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1. Total Control Over Your Learning Process
Numerous linguists and teachers agree that it's crucial for you to be exposed to inputs in the target language in a way that you can readily comprehend. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to put this theory into practice in a classroom of 30 students. Although all the students receive the same lesson, your individuality make you process the same information in different way. In other words, there will be 30 different levels of understanding in this classroom. As the result, a highly comprehensible input for one student may not be appropriate for you. A solution to this problem can be found in a 1-on-1 format class. You can learn at your own pace with custom-made lessons provided by your teacher. On top of being able to control the learning pace, the personalized class has another advantage of being able to personalize the content of your lesson. As an active member of the learning partnership, you can select the topic that best suits your interest to fuel your motivation. |
2. Authentic Communication
In your Spanish classe, your teacher is trying hard every day to provide you with as much Spanish as possible. For a starter, there might be musics and movies in Spanish. You could be fortunate enough to be able to enjoy delicious Mexican food. Perhaps you can even learn a step or two in a traditional dance. However, their efforts to engage you with all the 5 senses lose their effectiveness as soon as you leave the classroom or while unmotivated classmates keep on talking in English. It's much easier to avoid these distractions when you are in Xela as the local atmosphere helps you use Spanish naturally as if you are breathing the air. You will be surrounded by Spanish 24 hours a day and you can take full advantage of this opportunity by communicating in authentic Spanish speaking context. The friend of your instructor, the gift seller, the host family's child, the person who sits next to you in a "chicken-bus"... regardless of where you go, there is always plenty of chances to communicate in Spanish. |
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3. Personal Growth
Have you had an opportunity to grow as a person through studying Spanish? Often personal growth comes from activities and events that you engage with much enthusiasm. Whatever the result may be, with much dedication, you learn something important from your life. But when a Spanish class has its main focus on grammars ignoring the importance of communication in authentic context, the boredom could be overwhelming and it could discourage you to continue learning Spanish. Fortunately, the personalized immersion classes do not have emphasis on studying about grammar. However, their emphasis is on studying how to live in the different culture utilizing grammars as one of the many available tools of communication. Perhaps other tools to get to know the new culture could be good sense of humor, curiosity, flexibility and more than anything else, willingness to open up yourself to communicate. But regardless of how you adapt to your new environment, the most important point that you should keep in mind is that the change of environment always provide you with a perfect opportunity to learn and grow. |
4. Low Cost
The only disadvantage of personalized immersion program is its cost; it's not cheap. For example, in Madrid, Spain, a private lesson is offered for $850-$900 a week, plus the payment of $350-$400 toward a host family. At San Joaquín de Flores, Costa Rica and Playa del Carmen, Mexico, the same service is offered for $475-$525 of tuition and payment of $175-$225 toward a host family. Let's see a country from South America now. For instance in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the cost of private lesson is $350-$400 per week but homestay cost of $150-$200 is still separate. But in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, the total cost including tuition for the class and payment toward host family is less than $400 per week. It's an option that is worth considering for. |
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