IH Oaxaca

Pros:
Erick is an excellent teacherr: he is patient above all; only lapsing into English when a student absolutely cannot understand what he is saying but that is infrequent. He explains things in a simple manner, speaks and enunciates clearly and is determined that the most important thing for for his students to achieve is a sense of immediately useful grammer and vocabularey before focusing on the accent which for me, is the hardest thing of all.

By doing this, Erick provides the student with an early sense of accomplishment which fuels the desire to return every day for 4 more hours (with a break long enough to walk around the block and back).

My first week I shared a class with a lovely Israeil young man whose reading and ear were way better than mine as he had traveled extensively in South and Central America but by the second week when I had the class all to myself I realized I now understood way more than I had the week before. My one on one classes with Eric were directed, focused and contained useful everyday content. My only wish was for more and harder homework.

Aris arranged a trip to the market with other students which was a great opportunity to get to know people from Switzerland, Germany and Kuwait. And Aris although not my teacher was alwsys solicitous and kind.

The group chat was also very helpful. I wished I had stayed longer as Eric arranged more cultural visits after my departure.

THe location is very central and easily accessed from all parts of the city. It is clean. The space was sometimes noisy-echo-y with traffic outside given the high ceilings and hard surfaces but it was light, clean and comfortable. The hotel women's washroom had only one working toilet for the two weeks that I was there. The other should be fixed as the toilet that was working didn't flush most of the time.

A few gentle suggestions:
Everyone likes to know that they have accomlplished something during their learning experience. I would have liked a document at the beginning that outlined what we would be taught in the coming week(s) and what, by its end, we should have mastered both in class and on our own. Obviously, one only gets as much as one puts in but having a roadmap so to speak of expectatuions would have given me a sense of what was expected of me by the end of my time there.

The teaching materials were copies of pages from a textbook. I would have preferred to receive either via email or at the school all the pages collated ahead of time so that I could see what was expected of me Day 1-Day 5, in other words some form of lesson plan against which I could judge my progress be it a list of common phrases, how to conjugate frequently used regular and irregular verbs, etc.

While Erick immediately and happily provided these when asked for, I had to rely on hastily scribbled (and not always legible in retrospect) notes rather than having a document I could refer to once out of class. I want to makeit clear that that I am in any way suggesting Erick did less than a stellar job; he used the tools he was given and with these, did a superb job in motivating me, encouraging me and most importantly of all gently correcting me (again and again in some instances and never embarrassing me but rther encouraging me) so that when I was alone on the street he had given me the confidence to speak Spanish with everyone I met.

I loved the school. I‘ve taken only a week of classes (to inprove my spanish) but still noticed a lot of progress by the end of it. The teacher Ari was really nice and created a very nice atmosphere. No pressure, just learning with conversations (also including a lot about mexican culture). Would definitely recommend

I had an amazing experience in Oaxaca with IH! My instructor, Itan, was lovely and incredibly smart, she's got a great background in teaching and I learned a lot. Most of the people there were surprised when I spoke Spanish because I was doing so well. The city was adorable and my homestay was absolutely wonderful. I got the full Oaxaca experience and would for sure do this again.

I had a great experience with International House Oaxaca. The teacher, Itan, was very engaging and knowledgeable, and patient with the students. I loved how she incorporated our interests, Oaxacan and Mexican culture, and current events into lessons. The material was interesting and I really benefitted from the exercises. Thanks to these classes, I am able to work more confidently in Spanish.

The classes are conveniently-located and the facilities are good. My only recommendation would be for a longer break during the day as we can get really hungry from learning!

The housing was comfortable and the host accommodated my food allergies with the meal plan. It was close to the school which was perfect to walk to and from class. Living with the host family was another invaluable change to immerse myself in Oaxacan culture, it was a great experience!