TEFL Certification - 4 weeks (150 hours)

i attended Maximo Nivel while my wife was doing a medical mission at the nearby hospital. I staff and facilities at Maximo Nivel far exceeded my expectations. My instructor, Angie, was wonderful. We worked at a good pace and I learned a lot. While I was only there for a little less than a week, I learned a lot. I also met other students from around the world. Next time we go back to Antigua, I plan on attending Maximo Nivel again.

Overall I really liked the school. The teachers were professional and explained it in a good way. From conversations with the local teachers you could also learn a lot about how life is like in Guatemala. I had 4 group classes and 2 private classes a day. Which I would not do again because 6 hours a day is a lot, even though I have learnt many things in a short amount of time. It is a lot of information to process and I would say 4 hours a day is enough. The whole staff in the school was friendly and helpful with anything you needed. There are cooking classes, salsa classes and excursions every week. I stayed at host family close to the school. The family was super friendly and the food was also good. I can definetely recommend a stay in Antigua and Maximo Nivel. When I arrived my flight was delayed for many hours but it was really easy to communicate with the staff and I had no problems with the transfer at all.

Everything was great. The teachers were patient, the location is central, and the extra activities were an added bonus.

I enjoyed my time at Maximo Nivel. The teaching was of high quality and the teachers were dedicated. The office staff was friendly and called me by my name. I started out with 4 hours of group session and 2 hours of private session but soon found that it was very time consuming. The office was very accommodating to my changing needs.

I also loved the cooking class and the weekend cultural activities. They were educational and entertaining.

The location of the school was excellent and the ambiance was conducive to learning and socializing. I liked the fact that the office opened even on the weekends.

I highly recommend this institution to anyone willing to learn Spanish and the culture.

Maximo did a great job of providing information pertinent to my trip in a timely manner. The program is reliable and transparent. The facilities are well maintained and the staff is helpful and efficient. I had an excellent homestay experience, however, I heard from other students that not all homestays were enjoyable. Jessica Jimenez is an excellent and kind host and I hope she will always be prioritized to have students stay with her. I had mixed experiences with my teachers. One teacher was very attentive and tailored our time together to my preferences, the other teachers spent more time talking to me than adapting our classes to what I had asked for. I feel that Maximo relies too much on the structure of their curriculum and should perhaps prioritize conversation and flexibility.

Had a wonderful experience. I really improved my Spanish skills with Heidy (Guatemalan spelling) as my personal instructor for four of my five weeks with Maximo Nivel. I participated in Maximo’s cooking, salsa, and cultural activities as well. There is also an on-site travel agency I used to visit Flores, Tikal, and Hobbitenango.It was easy to interact with members of the Maya community, particularly in the market. I frequently had lunch at the collection of food stalls (Comedor) in the main city market. That helped me get over my fear of and embarrassment about using rudimentary Spanish. They got a kick out of my good accent combined with childish diction. My host family took an interest in seeing me progress and cooked breakfast and dinner according to the vegan diet I requested.

I got picked up at the airport which was very very nice ! And I absolutely loved my teacher. The location is perfect, coffee and tea for free, and guided visits every Saturday (and other activities during the week!)

My teacher Alma was amazing. I thought after the first day that I had been put into a class level to low for me by the administration staff, but after the second day my teacher Alma catered to my experience perfectly and the week was filled with learning. Location and after school activities provided by the school were amazing. Would recommend to anyone looking for a week language course

My teacher (Katherine) was well prepared and eager to improve my Spanish skills and tell me more about Guatemala, it's history, political relations, culture and much more. The location was simple but sufficient, so where the facilities and the possible activities. The housing needs some improvement (hygiene standard), but over all it was a nice experience.

This school was great. I only did my Spanish course for a week, but I learned a lot and I had a lot of fun while doing it! My teacher, Ana, was really helpful. It was also super nice with all the free evening activities.

I was a bit concerned that like many language programs, the classes at Maximo Nivel might be too general or that I would be among expats. Instead, I was delighted to learn that the school offers 8 levels of Spanish language immersion and tests students upon arrival to determine where they should appropriately be placed. I was assigned at the advanced level and was able to fine tune my Spanish and focus on areas in which I needed work.

I liked the teacher, everyone was super helpful and I had a great experience. Housing was really good. Although I would say that Antigua is not the best place to learn Spanish because too many tourists.

I really liked the fact that they start with an exam to see at what level you are at. The staff is really friendly and the school itself is nice. The price is a bit high. The book you get is very helpful. The teacher tries to adjust the material to your needs.

Maximo Nivel provided me exactly the quality of teaching that I wanted.

The school itself is quite big. It has two buildings. The classrooms are big and neat. But it is also nice to have 1 on 1 classes outside. The nice thing about starting there is that they have an exam to check your level before you start. This really helps.
My teacher Nixa made me feel very welcome. She is very experienced and was able to teach me a lot in just the 3 days I spent here. The quality of the books is also high. It is very structured and well organised in every way.
There is free coffee. There are also a lot of things organised by the school to do in your free time. It was thereby very easy to get to the school because of the central location.

Group classes were sub standard not sure how placement test worked. Private instruction good even though teachers dont speak ant english. My friends atm card compromised school would not help her except giving her number to police station. We asked if they could charge 100 to her credit card in exchange for some cash they refused. So my opinion was they are not very helpful.

This school is one of the largest but certainly not the best. They are not focused on students and only interested in making money. My teacher was very pleasant and helpful. However not speaking English was a disadvantage. I found out that is the case with most teachers there as others said same thing.

Their activities are a joke—salsa dance in small hot room???

I ran into a personal issue with a compromised debit card.
Spoke with Rose, then Maritza and she was to talk to male boss and then find me in class—never happened.

Found other school students who found better and cheaper schools.

Good atmosphere in the school, good relations with the teachers, the administrative staff and the other students.

The private classes have been very useful.

The group classes were useful too, although the pedagogic development was more adapted to the needs of american and English speaking students, and did not take into account the benefit of knowing another Latin language. For example, the past imperfect exists in French too.

My husband and I had private lessons which we enjoyed very much with competent and nice teachers. We stayed at a hotel near the School and had a short way to the Location.


Unfortunately, the weather was not so good to join lots of activities, however, I joined the cooking Course with Marce of the San Carlos hotel which I cooked already at home!

I had a great time and I left Guatemala able to speak Spanish. I stayed there for four weeks and had an amazing teacher ,Antonio. Highly recommended!

Nice housing, excellent food. Great teachers. One midpoint: I had five teachers during my five week course.

I liked the school and the teachers. But it would have been better if there were more proficient English speaking teachers.

This was a great experience for me. I traveled alone, but I met so many great people at Máximo Nivel. I took private classes in the mornings, which helped me to advance from basic phrases to adult conversations. The school facilities were very clean and the garden was a great place to relax between classes. I stayed with a host family. They made me feel like a part of their family.

I really loved everything Maximo Nivel had to offer. The staff was always helpful. I absolutely loved my Spanish instructor, Willy. He made learning Spanish fun.
The location of both offices were in very safe areas and within walking distance.
Because of my experience with Maximo, I'm now in love with the Spanish language and salsa. I would highly recommend this center and services to everyone.

I am sorry that our group had such a limited time. I will be forever grateful to Máximo who did their best to cram pack our itinerary. In one day: we had Spanish lessons, went to the Textile Museum, the Market, Chocolate Factory, and had Salsa lessons. Our group also climbed Pacaya, a volcano. I chose to take a horse. The Coffee Plantation was amazing with multiple activities. I chose zip lining and horseback riding. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be doing some of these things and I am so glad I did.
I learned so much about commodities such as coffee and chocolate, which are so accessible to me in my everyday life that I really haven't given them much thought. Going to the plantation and learning what has to take place in this particular climate and geological area has opened my eyes to many issues. For example, I learned how the fate of the plantation itself determines the fragile economy of the village and the people who live and work there, and who benefits from the premium commodity and who receives the rest. The history and processing of chocolate and coffee was very interesting as well.

I realize that Carlos is very busy, but I am still hoping that he will be able to take a picture of the statue of El Diablo (Satan) and provide the location of the plaza to email me. Apparently, I was the only one who saw it and my camera wasn't ready. Darn! I have never found a statue like that anywhere and he will balance out all the pictures of the angels I took at the cathedral. Thank you so much to Carlos, Victor, Colin, Antonio, Aracely, Nancy, Todd, and anyone I may have failed to mention.

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First of all, I would like to thank you for excepting us to be a part of the Spanish education atmosphere. Next, learning Spanish has built my confidence in all areas. I speak more than before I arrived to the school. I enjoyed the city a lot. However, I will never understand fully about people living in a volcano infested area. But I did get the note that it is a very rich country. I do look forward to visit the school again. I learned well from the instructor there and the tour guides. It was awesome. The activities were a grand learning experience. Thanks for all you do in helping others.