Utatlan Spanish School

Dear Readers,

Some of you may already know that when I was in high school I went to Spain for a year as an exchange student and consequently learned how to speak Spanish. Being able to speak Spanish has been a great asset on this trip. (Although, I do have to say that a lot of travelers seem to be getting by with little to no Spanish.) Even though I had some Spanish skills prior to my trip, in the many years since high school my Spanish has become like a prom dress; worn once and then stashed in the back of the closet. What I´m trying to say is that my Spanish was a little bit rusty, which is why I decided to go to Spanish school and polish it up a little.

I chose Utatlan because someone recommended it to me back in Antigua. Also, it happens to be one of the least expensive schools. Some people argue that cheap schools don´t pay their teachers very well. I don´t know if this is true or not. It´s a possibility. I do know that a more expensive school doesn´t necessarily pay the host families any better for housing students.

My private tutor at Utatlan was a very friendly and kind woman named Martha. Because we didn´t have to start with the basics, most of my tutoring time was spent practicing my conversational and comprehension skills. Every once in a while we would review a verb tense. The best part about Spanish school was that Martha would tell me all of these interesting tidbits about Xela, Guatemala, past students, etc.

I also liked the family I stayed with, but I felt that the living situation was not well suited to someone who really wanted to immerse themselves in to the language and culture. My room was located in an apartment above the families', so, apart from mealtimes, I didn´t have that much interaction with them. Also, though it wasn´t the case at the time I was there, this family´s livelihood depended on hosting students, and so at times they would house up to 10 students, which is not ideal if you want to be forced to speak Spanish.

The best part about my home stay was that their mealtimes were heavy on the vegetables, which was a nice healthy respite from my usual diet of chicken, rice, beans, and tortillas. Some other students I talked to were not as lucky, and were being fed diets that were heavy on hot dogs, or light on food (for two little Japanese girls to say they didn´t get enough food, you know it must have been extreme).

I can´t say that my Spanish is perfect now, but it was definitely helpful to be refreshed on conjugation and verb tenses. I would definitely recommend a little Spanish school for any long term traveler in Latin America who isn´t already fluent. It´s a good way to get to know the people of that country on a more personal level, especially if you opt to do a home stay with a local family.

Next Time: Chichicastenango

xx,

gwen

(My host family´s homemade see-saw.)