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Philip W.
Dorking, England
Student: 2003

"Conversa was an amazing experience, albeit hard at first as I, a plucky Brit pitched up in low and rainy season. This was however my fault as I had wasted too much time in more commercialized Locations (Madrid & Marbella) where my Spanish did not progress as fast as I wanted. Therefore, my timing in Santa Ana was a blessing in disguise as there was a 1 on 1 teacher/student ratio. Saying this, I am sure if these ratios were more diluted, the teaching and learning at Conversa still would have been the best. Reason being is that it was simply pure raw local Spanish. Saying this and most importantly the teachers still knew what the equivalent English Literature "situations" (I call it the "Maths" of a language!) were which made understanding quicker.

On an experience point of view, I'll always remember my host family and how everything was done to make me feel welcome. In my last week at the school I thought long and hard about a gift I could get for my host family as a thank you to them. I wanted to get something that would be truly useful and after seeing my host Mum start the day by hand pressing over 50 oranges for fresh juice for the day I thought that an electric powered orange squeezer would be the perfect gift and cut down the arduous job by at least 30 mins a day... Oh... what a mistake... it did do the job, but for my last 5 days I was woken up at 5.30am by the constant grinding of my mechanical gift. I sincerely apologize to the student who was to stay with this family after me!!!

I would also like to recommend to other students that whilst at the school they take the opportunity at weekends to discover the amazing places that Costa Rica has to offer. This also helps your Spanish and gives you memories of stunning places that will stay with you forever.

Thank you to everyone at Conversa and I would recommend to any student wanting to learn Spanish that although quite expensive, Conversa is money very well spent. As they say, you get what you pay for!"