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Don and Sylvia W.
Student: 1980

"Oh boy, how time passes!

Don and I attended Conversa classes when the farm was still just one house and a few out buildings. We had classes outside under shade trees and it was wonderful. Every day we learned our verbs & sentences and then we went home to Dona Yeya (bless her soul) to practice. She wouldn't let us speak English and patiently corrected our errors. Our home stay was great. The Spanish I learned carried me through the next year when I worked for the Costa Rican government as a consultant for USAID. Two years later I returned to Costa Rica on a sabbatical for research with a friend, an ex Peace Corps volunteer who was fluent. Once again, my Spanish from Conversa enabled me to "swim" rather than "sink" as we interviewed research subjects.

We were so impressed with the value and efficiency of your teaching methods that we talked about it long after we returned home. When our son graduated from the University of California at Berkeley he asked that we send him to Conversa as a graduation present. We did, and he has kept up with his language ability in his job in Europe.

We have just celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary and look back very fondly on the time spent with you. We hope that you and your family are all well."