costa rican language academy crla

Dear Nesha J.Thank you so much for your comments!! We are very happy to know that you enjoyed your time with us here at CRLA. If we can be of any assistance with anything else, please don’t hesitate to call us at any time.Hope to see you back here soon!Best regards,

Dear Hunggy Hobo,We are very happy to hear that you decided to join CRLA and had a relaxed and rewarding cultural immersion, which is exactly what we hope to give all our students. We wanted to thank you for taking the time to write all this beautiful comments about CRLA and for covering so many aspects of our school! People like you give us the motivation we need every day to keep improving and providing our students a better experience!Hope we could control the “negatives” you mentioned : ). With our afternoon activities we try to provide opportunities for students from various countries to mingle and make friends with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Fortunately now it is easy to keep in touch with new friends from CRLA and earthquakes are always short and not very strong. Thanks again for your feedback. We hope we can have you back here in the near future!Best regards,

Dear Doris K,Thank you for your kind feedback! It really means a lot to all of us here at CRLA, when a guest takes time out of their busy lives to share their experience. We are very happy to know that you found a perfect balance between the Spanish learning classes, the atmosphere and Costa Rica as a whole.Please don’t hesitate to contact us at any time if you need anything else and we look forward to seeing you back here very soon!Best Regards,

Dear Gosto4444,We really appreciate your positive feedback about our Spanish teachers and our curriculum. We will make sure we share this information with them. Our entire staff will be very happy to know that you had such a good experience. We wanted to thank you for taking the time to share your opinions with us!We hope to see you again, here at CRLA, very soon and please if we can be of any assistance don’t hesitate to let us know at any time.Best regards,

Dear Jeff S,We are very happy to hear about your wonderful experience here at CRLA! Comments like yours, is what makes our job so rewarding and make us want to do better every time!Please feel free to contact us at any time and we look forward to see you again here in Costa Rica very soon!Best regards,

Dear Olivia B,Thank you for this amazing review! In very little space you covered so many aspects of our school and of Costa Rica and us “ticos”! We really appreciate it, and we are very happy to know that you had such a wonderful cultural experience!Looking forward to see you back here very soon! Pura Vida!!Best regards,

Dear Joethecritique,We will be waiting for you, hopefully very soon, here at CRLA!We loved your review and we really appreciate all those beautiful comments about our school. Thank you for taking time to share all this wonderful things, we really appreciate it.Looking forward to see you back here!Best regards,

Dear Cynthia,Thank you for your wonderful comments! It gives us so much motivation and pride to hear all this positive feedback. Our staff and teachers will be very pleased to know that your stay here in Costa Rica and at CRLA was so rewarding!We look forward to have you back a 3rd time!Best regards!

Dear Mgsilva6,Wow! Love your review! Thank you so much. It has been so great to read all this details about your experience here at CRLA and in Costa Rica. We are very happy to know that all 3 of you enjoyed your time here. It gives us so much motivation to keep improving and providing the best experience possible!Looking forward to see all 3 of you back here in Costa Rica, in the near future. Pura Vida! Best regards,

CRLA is a wonderful school. I've studied abroad a couple of times, and this school was top notch. They coordinated everything from an inviting home-stay to weekend travel plans, plus the additional classes like cooking and dance that were offered at the end of the school day. At other schools I've had to pay extra for these services, but at CRLA, everything was included and fabulous. I couldn't have been more pleased with my experience. Also, for any first-time travelers to a Latin-American country, Costa Rica is a wonderful place to start. It's a small, safe, and culturally-rich country with a fair number of English speakers, so it is definitely not intimidating and easy to navigate if you are concerned about your Spanish skills or just security in general.

I am so impressed with CRLA. It is well situated in a nice neighborhood by bus lines and Mall San Pedro. The school itself is really nice with a beautiful courtyard. Most students stay with families that are 20 minutes away by bus. San Jose Central is a short bus ride away. CRLA is an extremely well run organization. They have designed an excellent curriculum. The classes are a mix of learning grammar and vocabulary and then games, listening exercises and discussions. It really helps break up the time so that the hours go by quickly. Class act! My hats off to Laura who is one of the directors and the management.The coordination of classes was well managed. What I was very pleased about is how they manage to get people in the right level of classes and move as necessary. I personally felt that my oral exam wasn’t that good but then I found that the placement was at the right level. They also seem to keep the younger (i.e. high school) students in different classes than the adults which I was very pleased about. I’m not really sure how they do it… We had one incident when a woman was placed in our class but she appeared to be at a higher level. They corrected it immediately. Mariana does a great job.The classes are small. My class varied from one to four people. It is great to have the time to practice. I had the best teacher. Her name is Paula Borrás. She keeps the class going and makes it fun. In our discussions, we learned about Costa Rica and its cultural while applying the Spanish we were learning. She is very well organized and very patient. We students spoke slowly as we searched for the right words. Paula is always encouraging and caring. I’ve learned so much with her. And she’s beautiful! I feel lucky to have had her as a teacher.It takes more than a good curriculum and good teachers to run a language school. CRLA exceeds at making sure the students are well taken care of. The students vary in age from adolescences to retired people. I am an adult and would feel very comfortable sending my children here – the young people are in good hands. While enrolling in the school from home, the arrangements were well taken care of thanks to Anabel. The first day of school, the family goes with you to the school and picks you up. There is a comprehensive orientation by Moisis that includes things like how to get the bus, where to change money, travel ideas and, most importantly, safety. The front desk is always helpful with anything be it arranging excursions, tracking my lost things, keeping in touch with the families etc. Monica, Cristina and Lorenzo are great! I am truly amazed that everyone seemed to know all the students by name – and there are lots of students coming and going. Dance classes with Luis were lots of fun. He has great energy and manages the different levels in the class.I couldn’t have wished for more with my home stay - thanks to Hazel for making the arrangements. I stayed with Carmen Duran in Vargas Araya – 20 minutes by bus. Her house is not the fanciest but it is a home filled with love and caring. There were two 16 year old German boys in the house whose Spanish was minimal. Carmen took care of them like they were her own children. She knew when they left for a weekend trip and when they were coming back. Somehow there seemed to be no problem with communication even though Carmen doesn’t speak English. Food and love was always awaiting us when we got home from school. She always sat with us at the table and conversed. Even when the boys were there without me, Carmen talked with/at them and their Spanish improved as a result. I spoke and learned a lot of Spanish at Carmen’s dining table. We spoke for an hour a day even though my Spanish needs a lot of work. I loved spending time with her. She and her niece Montserrat took me to a rustic restaurant in San Ramon that I never would have gone to. Another day, we went to her son’s Juan Carlos house for lunch in the beautiful San Ysidro. It was a wonderful day with the family. I will miss Doña Carmen and CRLA!

I spent 4 weeks in Costa Rica attending CRLA and doing their homestay program and I loved EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF IT!! I just returned home and I am already planning my next visit to them! I would recommend this school and this program to anyone who wants to learn Spanish by full immersion. I didn't know much Spanish when I went, and left knowing more than I thought I would. I fell in love with the country and plan to move there sometime in the near future. Thanks to CRLA for a once in a lifetime experience! Pura Vida!

I went to clr for two weeks,five hour days. I feel I got a great start on my first attempt at a foreign language. I hope to be able to return soon and continue with this great school.

I just finished 2 weeks at the CRLA school in december 2013. I have been to many spanish schools in several countries such as Peru,Argentina,Mexico and uruguay. CRLA by far has been the best for learning spanish and student services such as assistance in travel arrangements, student housing and local entertainment. I have been to this school several times starting several years ago after looking at the other options in costa rica. The owners are the same and have continued improving the school. The professors are excellent and teach at what ever level best benifits the students. They are professional and nice both in and out of class. The staff is friendly and helpful as well helping with trasportation and serving a great lunch daily. I learned a lot and will go back to continue improving my spanish level. Highly recommended for both beginners and more advanced.Pat paddito@hotmail.com

I was at CRLA only for 2 weeks, but it was amazing. Each morning the staff greeted the students (they knew all of our names!!!) and we had a little chat. All of them were super friendly!!! The teachers were awesome (i say this as a teacher-to-be ;)). The host families were amazing too. Especially my costarican Brother :)The staff helped to book bustickets and hotels for the weekend and gave us good advice. I will return for a few months in summer and i am really looking forward to it! :)