In this post, I’ve decided to give a sort of general review about the school and my experiences here that I feel have really made my trip in Colombia an unforgettable experience.

Having studied linguistics, and being a foreign language educator myself, I was extremely interested to see what the pedagogy of teaching Spanish at Nueva Lengua was like. I was very pleasantly surprised as not only were the classes a great mix of grammar and conversational application, but I found them to be incredibly effective as well. I arrived in Bogota with a minimal grasp of the language (probably A1-A2), and in approximately 4 months, I have become a near-fluent speaker who is comfortable speaking and understanding native speakers. I can walk the streets with a much greater sense of security, knowing that I can understand and be understood.

The classes have an 8-student limit, which means they are more personal and everyone has more speaking time. I have had classes with a full 8 people, as well as classes with 3. It really depends on the number of students in the school at any given time, and what level they test into. It is worth mentioning that it is also common for students to change their classes depending on whether or not they feel the class is moving too fast or slow for their liking.

The grammar aspect of the class is always reinforced with activities that put the theme into practice. This includes exercises, writing, songs that include examples of the theme, or role-play where we write a script to show the use of a specific concept. After the grammar class, we have our conversation course, which is wonderful for encouraging fluency and discussing everyday topics in Spanish. This class usually includes presentations from individual students, and/or a class debate over some sort of controversial topic. It’s a great opportunity to learn both general and technical vocabulary, and well as practice using grammatical concepts in context.

Another aspect of the classes that I found to be a major contributor to my learning is that the grammar and the conversation classes are taught by two different professors, and every two weeks, all the professors change. The students are all exposed to several different teaching styles and activities and topics that differ from teacher to teacher. I definitely felt that I learned much more from certain professors than from others; However, of course, all the students will feel differently about each teacher, thus showing the importance of having different professors throughout the course of a student’s time at the school.

Apart from the academic realm of Nueva Lengua, the social experience is one to talk about as well. The faculty really take care of you with whatever you need or whatever concern you may have. As an example, I remember there was a student who lived extremely far from the school, and could never make it in time taking the public transportation. The school happened to have a bicycle that no one was using, and lent it to this student so he had a way of more efficiently getting around the city. The genuine care and concern they have for the students is so endearing, and make them really like your family in Colombia. The student body is also incredibly diverse and wonderful, as everyone is eager to explore Colombia and get to know each other. The other students became some of my best friends while we were studying, traveling, and just doing general activities together after school.

The school has created a wonderful environment, accepting and welcoming of everyone. They consistently go beyond the call of duty to accommodate and create a welcoming environment for the students.

This article was originally written in English