Anonymous
2020-09-29
Nelson is a generous, knowledgeable and engaging teacher. He added a personal touch week in and week out that allowed me to feel the class was getting to know interesting things about each other despite being on a computer screen. The Grammar lessons were detailed and strong and Nelson always made time to explain things again, answer questions or review and expand on ideas and the nature of the question of something deeper about the language. Near the end of the course, I felt a lot of material was covered in just 1 or 2 classes and the material felt a bit dense. Personal study time helped me feel caught up but at this higher level, I wonder if a 12 week course option would be better. Or perhaps offering 2 shorter sections for Level 5 - a part one and part 2 - so that ample time can be spent on the difficult concepts of using the subjunctive and sometimes confusing conjugations of the imperative. I really enjoyed the class overall!
Anonymous
2020-09-27
Level 5 is dense with new grammatical concepts, and the shift to conversation-based classes helped me develop my skills.
Anonymous
2020-09-12
Very interesting and informative. I am happy with the course.
Jennifer Boyer
2020-08-05
Excellent. I learned so much in only ten weeks!
Anonymous
2020-08-04
Instructor spoke so softly that it was difficult to hear her. She was not prepared for class. Clearly hadn’t looked at lessons or homework in advance of class. She often did not answer questions. Class consisted of nothing more than a review of the homework and her reading from the book. No practice at all. Very disappointing! I could have bought the book for $14.99 from Amazon and learned just as much.
Amanda Hayes
2020-06-30
The course was challenging and engaging. I learned a lot, and enjoyed the conversational aspect.
Lynette Steffy Tkacz
2020-06-21
I love the structure of the classes. The grammar was a little more complicated at this level but the course is well designed and the exercises are helpful.
Nur Turan
2020-06-15
This level was the most intensive of all the levels so far. We learned conjunctives in both tenses, all four conditionals, passive voice, imperatives, and giving directions, all in 10 weeks. This content is simply too much and not realistic considering the average pace of adult second language development. It seems to me like, since this is the highest and the last level, Berges has squeezed all the remaining important grammar subjects together in this level. That's not how language learning works. Students' proficiency level, retention level, and linguistic readiness have to be taken into consideration when designing a course. Berges needs to add one more level, Level 6, and teach these topics at a pace that students can actually acquire them. I doubt any of the students, including myself, have left this level with the ability to incorporate what we studied into our conversations in Spanish, despite the best efforts of our instructor.
Nicholas
2020-05-19
Great format - organized delivery of the grammar and for the first time ever I really understand subjective in the different tenses and conditional. It was a comfortable environment to practice and not be afraid to make mistakes.
John Sabulis
2020-05-19
Perhaps too much content in comparison to other levels. Also, I would have liked written answer sheets for the homework, as it was reviewed too quickly.
Anonymous
2020-05-19
very informative although it should be maybe be split into two classes
Penelope Hort
2020-05-18
Learning the most difficult parts of grammar is not fun or easy but Julia made it both.
Darrin
2020-05-04
The course was challenging but manageable. There was a great transition from in-person learning to online learning because of COVID-19. This is my 5th class at Berges and I'm always happy.
Moe
2020-04-18
Learning how and when to use the subjunctive at first seemed impossible but Nicholas has been great and made the course fun and relatively easy to understand the concepts. Level 5 is a great course and it can actually integrate additional materials.
Anonymous
2020-04-16
Level 5 is a high level course which was very tough to grasp in 10 weeks. I enjoyed the course because the teacher was great but the this course could be split into two levels or stretched out. Otherwise, things were fine.
Anonymous
2020-04-16
Level 5 was the most challenging. I felt like there was a little bit too much information packed into a single 10-week course.
Kathy Hyer
2020-03-25
I was very pleased with this course. I hadn't studied Spanish for over 15 years and even then I only took 3 - 10wk courses. I had never seen the grammar in this course and I was missing grammar from the previous course as well. But Juan Carlos reviewed all the grammar from previous courses and drilled it into our heads. I can't deny it was confusing at times and your head felt like it was going to explode, but by the end I felt like I had a very good grip on Spanish grammar. Thank you.
Liz Mooney
2020-03-16
Great deep dive into subjunctive & other tenses - I thought the class could have been 3 weeks shorter given how long we spent reviewing el subjuntivo.
Nickoleta Lytras
2020-02-10
Level 5 was packed with information! It covers the subjective, conditional, and imperative, as well as use of the passive voice. I've read other reviews recommending splitting the content into two courses, which could be useful. Another option might just be to add a few extra sessions so that there is more time to practice. Ed was great. He presented the material clearly and helped us make the connections between the new content and what we had already learned. I now have the foundation to be able to construct any kind of sentence I want in Spanish, but practice outside of class is imperative--there is so much to absorb in this level.
Peter Heilbroner
2020-02-10
Very well structured review of more advanced Spanish grammatical concepts. Clear and well taught, entertaining classes.