Spanish School in Guatemala

Educación Para Todos Spanish School:
Educación Para Todos was founded in 1991 by a group of University students. With our emphasis on quality Spanish Language education, trained and professional teaching staff, friendly and accommodating families and diverse calendar of activities and events, we guarantee your satisfaction!

Email: Contact us here

To ensure that you receive the best experience possible, we hold the following as our most important goals:

1. To teach students to speak, read and write Spanish while experiencing cultural, social, and political aspects of Guatemala and all Latin America.

2. To create jobs for teachers at fair wages and provide supplemental income tot he families of Quetzaltenango.

3. To train teachers to be able to teach the Spanish Language effectively to open doors of opportunity for them.

4. To offer students a more enriching and fulfilling experience by getting them involved in volunteer opportunities (it is optional)

5. To assist local organizations by acting as a link between volunteers and the organizations in need.

Our Spanish Language Program is at the core of your Guatemalan experience. We are dedicated to offering the most effective Spanish language study program. We maintain a high level of professionalism and teaching capacity among our teaching team. Our teaching staff receives an 8-week intensive teaching course as well as refresher courses during their time with us. We train our team in various teaching methodologies and inter-personal relationships.

Our program includes 5 hours a day of one-on-one intensive instruction. There are two sessions held daily. One in the morning from 8:00am to 1:00pm and one in the afternoon from 2:00pm to 7:00pm. Students may choose between either the Spanish School Guatemala morning or afternoon session. (Please indicate your preferred session when you apply). In addition, there are daily activities that allow students to learn more about the culture, customs, history, politics and societies of Guatemala and all Latin America. These activities are in the form of documentaries, trips, movies, round table discussions and conferences.

You will be evaluated the first day of class to determine your level of Spanish. Then you together with your teacher will develop a study plan that reflects your needs, interests and expectations. To expose the students to different teaching styles and ideas, the teachers are rotated each week.

We have various teaching materials including grammar and exercise books with explanations in several languages, including Spanish, English, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish. The teachers use these materials to supplement their teaching and to give the students practice exercises and homework. The students are also welcome to take these materials home and use them as long as necessary. Our Spanish Language Program is divided into three parts - Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Our classes may be adapted for any level of learner. The complete program takes approximately 8 weeks of study.

On the first Monday of your classes, you will be taken to meet your family at your new "home". Staying with a Guatemalan family is one of the most important parts of the language/culture experience. Living in a Guatemalan home, you will be practicing your newly acquired language skills from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. We seek families that treat students like an additional member of the family, inviting them to take part in daily activities and conversation. The families are asked to provide you with a private room, a desk with a lamp for studying and three meals a day (including weekends). If students arrive a few days early, they may stay with the family until their classes begin for a small daily fee.

Most of our families have been with the school for many years and have experience with having foreigners in their homes. They all take the necessary precautions with cooking and handling food. They are also able to cook based on the student's dietary needs, for example vegetarians, lactose intolerant, etc.

Hi, I have just gone through the experience of finding the best place to study Spanish and have just completed my course so thought I would share the experience with you. I hope it is of help. I have spent the past 4 weeks studying at Educacion para Todos in Quetzeltenango with my husband. My original reason for choosing this school was that they were very informative and professional both on their website and in my constant questions before leaving the UK. They were also happy to tailor make the course according to our needs. The experience at the school has exceeded our expectations. My husband and I both have very different levels of Spanish and the school has tailor made the tuition according to our ability and our future needs. They have also introduced us to Voluntary work that has enabled us to be fully immersed in the community and enabled us to form some good friendships with Guatemaltecos rather than just Gringoes!! We have also been impressed with the amount of extra corricular actrivites made available to us, from film evenings, to trips to Mayan ruins, to International dinners to share with students and teachers alike our different customs and ideas. Although my intention was to come to Guatemala to learn Spanish, we have learnt so much more. We have learnt about the history, the geography, the culture both historically and contemporary, something I did not expect before coming here.

REBECCA PANDIT, England

Staying in the class all day does get tiring. It also does not allow for our students to enjoy the beauty of nature and culture that Quetzaltenango and Guatemala has to offer. To help with this, we organize weekly activities and trips. These activities are in the form of movies, lectures, documentaries and group lessons. We also take hikes to indigenous villages, visit many area NGO's and meet with local community organizations.

For those that want to see more of the surrounding area and enjoy the beauty of the land and people, the school also takes weekly excursions such as volcano hikes and trips to the beach, hot springs, hot baths, steam baths and area markets.

There is no better way to have a fuller, more rewarding experience and have innumerable opportunities to practice your Spanish than to volunteer in a local organization. To help you do this, Educación para Todos created the Volunteer Center. The goal of the center is to link students up based on their level of Spanish, talents, abilities and interests. The Volunteer Center works as a liaison between the students that want to serve and the organizations in need. We have several contacts with agencies and organizations in and around Quetzaltenango. With an agreement to study a minimum of one week at our school, we will help you get placed in an organization.

Please understand that many of the organizations require a minimum commitment and a minimum level of Spanish in order to serve with them. However, there are organizations that are more than willing to work with students for varying lengths of time and at any level of Spanish.

There are several schools throughout Quetzaltenango that boast of their volunteer programs and projects. They have a long list of different types of projects and pictures of various foreigners intermingling with Guatemalans and nature. More times than not, these programs or projects are not very well organized or were a one-time thing. There is nothing more disappointing than to be excited about the chance of serving in a real way only to find that things just did not work out.

We are dedicated to letting this happen. Our Volunteer Center works to try and match you up with your time schedule and those of the surrounding organizations. And we try to be as up front as possible and the limitations and real expectations of the local organizations. The best that we can do is to share with you some of the organizations were our previous students have volunteered. Please feel free to read their stories of accounts of their experiences.

Habitat for Humanity
There is a branch of Habitat for Humanity located in a town close to Quetzaltenango. Students have helped with the building efforts of homes for the poor in several surrounding villages.

Centro Infantil
Spanish School Guatemal VolunteeringCentro Infantil is an orphanage/Day-Care for children from birth to 10 years old. The majority of the children are from battered homes; children of mothers that died at childbirth or are children who were abandoned at birth. The school has a special partnership with the home. We try to have various activities with the children including playing games, parties and piñatas.

Asociación de Comadronas de Concepción Chiquirichapa
This is a group of midwives that works with women of poor communities. We have placed social workers and nurses that have served there with the midwives. There are opportunities to observe, work on cases and other gynecological services. Once again the amount of participation depends on training and level of Spanish.

NISGUA
NISGUA is solidarity organization that focuses on an accompaniment program that places foreigners as observers in communities and with work teams. Many of the work teams are working on exhuming some of the mass graves that are found throughout Guatemala as a result of the 36-year internal armed conflict that occurred here. This organization works with some of the poorest and most isolated communities.

PEILE
PEILE is an organization that provides a home for women and children who have been widowed or who have been victims of domestic violence. The home offers several training programs and classes in order to help the women and children learn skills, obtain food, and give them opportunities to better their life. The home has a garden and raises chickens. Students have helped with the garden project, given English classes and offered parties for the children.