Spanish Schools Advice

Fellas,

As some of you may or may not know my spanish is not very good and after searching extensively on the net I found only one spanish teaching school in Colombia and that is in Barranquilla. Are there others I don't know about? I understand there are many of those Colombo schools but they teach english. I am thinking of studying in San Jose, Costa Rica. What are the better spanish schools in San Jose? I hear Intensa and Biave's Centro Cultural are very good schools. Can you take 1,2,3,4 week courses? Or is a least a month required? Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks

Ray,

I studied at Forrester in Costa Rica not the Centro Cultural. The disadvantage of Forrester is that it's only a Spanish institute; at the Centro Cultural in Costa Rica, however, they primarily teach English to Costa Ricans - which is a huge advantage over Forrester. They have very few students studying Spanish at the Centro Cultural in Costa Rica.

Intensa is also a longstanding institute in Costa Rica. I wouldn't use Forrester again because there's no Costa Rican women there studying English. Does Intensa offer English classes?

Jeff

Ray,

I just checked the Intensa site - www.intensa.com - and they do offer English classes to Costa Ricans. Therefore, my recommendation would be to study Spanish at the Centro Cultural or at Intensa. I studied at Forrester which was a mistake because it wasn't jampacked with Costa Rican girls studying English like at the Centro Cultural. Intensa is probably like the Centro Cultural, but I've never been to Intensa. Forrester offers no English classes, but it is located in San Pedro - only a few blocks away from the Centro Cultural, the San Pedro Mall (nicknamed Bedrock Mall), and the University of Costa Rica.

You should find out where Intensa is located. You want to be in the San Pedro area. The best three spots to meet women during the daytime - Centro Cultural, San Pedro Mall, and University of Costa Rica - are all located in San Pedro.

Jeff

PS - Another spot you don't want to miss during the daytime is Universidad Latina. It's a private university; University of Costa Rica is a public university. I think Universidad Latina is in San Pedro as well, but I don't remember.