Yanapuma Foundation and Spanish School

The home stay with Madama Sosa was excellent. I really enjoyed being with them and they were very helpful and the home cooking was very much appreciated. Also Norma, my afternoon cultural program host was outstanding with her care and attention.

As for the language learning experience, it was average. My lessons were reduced to three each morning as I was the only student and it was explained that due to the personal attention I was receiving rather than a group class, my time was reduced. I have a diploma in instructional design and there was no overall learning plan or structure. I feel by the end of the week I could recognise a number of Spanish words but that was about it. Whilst the instructor tried to personalise the experience with family names, places I felt there was no particular interest by the other staff to understand my learning needs or even generally as a student/person.

There was also very limited facilities/amenities i.e. no fridge to keep my lunch in nor any explanation about the school, their foundation, programs etc. At the end of the week there was no structured attempt at feedback, any expression of interest (aside from my host family) to extend the program for another week or real discussion of any kind. Disappointing. I acknowledge however that times are difficult for such organisations and for Ecuadorian people generally in the present circumstances.

J’ai fait des cours à Quito ainsi qu’à Cuenca et les locaux de l’école étaient situées au centre historique de chacune de villes. Je pouvais y aller à pied.

Les professeures étaient compétentes, sympathiques et j’ai passé de belles semaines avec elles.

I was the first in person student in a year or two. The pandemic crushed most of the Spanish schools.
Yanapuma, with good management, survived. The instructors were excellent, professional, always on time and never let us out early. When they say four hour, you get four hours.

I signed up for the cultural package. A three hour tour of the city.
I was taken to museums, the tram, churches, Inca ruins....awesome.
Not only do you see interesting places, but your really getting another three hours of immersion.

The homestay was excellent. I had a whole upper floor to myself. Breakfast were good, dinner was an event.
Four elderly sisters that cooked and want to know everything about my life.
I learned a lot of Spanish around the dinner table and made lifelong friends.

I Was in Quito with a very little experience in Spanish, but the teacher was awesome and now it's most easy to speak with people!
The school is cool and with a good emplacement to do everything around in Quito.

Special thanks to Norma, my teacher she's very comprehensive and helpfully!

I signed up for 5 days of morning Spanish lessons from 9am-1pm. I was the only student that week so we were able to go through about 2 weeks of material in 1 week. I'm at level A2 so I made a lot of mistakes in my conjugation until I was reminded how to speak in the past. I would recommend that for learning conversation that a lesson on verbs in the preterite be taught a little earlier in the week. I recommend signing up for the cultural activities because that is when I really had an opportunity to speak in a more natural conversational way while seeing the sites of Quito.
I appreciated that the class used music and humorous videos to advance my language skills. I am really glad I signed up for these classes and would do it again. I also absolutely loved the historic section of Quito.

I took Spanish classes for 4 weeks and it was really great.

The school is located near Plaza del teatro, so it‘s really central. The school itself and the Teachers were very nice.

I learned a lot and had a great time in general.

The location of the school is very central and its in a beautiful building. The teachers were función
and they adapted the classes to my needs. They were flexible with organizing
my timetable.

Because there weren't any other students at the time I did the two weeks Spanish course (off-season), I had the pleasure to have an individual class. The teacher was very friendly and helped me to improve my speaking skills. Because one day there was an holiday, I could just take an hour more the other days of the week. The class was very diversified, we did some grammar and exercises but also lyrics training and some reading. The location of the Yanapuma Spanish was excellent, it is very close to everything - especially the old town. There are also some activities you can join during the week and also some weekend trips.

I really enjoyed my week-long course. My teacher, Giselle, did a nice job alternating among grammar lessons, general conversation, and teaching us a bit about Ecuadorian culture, food, and history, and I also appreciated spending a bit of time with other staff members. The school is in a great location in Quito and the classrooms are comfortable; I also appreciated the free coffee and tea. I added on the cultural outings in the afternoon and that ended up being a great decision: not only did it allow more opportunity to converse in Spanish, but also provided guided tours to several museums, the cathedral, a chocolate purveyor, the botanic garden, and several different neighborhoods. I opted for a hotel which ended up being quite nice and also in a great neighborhood in the historic center of town, with an easy walk to the school every morning. I also appreciated supporting the Foundation, as it seems that it does really great environmental and other work in Ecuador.

My only regret is that I didn't have time to stay longer. My Spanish definitely improved quite a bit even in the one week I had.

Class was charming and the other students in my class were teachers as well. Curriculum was relevant to my learning needs and interests. The teachers are exceptional and brought something new to the table each class and were not afraid to be learners themselves. I enjoyed the historic downtown area greatly and the building was nice, but a little chilly.

My favorite activities were sharing about my home and describing where I live and spending an afternoon touring historic downtown with my teacher.

Housing was comfortable and clean. Familia Rivera opened up their hearts to me and made it a memorable experince. I will never forget my teachers, helpful office staff and host family and are thankful for all the care they poured into making my experince really great.

48 years since high school Spanish - I wasn't even close to rusty. The teachers could see I was struggling to memorize quickly, so they kept the pace workable for me, and day after day I did become more able to converse. Time with my host family was very good, but also approaching overload since they always spoke rapid-fire. What would have been extremely helpful for me is 2-4 books with simple storylines written in extremely easy Spanish - something a notch beyond "See Jane Run." I realized that sentences helped me remember vocabulary easier than studying lists of words at night. The school is in the historic center of Quito and the architecture is fascinating - I spent hours walking the area taking photos. The only recommendation I have for improving the facilities of the school would be to add another restroom (there's a man's side and woman's side to the one they have, but so close that there's no privacy). Following my 4 weeks at Yanapuma I knew I would be traveling Ecuador alone for the next 6 weeks, so the urgency to learn basic skills helped me stay on track, focusing less on perfect grammar and more on necessities. But now I have a foundation I can build on, and when I feel ready I would happily jump back into language immersion.

I had taken some Spanish about 25 years before but couldn´t remember any of it. Within the first week my teacher got me speaking and understanding some Spanish, and I was surprised at how quickly I learned. I think it was because Yanapuma uses a communication technique where they teach you through conversation. You´re not just memorizing grammar but learning more the way little kids learn to speak a language. I had thought 4 hours a day would be hard, but I was surprised that the time flew by.
The school in Quito is beautiful and very comfortable. They have all the books and materials that you need. The teachers are excellent! And the staff are very flexible. They went out of their way to allow me to change my plans from time to time.
I especially enjoyed the travel and study programs. I did several of them, and they were very interesting because we visited or sometimes stayed in indigenous communities. Also, traveling with my teacher gave me much more than just four hours of class or conversation per day, because we ate all meals together, studied in the morning and then did activities in the afternoon. Plus, I had many opportunities to interact with other people along the way.
I took about 4 weeks of Spanish the first year and then returned the next year and did another 5 weeks at Yanapuma. After that I continued taking Skype classes, but only once a week. And now I am fluent in Spanish! This is quite amazing since I am in my 60´s.
I highly recommend Yanapuma Spanish School. They definitely know how to teach Spanish. Also, I like that they are a nonprofit school. They give 100% of their profits to help poor indigenous communities throughout Ecuador.