Spanish Centre

I’ve been studying here for 3 months now at the intermediate level. Had one teacher for my first class and another for my second.
The instructors here are AWESOME. I love this place. Right now I’m studying with Alejandro (from Cuba) but they have a large group of instructors from all over Latin America and a few from Spain.
Classroom sizes are small (we have 5 students in our class right now) and generally it’s a pretty fast paced learning environment so you need to be prepared to do your homework.
Course fees normally work out to about $ 10 an hour.
They also have salsa dance lessons from beginner-​advanced levels which are quite affordable (around $ 40 for 5 classes)

Hola,
Okay, let me start off by saying this is a great course for those who are disciplined and really willing to learn and don’t need constant prodding or pressure to study.
I took a couple of courses 2 years ago and wasn’t really into it. I was very busy at work. However, what this school offers you is a tiered program and a lot of interaction with other students, so it’s more of an immersion than studying. The other part is that they don’t give you tests (which I respect, but is a total downside for me because if I don’t have pressure, I don’t do well, so I was more focused on the cute girls).
So why should you take this course?
–Price — only $ 255 for 10 week course
–You are travelling somewhere in Latin America (this is Latin American Spanish not Spain Spanish, which I learned that there are quite a few differences)
–You have good self-​discipline and can/​will practice at home.
–You have co-​workers from Latin America and want to impress them that you know a bit of Spanish
Why you shouldn’t attend here
–you want to know all the in’s and out’s of Spanish history
–you are too busy at work or school to concentrate and practice at home.
–you need tests to get you to study
–you need to write professional business letters in Spanish
–you want professionally trained teachers (most of these people are part-​time)
All this being said, the only reason I didn’t learn a lot was because I wasn’t totally into it and all my travel seemed to coincide with the key classes. So that is MY FAULT!
So I think if paid attention, studied, I would have learned a lot more and would give it four stars. The only problem is that from beginner level to intermediate level is a huge jump and don’t warn you of that leap. When I went to the intermediate level, the director of the school called out 5 – 6 people in class to hang back and tell them they weren’t ready. I was one of those. However, I found this extremely embarrassing and turned me a bit off and that is why I am docking a star to 3 stars. He wasn’t wrong, but could have done this so much more discreetly.
Otherwise, take a few beginner courses and if you study, you’ll definitely learn a bit.
Adiós

Finally getting around to doing a review after taking about 8 modules (up to Intermediate 4) over nearly two years…
I love this place! I learned a lot of Spanish and had a lot of fun. I had several teachers and they were all passionate and energetic. The classes were small (albeit sometimes cramped — er, cozy). I did once-​a-​week since I was just learning Spanish for fun, but if you seriously *need* to learn Spanish I’d probably do twice-​a-​week. Homework and practice are mostly self-​directed. I went to a few film nights too, but felt too intimidated to ever try the Friday night conversation sessions (I wish they helped facilitate more conversation groups).
Probably not the cheapest or most efficient option in town for learning Spanish, but probably among the most fun and engaging. I found live classes way more motivating than any podcast or book.

Javier, the director of the school freaked both me and my class mates out (many of them quit), thankfully he was repaced with another teacher and I was able to continue with my course. I can’t say my experience with this place was great, the books they use are horrible. I would go back if they changed the training material and if I never had to deal with intimidating Javier again!

I took an introductory Spanish course at U of T last summer and wanted to brush up before taking intermediate Spanish this coming term, so I enrolled in the ten week, three hours a week beginner course.
Gabriel was my instructor; he’s a funny, likable and effective teacher. There were times when I felt he could have given more explanation about the principles behind certain grammatical constructions, and I would have also liked to spend more time conversing — but these are minor complaints. I like that the class sizes are small; there were seven other students and I believe that’s the cap. There weren’t any tests or grades which made me feel relaxed enough to concentrate on what we were learning rather than on formal evaluation, and the homework didn’t take long to do at all.
At the end of the ten weeks, I think I’d still feel pretty helpless if dropped in a Spanish-​speaking country or context. But I mean, it was only 30 hours of instruction, and you can’t expect fluency or even more than a basic competency in such a short time. I’d recommend it for people looking to learn how to speak and who aren’t necessarily interested in learning the grammatical intricacies of the language.
Pro tip: if you look at the course calendar on their website you can see that as it gets closer to the initial class the price drops fairly significantly if there are still spots left (which there often are).

I have been taking course here for over 5 weeks now.
I am with beginner 1 and 2 course, and I have Enrique as my instructor.
It was intense course for 2 hours per week and I signed up 10 weeks in total. ($ 199 special, heh)
The centre will provide you material for you to go home and review. After 5^th class, I have no problem with basic conversation which is amazing!
Enrique was good, but he is a bit all over the places. He will teach us the phrases and sentences from the provided material. Except he does not engage enough practical conversation in the class.
Interestingly, I have ‘Susana’ as our substitute teacher when Enrique can’t make it. She is REALLY good. She forces you to answer her in Spanish and she asks questions to you in Spanish. The conversation most people will encounter on a daily basis. I felt I just learned 4 hours worth of Spanish in this 2 hour class with her.
She has been teaching in the centre for over 13 years, when I sign up my intermediate course, I will try to have her as my teacher instead.
Overall the centre is very good, it is located only few steps from Yonge and Bloor subway (Hayden exit), and there’s a bookstore that you can buy Spanish books. They also provide salsa course.