Course 20

It was a positive experience, I was lucky enough to stay in the apartment very close to the school, which is located in a very beautiful strategic area close to the Las Canteras beach, a few hundred meters from the bus station and the port . The teacher Profesora Marta was very good. The school structure is not new but has everything you need and a very welcoming informal atmosphere. So all is well.

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

I wasn't really happy with school. it's mainly down to the teacher, but i also think it's down to the system. here are my impressions in detail:

A1 course means for absolute beginners. then I can expect a teacher to explain SLOWLY and to explain things herself. unfortunately that was not the case. I was even more shocked by the two answers I received from her in response to my daily requests. the answers were: a. Spanish is generally spoken quickly b. if you speak German then you also speak fast.

this raises the question of pedagogical competence for me. how can a teacher seriously give me such answers?

And further: in our group there was NO English from the former GDR. but it is implicitly assumed that EVERYONE can speak English, and so the teacher then gave all the explanations in English with the result that this participant dropped out of the course after less than a week of classes.

I don't know if it's true that it is a requirement to work through the two A1 books in a 4-week course. the reason is that otherwise NO education vouchers can be issued. I'm wondering about the meaning and purpose of such measures if the curriculum has to be pulled through just because some officials who don't have practical experience prescribe these rules. So why do content and course participants have to adapt to a system that overwhelms them immensely. A lot of people in the groups have this impression, I wouldn't write that if it weren't the case. The teaching material makes much more sense and the teacher adapts to the needs of the participants, doesn't it?

I really missed the fact that there were no study groups, that there were no common rooms in the accommodation and also in the school.... everyone is on their own and muddles through. and speaking the language is more and more in the background, important is the grammar, what the teacher writes on the blackboard, which speaks 90 percent of the time anyway... and that you plow through the book?

and unfortunately there is apparently always the same teacher doing the courses A1, A2, B1 etc. which I also very much regret because it then makes it impossible to change teachers. maybe the system makes the teachers blind if one teacher teaches A1 courses for 10 years and the other teaches A2 courses for 10 years?

i don't know why that is, but based on my experience i can definitely not recommend the school and the system.

and i am one of tens of 1000 students who got to know this school and go through it every year, and my answer will hardly have any effect, i know that - but i was asked, which is why i answer openly and honestly.
Best regards

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.

Satisfaction of the experience, fantastic school ... congratulations to all the teachers in particular to Rita who teaches with great competence and passion. And congratulations to the cook, Soraya

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.