Jill Hay
5.0
2022-05-22
Very clear and easy course materials to help you understand the language faster. Always happy with Berges!
Claire Tondreau
4.0
2022-07-04
Berges offers a great way to learn, incorporating the basics of Spanish grammar with vocabulary so you understand how to put ideas and words together. The course took me from an absolute beginner to a beginner who can form both written and spoken sentences . . . haltingly for now, but way beyond what I could have imagined during my first class.
Anonymous
5.0
2020-09-28
This was a great online course to start learning more Spanish. I definitely got a lot out of the class and really enjoyed my professor and classmates.
Anonymous
5.0
2020-11-20
I had a very good experience with my first Berges Institute course. I liked how the course was organized, the clear topics and focus provided through the pdf textbook and the regular (weekly) class meetings.
John Carlucci
5.0
2022-01-20
I loved this course!
María Chanamé is an awesome teacher. It was the perfect pace for me, always felt challenged but never intimidated. Definitely a safe and comfortable place to make mistakes and learn a lot. I’ve already started level 2 and it does not disappoint either!
Dee Dee Goldpaugh
1.0
2022-07-04
This course fell far below my expectations. Honestly, I'm surprised you even sent an eval form given when I discontinued coming to the course I sent a detailed email as to why, requested a conversation about continuing with private lessons instead, and never received any response from the school or instructor.
First, the pedagogical methods used, from my understanding, are outdated in terms of approaches for adult language learners. My class, and I'm not kidding, consisted of a full hour of laboriously going over sentences assigned for homework, which few of the participants did, so we had to sit there and wait for the students to figure out the homework on the spot. Then maybe 30 minutes of actual instruction of new material. Moreover, we are ADULT LEARNERS. Calling on students without their consent, just calling out someone's name to give an answer, is insulting and does not take into account different learning styles or anxiety someone may feel speaking in front of others. It also means the entire class has to sit there while another *adult* who does not know the answer has to sit and sweat it out in front of the group. Not acceptable.
I attended this class with my husband who is already fluent in three languages. We couldn't believe how not engaging it was. I can't believe we paid to primarily review homework sentences every week. One day we were sitting doing our homework together and my husband started yelling, "I'm not going to write a paragraph in the present tense using this vocabulary. I'm not doing it!" And we just decided to never go back.
At that point, I looked for the instructors contact info but couldn't find it. So I wrote a very nice email to the school stating the class wasn't a good fit for us, but were potentially interested in private instruction with the teacher and never heard back. So that was that.