Archive for June 2011
Centro Bilingüe Amerindia “CBA”
Guatemala Spanish School
CBA is a Spanish School with a social focus at its heart. Here, students take high quality Spanish classes and have the opportunity to volunteer in a field that interests them. We are proud to be a 100% Guatemalan run school so that we´re eager to show you the quality of our country. We also hold the belief that a good spanish school should acculturate a student with the local culture, so that the student gets the full Spanish cultural experience — Welcome again and we hope to see you soon!
CBA started a Mayan maternity clinic and a school for disadvantaged Mayan children who work as day-laborers. This is to show our comittment to the development of the Guatemalan Mayan community. Students from around the world have come to CBA to study spanish and supported our volunteer programs. If you are interested in taking classes please click here for prices, for volunteer opportunities please click here.
Muchas gracias! Aquí encontré a más que simplemente una escuela, más que sólo un trabajo, encontré a buenos amigos. Gracias por ser como ustedes son. tan abiertos para ayudar a la gente, incondicionales con sus amigos y con una visión muy bonita de este mundo. Es un gran placer conocerles y espero que su sueño se relize. Ahora llevo una parte de ustedes conmigo hasta Canadá. Que siempre aprendan de lo que sucede, con cariño¨
Jan
¨CBA was recommended to me through a girl a friend of mine met in Paris. So first I hesitated and had a look at other schools on the web. But finally I decided for it anyway because it is not too big, family run and seems to be very flexible. I am VERY glad I took that decision. CBA is a pure familiy business and you feel member of it even only after one week. The language course principle is the same for every language school in Xela, that‘s why small things are even more important: a great atmosphere, flexibility, help and support for things also outside of the lessons, and great teachers. Also their openness to other cultures and backgrounds is remarkable and not given in all schools. Looking forward to going back to Xela and CBA.¨
Mary Thorton
¨Choosing a school in Xela could take time as there are so many... what attracted me to CBA was the school‘s professionalism but also the fact that they realised having a fun and friendly atmosphere makes studying so much easier. There was so much interaction between the teachers and students- in and out of lessons- making sure we put to practice all the spanish we learned in class.¨´
Jaime
¨After looking around Xela at the many schools on offer, i felt that CBA had something very special about it that made it stand out from all the rest.What attracted me to CBA was the friendly atmosphere created by the Rosales family and their teachers. They really looked after me and thanks to professor Jorge my spanish improved significantly. I had a lot of fun during my time here and would certainly recomend CBA to anyone visiting Xela.¨
Tom
¨My introduction to CBA began three years ago. Fresh off a plane in Guatemala City, then fresh off a bus on a street corner in Quetzaltenango. Someone was supposed to meet me but..........With a Spanish vocabulary of about 100 words and almost no ability to string them together in any logical form. After a period of wondering why I had ever left home and the help of cab driver I eventually found my way to a quiet back street and the CBA, its director Hugo Rosales and his wife Elbie. For the next two weeks, with kindly, patient and persistent instruction, my Spanish while still crude, was becoming communicative. Now, three years later, and 4 return visits to Xela, my Spanish, while still needing constant attention, carries me through most situations. Best of all though, the Rosales family have become, along with many others close and dear friends, who gave me a new language, culture, life.¨
Vianka
¨CBA was recommended to me through a girl a friend of mine met in Paris. So first I hesitated and had a look at other schools on the web. But finally I decided for it anyway because it is not too big, family run and seems to be very flexible. I am VERY glad I took that decision. CBA is a pure familiy business and you feel member of it even only after one week. The language course principle is the same for every language school in Xela, that‘s why small things are even more important: a great atmosphere, flexibility, help and support for things also outside of the lessons, and great teachers. Also their openness to other cultures and backgrounds is remarkable and not given in all schools. Looking forward to going back to Xela and CBA.¨
Suzanna
¨I have to say that my very short one week stay at CBA far surpassed my expectations. Out of all the places in the world I could have gone, for some reason, I was drawn to this place and now I know why. I had studied Spanish years and years ago, but never had been able to make the leap from struggling with grammar to actual conversations. Having only a week, I knew I had to do it alone and in a town not crawling with foreigners so that I would force myself into total immersion. I had been to Guatemala four years before on a "tourist" adventure. ¨