Colombia Immersion: Beyond the Traditional Language School
September 21, 2015 By 9 Comments
Colombia Immersion
is a new Spanish school that began with a simple but ambitious goal: to
bridge the distance between the typical language classroom and real
life fluency.The scary, gaping hole that exists between being taught in the classroom and speaking to locals, from hearing your teachers’ and classmates’ accents to hearing the inflections of local speech, is something that has been all but ignored.
The vague philosophy of “you’ll figure that out when you get it to it, let’s learn theory for now” is the norm, with no one committed to teaching you how to jump across the divide.
By contrast, Colombia Immersion is all about experience, connections, and learning in ways that move way beyond just memorizing lists.
Here’s their approach:
Students get a lesson at a market in Envigado
The Program
Colombia Immersion begins with learning in the classroom and takes those skills onto the streets to practice — all within the same class period.This immediate application approach is bolstered by a method that progressively teaches words and phrases in the order of frequency they are used by native speakers, as opposed to block lists of category-based vocabulary.
This and other strategies, they claim, allows them to increase a student’s functional fluency faster than anywhere else.
The program is designed to promote learning inside and outside the classroom, and to connect students with locals. They offer platforms for connecting the two factors based on personal interests, as well as on “immersion placements” around the city, such as volunteer sites, shadowing professionals, or getting involved in a local sports club.
The program also incorporates games on a high level, such as Spanish karaoke, neighborhood treasure hunts, and other fun learning activities.
“Making connections is why we learn languages in the first place, and frankly, without them, you’ll never truly learn it,” said Luke Tierney, Director of Operations. “That’s why we do everything in our power to engage our students in the city, and have them interacting with native speakers from day one.”
It’s not just for beginners. The school offers all levels of classes, scaling its methodology to suit beginners through advanced students.
They offer group and individual classes and have a full immersion option.
Group classes for 10 hours a week will run you 280,000 pesos ($95); 20 hours a week are priced at 500,000 pesos ($169).
If you don’t want group classes, individual classes per hour are 40,000 pesos ($13.50) and you can choose the amount of hours per week that are comfortable for your learning speed.
There’s also the main attraction, the full immersion package for $1,550/month, which includes:
- 16-20 hours of classes per week
- Co-living with Colombians
- Personalized immersion placement site
- Two meals a day during the workweek
- Field trips
- Language exchanges
- Unlimited tutoring
- Access to the program’s network of organizations and professionals
- The alliance with the co-working space/bar/microbrewery nearby 20 Mission
The Staff
The team at Colombia Immersion is diverse, with members from the U.S., the Netherlands, Colombia, Britain, Ireland, and Ethiopia. The founders have experience teaching in many countries, bringing an array of talent to the school.Though the design of the program is an international effort, all teachers are required to be native Spanish speakers.
A student during an outing
The Curriculum
The goal focuses on function rather than immediate perfection, prioritizing the development of skills and comfort in approaching native speakers.While grammar and vocabulary are of course necessary, the human, dynamic aspect of language is also essential; the union of these two elements is what Colombia Immersion seeks to address.
They teach language hacks and modern strategies with a “teach how to fish” mentality that seeks to empower students in their abilities to learn outside the school.
Confidence building, approaching others in a new language, and the life-skills involved are a huge focus — making the learning process both quicker and more satisfying.
When I asked what they thought the most valuable lesson learned during the program was, I got a simple but straightforward answer: “That they can do this, in ways that are faster and more fun than they ever thought possible.”
The Spanish language, foreign countries, misunderstandings, being caught on the spot — these are all difficult elements that can make a person back out early and not accomplish their desired goals, goals that go far beyond mere language acquisition.
The Location
The site was chosen strategically. Envigado is a short bus ride away from Poblado; it is up-and-coming, local, safe, and full of Colombians that don’t know much English, if any.Luke explained: “If we were in El Poblado we would not be able to do this as easily — it’s such a magnet for foreigners that it’s too easy to lapse back into English. In El Dorado (a neighborhood in Envigado) we’re the only foreigners around.”
It helps that a park and micro-futbol field are just across the street, and the central Plaza of Envigado a 10-minute walk away.
The school boasts a co-working space, private bar and microbrewery, and areas for their students to relax.
A student speaking to a local
The Students
Anyone is welcome to experience Colombia Immersion’s unique approach, but the school caters especially to those they see as contributing to Medellín’s rise as a center of innovation. Entrepreneurs, volunteers, digital nomads, and other creative types are all welcome.To that effect, they are building networks that include volunteer sites, tech hubs, non-profits, social entrepreneurs, and co-working spaces in and outside Colombia. The close partnership with co-living/co-working/microbrewery 20 Mission is equipped precisely for this kind of exchange.
“When students sign up with us, they don’t just get our classes. They join a community, and get access to our networks. You never know who you might rub shoulders with, and who might help inspire your next project.”
Describing Medellín as ripe with possibilities to get involved in innovation and social impact, they aim for students to get the most of out of the program while also contributing to Medellín’s development.
The Goal
Colombia Immersion was founded in order to impact language education itself and introduce students to the surrounding culture as richly as possible.They have a stated mission for supporting Medellín’s ongoing growth, as well as for dissolving the language barrier between initiatives that are started within the country and those that are brought in from elsewhere.
As far as they’re concerned, international exchange brings positive results. Colombians love to see people coming in; they’re proud of their country and the high attention it’s getting. Everyone grows from cultural exchange.
The Colombia Immersion team is so confident in their approach that they offer a five-day trial: if their system doesn’t have you learning faster than other classes you’ve taken, they’ll give a full refund. They also offer a 50 percent discount to teachers who take their classes in order to spread their methodology and ideas.
Eventually, the idea is to shift the international image of Colombia; to introduce foreigners to authentic Colombian culture; and to serve as the meeting point for growing foreign and Colombian entrepreneurial communities that remain otherwise isolated from each other.
