Reviews of ECOS Spanish School, Cartagena, Colombia

Everyone was extremely friendly at ECOS language school and thus served as an example for Colombia's warm-hearted and welcoming people! Teachers and staff only spoke Spanish with me, which gave me plenty of opportunities to immerse in the language. The teachers rotated teaching different classes, which I liked because they all have different styles and approaches to explaining the grammar, so that it was possible to ask another teacher to explain something again if it wasn't understood fully the first time. The free class material was well-designed and we had many exercises to practice. I also liked the occasional games or videos. All classrooms are clean and comfortably temperatured with AC, though not all have a window. The school offers one dancing class and one cooking class for free every week and both were very entertaining and helped understand Colombian culture. In addition, there were field trips to museums, wild life parks, and the city center. The teacher accompanying these field trips has a vast knowledge of the history and street art of Cartagena! She answered all my questions in great detail and I've learned a lot.

This is not at all the school's fault, but at the time I was there, the total number of students was rather low. So I missed a few more classmates (there was just one girl and me in one class). The positive side was, of course, that we had a lot of talking time in class. The school also did not cut the hours of daily lessons, even when my classmate was sick for some days and I was taught alone. Furthermore, the students who were there were mostly German speaking (many from Switzerland, some from Germany). Maybe it would be possible to advertise ECOS a little more in other areas of the world to reach a more balanced mix of nationalities? It is a great little school which truly deserves to be known around the world!

Not about the school, but when you fly to Colombia you'll need a form called "CheckMig" which is FREE on the official government website. DON'T PAY using other websites that look a lot like the official one and offer the same service for money! Just saying that as a lot of travelers made the same mistakes or forgot about the form altogether, which gave them a lot of trouble at the airport.

It's a safe city if you stick to certain rules that should be common sense (not walking home alone at night, not visiting poor neighborhoods on your own). The historic center is stunningly beautiful with colonial architecture and an old city wall that offers great views. There are some excellent and affordable restaurants and the district of Getsemani is a lively place full of outstanding street art! There is no metro system and the busses are not so easy to figure out, so I mostly used taxi apps for transportation or simply walked (all the sights are mostly in one area anyway). The beaches directly in Cartagena are not very nice (dark sand, not very clear water, annoying vendors), but if you visit one of the beach clubs on Tierra Bomba, you'll have a very relaxing time! Baru also has amazing beaches with clear, blue water and white sand (the beach clubs are a little more "basic" though). The climate is "special" of course (hot and humid, overall quite tropical :) ....), but if you know what to expect and don't want to run a marathon, it's really not to bad at all!

I liked the studio apartment, which is sparkling clean and located in the same building as the school and in a very safe area of the town. Its small kitchen area is equipped with everything necessary to accommodate 1-2 people and the air-conditioning works fine (the Wifi is a little slow at times so my advice is to have some mobile data as a backup...). The school organizes the cleaning of the apartment every 4 days and also offered to do my laundry once a week, which is an excellent service on top! :)

The people are nice and try to make an effort. The excursions and activities are great.

The location is terrible, small bare rooms and it is noisy outside. Learning is like in a classical school.

Nice for two days, but not for longer.

I am doing this online via Skype so not really fair to judge the facilities or other activities as I'm not there but hope to go sometime. I really like the fact that it is all taught in Spanish which is improving my listening skills and encourages me to speak the language which I am not always confident of doing. The teachers I have had so far and really lovely and positive. The one hour we have had in the day as flown by.

The only thing I would like is after the class I would like in english the rules of any grammar covered. This is because I'm listening to everything in Spanish I'm sometimes a bit unsure if I have got the grammar rules correct. I have been online and checked things out afterwards. Perhaps as my listening gets better then this will get easier but I think having some kind of follow up of grammar in my native language would really help me feel confident that I have understood it and embed it more into my mind. Thank you. No other comments I really really enjoy my classes but I thought this could be useful feedback for the school the classes are really wonderful.

Seems like a really lovely school and set of teachers.

It is too difficult to comment i am working with Skype

Really very good just see my previous comments about resources to reflect on after the class to confirm the rules of grammar

The teachers are very approachable and quite young, so the atmosphere is relaxed at all times. The offer also includes cooking and dance lessons as well as various excursions, which are also counted towards the educational leave.

It is useful if you live close to the school, for example in the Manga district.

The super-intensive course as part of the educational leave has four hours with grammar units in the morning and two additional units in the afternoon, in which more casual discussion groups are carried out. The latter could be more oriented towards the grammar part in order to increase the learning effect.