish. Our classes were full emersion, completely in Spanish. This was a bit difficult at first, but as we learned more vocabulary, the classes became very fun. My Spanish teacher, Sheiris, was very kind and helpful. We played lots of games that really helped me to learn quickly. The whole experience was wonderful.
Ryan’s Teacher — Vanessa
The last time I had studied Spanish was in High School over 20 years ago, so I was nervous to dive in again. Within 5 days of classes from 8am to noon, Vanessa was able to teach me vocabulary, phrases, verb forms, sentence structure, etc.
We were able to converse in Spanish in limited ways, but it was surprising how much we could communicate with words, pictures, facial expressions, and body language. But by writing down everything we went over, I am able to review and gain some additional skills. Here are some of Ryan’s favorite phrases from the week:
La cambinacion del appellido de me esposa y de mi apellido es Warne-McGraw.
The combination of the last name of my spouse and of my last name is Warne-McGraw.
(I actually got to use this phrase with the Bachmann family in Uruguay!)
En Costa Rica yo vivo con mi esposa y mis niñas en la casa de Claudia y Francisco, y ellos tienen un hijo Matias y una hija Natalia.
In Costa Rica I live with my wife and my daughters in the home of Claudia and Francisco, and they have one son Matias and one daughter Natalia.
Las oraciones son muy largos
The sentence is very long
Hope and Joy’s teacher — Carlos
Carlos taught Joy to make bugs out of palm leaves. Soon she had an army of bugs.
Carlos used some great methods to teach our girls including flash cards, games, and pictures. When we went to the local zoo, Carlos was our guide and spoke in “Spanglish” or a mix of Spanish and English so we could continue our learning. Another day, Carlos organized a tree planting for Joy and Hope. They were so proud of their planted trees.
On the last day of school we were presented certificates of completion.
To register for classes at Rancho de Espanol in Costa Rica visit their website: http://www.ranchodeespanol.com
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