Studying Spanish in Cusco, Peru

Finding myself with a few days to kill in Cusco, and having seen enough colonial churches and Incan ruins to last a while, I decided to try and find a Spanish school that I could join at short notice and do a few days of one-on-one Spanish lessons.

Spanish classes in Cusco, Peru

I quickly found out about the Fairplay Spanish School, a relatively new Cusco-based NGO that trains local Peruvians who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to become Spanish teachers – especially single mothers – to teach Spanish. Fairplay then acts as their agent finding them work and then taking 33% of the fee with the rest going directly to the teachers.

As I’ve already studied 8 weeks of one-one-one Spanish on this trip in both Guatemala and Ecuador, and have done huge amounts of Spanish grammar, I specifically requested to just spent my time on conversation practice. I spent my time with my teacher (Marta) pictured above, strolling around the museums, plazas, shops and markets of Cusco, chatting away. The photo above was taken at San Cristobal church overlooking Cusco in the middle of one of my Spanish ‘classes’.

I would highly recommend Fairplay Spanish School and especially Marta (herself a single mother) to anyone thinking of studying Spanish in Cusco, Peru.

Further information

You can contact Fairplay Spanish School through their website at http://www.fairplay-peru.org.

The Fairplay Spanish school charges the following:

$15 or $30 enrolment fee (the higher fee includes the Fairplay grammar book)
$4.50/hour – for one-on-one lessons with a less experienced teacher
$6/hour – for one-on-one lessons with a more experienced teacher

Whilst in Cusco, I stayed at Andes de San Blas guesthouse. It is located in the heart of San Blas (Calle Carmen Alto 227), and costs about $10 a night including breakfast and free wi-fi internet.

You can contact them at andesdesanblas@hotmail.com or by phone on (+51 84) 242 346.

Studying Spanish one-on-one with Marlon

studying_spanish_guatemala

Thomas has already written about studying at the Cooperative – so I will concentrate on telling you a bit about my personal experience studying Spanish one-on-one.

I also study with the Cooperative and my teacher’s name is Marlon. Marlon is 9 years younger than me, but this is usually not the case. Most teaches are around mid 30s and have many years experience teaching Spanish.

Marlon, on the contrary, is an artist and an intellectual and have studied Art at the university in Guatemala city.

I really like studying with Marlon because he has A LOT of patience. He never makes a face when I repeat the same mistake for the 10th time and is always mentally present for all 4 hours we spend together every day.

Having your “own” private teacher is great. He will correct me every-time I make a mistake and we have gotten to know each other really well. He tells me stories (in Spanish) from his life and I tell him stories (in Spanish) from my life.

I will miss my teacher when I leave San Pedro 🙂