Course 20

I did a week of group classes last year and then private classes this year - satisfied with both.
Location is great and building old and charming
Teachers are great

Excellent school in City centre, easy to.book, good value, near beach

The progress in the classes with some homework was very well balanced. Not too much at one time, however going steadily forward.
The teacher could well take into account the the previous knowledge of the pupils and her own output was clear and efficient.
The school location in the very city is optimal.

I really want to learn Spanish and Gran Canaria School was what I chosen and I am very happy for my choice. But at the same time it was much more difficult than I expected. The hardest things was the high speed and focus on grammar. Together with an old (I am 63) brain without studying in 45 years it was little bit of a chock.

The good thing was that our teacher (ana) was fantastic. After two weeks with more concentration and motivation I said to myself that this have been given me a great platform to continue with. I suppose I will add another weeks in the future in the school, but now I think it is good to practise by myself for a while. When you get as much information as I did during these 40 hours the brain is full and continue fill it with new learning will not be good for my engagement. The only thing that could be better was the air in the locations. After a few hours there was not so much oxygen left and very warm. There was fans in the ceiling but they did not work. I hope they solve it if I come back.

Teacher was friendly and I got free one to one sessions.

In class we did a lot of grammar which was pretty good to to remind the present tense correctly
In the private lessons, we almost had a conversation the whole lesson which was pretty fun and it improved my oral skills a lot

I’m general I really liked the school and I’ll come back for sure

ich bin mir der schule nicht richtig glücklich geworden. es liegt prima an der lehrerin, aber ich denke auch am system. hier meine eindrücke im einzelnen:

A1 kurs bedeutet für absolute anfänger. dann kann ich erwarten daß eine pädagogin entsprechend LANGSAM im erklären und selbst redent vor geht. leider ist das nicht der fall gewesen. noch mehr erschrocken haben mich die beiden antworten die ich auf meine täglichen bitten hin von ihr bekam. die anworten waren: a. man spricht in spanisch im allgemeinen schnell b. wenn du deutsch redest dann redest du auch schnell.

da stellt sich bei mir schon die frage nach der pädagogischen kompetenz. wie kann eine lehrkraft mir ernsthaft solche antworten geben ?

und weiter: es gab bei uns in der gruppe der KEIN englisch konnte aus der ehemaligen DDR. aber es wird stillschweigend angenommen daß ALLE englisch können, und so gab dann die lehrerin alle erklärungen auf englisch mit dem ergebnis daß dieser Teilnehmer nach weniger wie einer Woche unterricht den kurs abgebrochen hatte.

ich weiss nicht ob es stimmt daß es bedingung ist in einem 4 wochen kurs die beiden A1 Bücher durch zu arbeiten. der grund liegt darin daß ansonsten KEINE bildungsgutscheine ausgestellt werden können. da frage ich mich nach dem sinn und zweck solcher massnahmen wenn er lehrstoff durchgezogen werden muss nur weil irgend welche Beamten die nicht aus der praxis kommen diese regeln vorsetzen. weshalb mussen sich also inhalte und Kursteilnehmer einem System anpassen was sie masslos überfordert. diesen eindruck haben sehr sehr viele in den Gruppen, das würde ich nicht schreiben wenn es nicht so wäre. Es ist doch viel sinnvoller der unterrrichtsstoff und die Lehrerin passen sich bitte schön an den bedürfnissen der Teilnehmer an, oder ?

ich habe es sehr vermisst daß es keine Lerngruppen gab, daß es in den Unterkünften und auch der Schule keine Gemeinschaftsräume gab.... jeder ist für sich alleine und wurschtelt sich so durch. und das sprechen der sprache tritt mehr und mehr in den hintergrund, wichtig ist die grammaitk, das was die lehrerin an die tafel schreib die eh zu 90 prozent der zeit spricht... und das man das buch durch ackert ?
und leider gibt es offenbar immer die gleiche lehrkraft die die kurse A1, A2, B1 etc. machen was ich auch sehr bedauere da es dann keinen lehrerwechsel ermöglicht. eventuell macht aber auch hier das system die lehrer betriebsblind wenn der eine lehrkraft 10 jahre lang A1 und die andere lehrkraft 10 jahre lang A2 kurse gibt ?

ich weiss nicht woran das liegt, aber nach meinen erfahrungen kann ich die schule und das system auf gar keinen fall weiter empfehlen.
und ich bin einer von zig 1000 schülern die diese schule kennen gelernt haben und jährlich durchlaufen, und meine antwort wird kaum auswirkungen haben das weiss ich - aber ich bin ja gefragt worden weswegen ich auch offen und ehrlich antworte.

herzliche grüße

Many thanks for great possibility to enhance my spanish skills at Gran Canaria School of Languages.Perfect location ,close to the beach,fantastic atmosphere at school and patience,understanding of teachers.

My two week course was like a dream and a very pleasant one. Firstly the climate - Las Palmas is a world class location during the European winter months. The school is located just two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean and the famous Las Canteras beach. At the same time it is in the middle of a normal Spanish city and all the services. Our initial study group of A2 level consisted of 9 people representing 8 nationalities and 6 native languages. Our common language was Spanish so we spoke Spanish to each other in class and also outside the classroom. It was great. Rita was a very effective, calm and patient young teacher and very skillful in her interactions with people of many ages and backgrounds. Personally I knew all the grammatical details of the course in theory but had never been able to use that theoretical knowledge in a practical context. After a few days I began to use Spanish exclusively in all the shops and restaurants I visited. It went really well. I also began to think in Spanish, which is a very useful way to discover where you have more work to do in terms of vocabulary and so on. It seems to me to be very good result in just two weeks. I may do it again in the future. The school has it´s own teaching material which I rate as very good and pretty useful even after the course to refresh ones memory as it is pretty compact and logically put together. As to facilities, this is a pretty typical little school. The little garden upstairs is lovely, although I suspect it goes unnoticed for many pupils. I stayed in an airbnb apartment so I have no comments on the school´s own housing. As for complaints, I can´t think of anything, except that my two weeks went by too quickly. Thank You, abrazos para Rita.

I studied one week in the C1 level. We were 5 student, all of which coming from different countries. Our teacher Patxi was very nice and experienced professional and created a good atmosphere in the classroom. This was the second time I studied in this school and I will return again for sure!

Succesful level test, good teachers, well structured lessons, very clear spanish grammar.

For me the level was correct, challengng but not too difficult, Howver for some other students in the group a lower level had been more useful. I was told, that the school has a policy, that re-evaluations are not applied. Please reconsider that policy.

I did not participate the social activities.

I liked all of it. My old colleague and I promised each other, that the the next time we will do it together.

I attended Carlos' lesson for one morning: Level B2. I enjoyed the clarity of his explanations, his humour and the fact that we were only four students. However, I was discouraged by the quantity and the high level of grammar exercises so I changed groups and attend Carmen's lessons instead which was Level B1. In spite of having about 15 students, of all nationalities, we managed to talk a lot, in pairs or not. We discussed structures ( for example, probability ) and then applied them to a theme ( for ex. tomorrow's world ). We also read texts having cultural interest and listened to songs. She was very good and the rhythm was fast.
However, I would have liked a more original approach, as we were in a Spanish-speaking country. What about inquiries in the streets, in shops, on the beach, in museums, in our various hotels, in the tourist-office etc.? What about visiting Las Palmas with challenges, visiting a school etc.?After all, we were not in our respective countries and the whole town of Las Palmas is like a huge language-school!

Ana was such a brilliant and great tutor, I wish I could have taken more lessons with her.

My goal with the one week course was to freshen up my basic Spanish that I started to learn 5 years ago and since then have not used at all. I succeeded, because by the end of the course I could again put simple sentences together, and I improved my vocabulary and grammar. I started at the end of the Level A1 - the beginner level - so I skipped the very basic stuff, but still was able to follow the program.

Our teacher was very competent, involved the students and was very good in explaining the unknown words or phrases in Spanish (using English only a few times). During the four hours per day he managed to introduce the required material and we still had time for some simple conversations.

The school location was central, close to the beach, hotels, restaurants etc. The same is true with the residence where I stayed. The room was small and very simple, but had the necessary furniture. There was a small kitchen in a building, though without an oven, but with an electrical kettle and a fridge.

The school prepared some excursions during the week, different from week to another, and it was worth it to go on one or two together with the other students.

I was not very satisfied with the food provided by the school - breakfast and lunch during the week and dinner during the weekend. The food was usually not very tasty and comparing to what was possible to buy in the restaurants, it was not cheap - bad value for money.

I liked my class even when we had a lot of people. It was fun! My teacher was really good! She was patient, funny, open-minded, and everything she said made sense. And I understood almost everything because she used different words to describe something.
There is nothing I can complain about. I haven't lived at the school so I can't say anything about that, but friends told me it's acceptable and the food was good too.