Study Spanish in Venezuela

Cela Spanish School, Venezuala:
Learn Spanish in the Caribbean in small groups all year round. Cela Spanish School is located in in Playa el Angel in Pampatar on the Caribbean island of Isla de Margarita, Venezuala, only 30 minutes away from Venezuela’s mainland at the northern tip of South America. We offer Spanish courses for 5 levels, and also Spanish courses for special purposes such as health, law, and business. The Spanish courses are offered in small groups. It is also possible to book one on one lessons. Our Spanish courses also include 3 excursions per week and accommodation in a host family on Isla Margarita. We highly recommend the accommodation in Venezuelan host families, because it will reinforce our work in the classroom through practise of the Spanish language in a natural social environment. From Margarita Island you can easily book excursions to Mérida, Angel Falls, Los Roques and other popular places in Venezuela. The island is the perfect place to practice windsurfing and kitesurfing.

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* Margarita Island is one of the few islands in the Caribbean where Spanish is spoken. The temperature is warm and constant the whole year round and the island is far from the hurricane zone. Margarita Island (destination airport Porlamar) can be reached either from Caracas, Venezuela (more than 16 flights a day), or directly from some countries, like Canada and the UK, with different charter airlines.

* The standard courses at Cela comprise 25 lessons per week. Three excursions per week to the beautiful beaches and other sights on the island are included in the course fee. The groups are small with a maximum of 7 participants (usually between 2 and 5). The Spanish courses at Cela are the best way for combining holidays with language learning.

* The teaching staff is highly qualified. Our courses are tailor-made according to the needs and interests of the students. Nevertheless, a 2-week course at Cela is more or less equivalent to one semester of Spanish at a university or similar institution.

* At Cela you can take the DIE examination (Diploma Internacional de Español) which is available in 10 levels of proficiency.

* There are different accommodation options, like a host family, apartment or hotel.

* The atmosphere in our Spanish language school is very friendly and personal, students are our guests and friends, and we would be very happy to welcome you on our island.

CELA is a small and very personal school. We take a limited number of students each month. For us it is very important for the success in learning that the groups never have more than seven students, with an average of three to four students per teacher, depending on the season.

To guarantee the teaching at the right level, we have developed several level tests, which can be taken online before the first day of class: CELA Online , the result is being sent by e-mail both to the school and the student. We highly recommend to fill out the test, so we can place you in the right group from the first day on. This also allows to offer the classes in homogeneous groups and to know the skills of the new students in the Spanish language.

Be it that you choose our classes in group, private, or one of our courses with specific purposes, the instruction you will receive will aim your individual needs and interests. Our instruction is centered in the student.

Cela Spanish courses are offered in five levels of knowledge: Beginners (no previous knowledge), Intermediate A, Intermediate B, Advanced and Superior. Each level has a program of 50 lessons organized in two weeks. Due to the size of the groups, and our programs being based on a progression that is grammatical, lexical, morphological and syntactical, oriented to the most common situations, the learning of the language is fast and effective.

Our staff:
Our director, Sabina Loffler, has a Ph D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the UNED in Madrid, Spain. She participates regularly in national and international congresses about language teaching and learning. Besides teaching at CELA, she has developed Spanish Online (CELA Online ) a free service for all those interested in the Spanish language, she also has a master degree in Online Education. Before founding the school in 1997 she taught Spanish as a foreign language at European Institutions and Universities for more than 15 years. The Spanish teachers at CELA are highly qualified, speak more than one language and participate constantly in teacher seminars at school and abroad.

Most of the American Universities give credits for a Spanish course abroad.

For German citizens there is the possibility of obtaining Bildungsurlaub for Spanish courses at Cela.

We have recognition for the following Bundeslaender:
* Hamburg (Hessen)
* Niedersachsen
* Berlin und Brandenburg
* Schleswig Holstein
* Rheinland Pfalz
* Mecklenburg Vorpommern

Interested students please ask for the formalities if possible 8 weeks in advance. Bildungsurlaub students have one or two lessons more per week depending on the Bundesland and have to make a final test and assist to the lessons 100% in order to obtain the certificate.

Courses:
- Spanish Courses for all levels beginners to advanced
- Standard Spanish
- Intensive Spanish
- Business Spanish
- DELE and DIE exam preparation
- Spanish for Law
- Medical Spanish
- Spanish for Tourism
- Spanish for Teachers
- Spanish courses credited as Bildungsurlaub
- Group Courses
- Private Tuition

Host family:
Our host families are carefully selected; they have been the same since 1998. The accommodation in the family includes breakfast and dinner every day except Sundays. All families live within walking distance to school. Most of them have grown up children. We highly recommend this type of housing to maximize your Spanish skills and discover the Venezuelan lifestyle. Venezuelan families are very kind and hospitable; your privacy will be respected. If you have special requirements like vegetarian food, or you have any allergies, please tell us, so we can consider them when we place you in a family. You will have a single room with breakfast.

Hotel room:
The island has a lot of hotels and resorts of all categories. Please contact us and write us about your wishes and we will be pleased to help you to find something suitable. Please take into consideration that in the summer and for Christmas it is very difficult to find hotel rooms on the island. The reservation has to be made several weeks in advance.

Apartments:
There are apartments close to the school.

At CELA the excursions are included in the Spanish language program. After the lessons we will take you out 3 days a week to the most beautiful places on the island. For students who have lessons in the afternoon, the excursions are in the morning.

In Margarita you will find 167 km of inviting beaches, all with different atmosphere and possibilities to practice sports or simply relax.

Some places you will discover during our excursions are:

* Pampatar, with its Fortress Santiago de La Caranta (1586)
* La Asunción: Capital of Margarita, with the oldest church in South America, and the Castillo de Santa Rosa
* El Valle del Espíritu Santo
* Juan Griego: Fortress of La Galera (1811)
* La Restinga Lagoon National Park
* and the many different beaches Margarita has to offer

Margarita Island is 30 minutes away from Venezuela's mainland, by plane. It is a beautiful Caribbean Island with a great variety of landscapes and paradisiacal beaches. In Margarita you will find typical fishermen's villages as well as modern shops, shopping malls and restaurants, in Porlamar and its surroundings.

Life in the island is very quiet, without the problems of the big Latin-American cities. However, the island offers enough possibilities for entertainment, such as discothèques, clubs, bars, restaurants and casinos. Because of its condition as Duty Free, it offers excellent prices in products like liquors, cigarettes and designer clothes.

Margarita Island is the favorite spot for Venezuelans to spend their vacations, and has earned popularity in many European countries. The climate is good all year round, and, even in the rainy season, one can enjoy the sun every day. There are also opportunities to practice sports like Windsurf, Kitesurf or Scuba Diving.

Cela Spanish School, is located in a beautiful residential area, Playa El Angel, close to some important shopping malls and Pampatar, one of the most typical and beautiful towns, where the San Carlos castle is located, a Spanish fort from the time of the conquest, The Casa de la Aduana (House of Customs) and many typical restaurants. The host families are located nearby, so our students can walk every day to school. In the program we include 3 excursions per week to the most beautiful locations of the island, in order to let our students take with them a good impression of this nice island.

To get to Isla Margarita there are charter flights from some European cities, but we recommend, for a better air fare, to fly to Maiquetía airport, some kilometres away from Caracas, and take from there a flight to Porlamar. The school administration will gladly help you reserve your flight Caracas - Porlamar, if you wish. In case of having to spend the night because of flight connection issues, the school will recommend a good and safe hotel close to Maiquetía airport.