Program Reviews

Overall, I had a really great 4-week immersion experience here at IEB. I will recommend this place to friends, family, and students hoping to learn Spanish in an authentic way. I had a really great time with profesora Gabriela. One day, the class went from two students to one student, and Gabriela made changes accordingly to ensure that I received the support I needed. I learned a lot and enjoyed my time in this class. I had a great experience learning with profesora Nelly too and appreciate how patient she is with us. Grevin es un buen maestro también! Quiero la manera que Grevin enseña!

At first, I didn't participate in any extra curricular activities, but I fully appreciated that there was a schedule for us. My last week I participated in the intercambio, and it was excellent. Everything has been well organized and the experiences are fantastic. I appreciate the communication which has been quick, consistent, and persistent. Me gusto el viaje a la finca Tree Chocolate.

I am so sad that I have to leave Doña Digna this weekend! She is the best! I had such a wonderful experience with her and her family. I´m thankful to be placed there and to have her full support of my bad Spanish. We´ve had wonderful conversations and experiences thus far and I hope to continue. She is truly an excellent person, hospitable, and kind. I am gracious to have been placed at her house and hope that others will have the experience I had.

I spent just over a week at Estelar and it was fantastic! Everyone I met was super friendly and I learnt a lot. The bilingual nature of the institute is really great as it merges both Costa Rican people studying English and foreigners studying Spanish making it a great cultural experience as well.

I participated in the Spanish Immersion for TEFL graduates and lived with a Tico family as part of the homestay program the institute can organise for you.

The Spanish classes (4 hours per day, 5 days) were great and my Spanish improved so much over a week. Our teacher Merlyn was such a good teacher! Highly recommend the Spanish lessons!

The homestay was a great way to get to know a Tico family. They were super friendly, happy and patient while I was practicing my Spanish. The house was really comfortable, and a short walk to the institute. It was nice to spend some time in Liberia, as most of my travels so far have been in small coastal towns with a fair amount of tourism. It was great to get to know a small Costa Rican city.

Teaching english and getting my practicum hours for my program was a great learning experience. The students were great and I felt supported by the teachers and institute.

Would return to Estelar in the future if I wanted to study more Spanish, or maybe even one day I’ll apply for a teaching job there! Thanks for everything!

I am abolutely loving the experience and the school. Nelly is wonderful and she only spoke to us in Espanol. Class was fun and I learned a LOT this week. I think what I need the most is conversational practice with changing verbs. I think the most effective practice was all the homework where I had to memorize words at night and in the afternoon so I could use class time to practice and speak. This week I have used the school space to study on Monday, done the intercambio on Tuesday, Club A on Tuesday, went to the cataratas y posa on Wednesday, and tried to do the intercambio on Thursday but no one came. I will be going on the trip Sunday. So far, I have REALLY appreciated the extracurriculars of the class. I will be trying the cooking class next week and other trips. I am still really thinking about the experience I had with Club A. For me, it was very helpful to see what poverty cerca de Liberia is like and to think about educational opportunities for kids is so important to me as a teacher. I am not sure the kids got anything out of me going, but I am thankful for the experience. I am vasilating between feeling like a voyeur and being helpful to kids... but that is more of a me thing than an Insituto thing... Naomi was SUPER interesting at the Intercambio, so I was very glad to speak with her. So happy to be here! My homestay family, Leti and Geraldo, are the BEST!!! SO patient and so kind! They have really made this trip incredible. They talk with me for about an hour each night and Leti eats some dinner with me to make me feel at home. It is really lovely and I am SO blessed I am living with them.

I have learned so much and continue to learn so much! Thank you for all the excursions this week, loved the farmers market and am looking forward to the poza de pipa and the rincon de la vieja! I loved Deidy’s review of all the verb tenses. Everyone is great! Irlanny, Marta, Dayana, y Ana are all lovely! It was nice to get to know Frankling on the Saturday excursion. My time with Leti and Gerardo continues to get better and better (which I didn´t think possible). We talk for at least a couple hours each night and the grandkids are great. Love the food, the stay, the cleanliness, and everything!
Merlyn was not only one of the best teachers in my time at instituto Estelar Bilingüe, but one if the best teachers I’ve ever had in my life. She was animated, challenging, clear, and captivating. I learned a lot from her and feel if I was able to do everything she taught this week perfectly, I would be fluent! She packed a lot in!!! Merlyn is beyond words. She was absolutely amazing. I am so grateful for her time, patience, and ideas. This week was amazing- I loved the tour at the beginning and think it’s so helpful for new folks at the school. The trip to Kenna’s de Cortez was lovely and I am excited about the weekend trips. I still can’t believe I did a headstand!! Charlie was awesome. Also- loved the cooking class! The intercambios are exhausting, but so helpful on many levels... not just for my fluency, but to be in an environment where people want to learn to connect and communicate. Love Marta, Yirlanny, y Dayana! Everyone at Estelar has been great! Yo aprendo mucho in la aula de Leti y Geraldo. Mi casa es limpia and los conversaciones ricos. ¡Soy muy afortunada!

I took four weeks of Spanish immersion at Instituto Estelar Bilingüe and arranged for my own stay in an apartment through some friends. This first week of the level one class was very satisfying and helpful. I was able to learn more than I thought in one week through the program that Gabriela used to teach me. My experience with my professor was excellent. Gabriela was very parient and allowed me to ask many questions whenever I needed to. She presented everything in a very professional manner and kept the class fun as well. I feel that I could have had more home work each night to challenge me more. This first week I spent time getting to know the town and trying to speak Spanish to the locals on my own.

Mariela the second week was very helpful everyday and challenged me to push myself every night to study in preparation for class. Mostly, she was very good helping me in my conversational skills. She made it fun and relaxing to converse with and enabled me to learn more conversation about my work specifically because she is also very envolved in her church so she was very helpful for my specific area of work as a Catholic priest once I get back to my parish. This is what I had hoped would happen when I first came here. She was a perfect pick for my second week. I did not participate that week in any extracurricular activities at the school due to other obligations. I did do the intercambio conversations with other students and it was fun to help others with their English.

In my third week, Nelly was a natural teacher and able to understand what the students understand. She was able to help us immediately before moving forward to quickly. She was very patient and so far was my favorite teacher here at the instituto. This class was the most difficult and challenging but the teacher was able to keep it slow enough for me to grasp the information necessary to get through this week. The walk through the rain forest was a good experience and gave us an opportunity to practice our Spanish outside of the classroom. It was also a fun and relaxing trip.

Even though the fourth week was difficult, it was still a great opportunity to learn more about the Spanish language. Merlyn was a very good professora and was patient with the class. She was able to teach us with good examples and helped us share about our lives using our Spanish that we have learned. That week I was able to take another trip with the group to the beach and experienced an amazing beachfront and different food than I had in Liberia.

My experience at Instituto Estelar was beyond my expectations. The staff is very helpful and very professional and lived up to all of my expectations and beyond because of their willingness to go out of their way to help in all areas other than just learning. The facilities and staff were exceptional and provided every need that I had. My experience with intercambio was very helpful - speaking with the other students to each other and then help someone else learn to speak English. I felt so happy to be at Estelar!

Gabriela is a wonderful teacher to me and my children. She exceeded all of our expectations. She laid a strong foundation for our 10 and 12 year-olds for future Spanish learning. Her skills and expertise are invaluable to Instituto Estelar Bilingue. Gabriela has a passion for teaching and making sure she meets her students where their needs are in order to bring them a level higher to obtain their goals. Gabriela took our needs and customized them to reach our goals and objectives in an interactive and engaging manner. We appreciated the extracurricular inside and outside of the classroom. We loved how the first part of class tied into the last part of the class to make it all come to a complete circle for connections and understanding. We were thrilled as a family to be able to donate what we no longer could use to Club A. Southwest Airlines allows for 2 free pieces of checkin luggage. We took advantage of their program and checked in 3 large suitcases full of clothing. Our experience with Estelar couldn´t have been better. Direct communication between the Director was beyond expectations. The staff is very professional and amicable. The teachers are very engaging. The school is very organized and has a great vibe throughout the building. This school provides what one should receive when wanting a truly effective Spanish speaking learning experience with the instruction and the homestay experience available. We loved our homestay with Don Hector and Dona Patricia. Wonderful home cooked meals. Precious family and super hospitable. They treated as if we were their family and made us feel at home.

The program is designed to meet the needs of each student. In my first week of classes, I was so happy with Valerie. Valerie is an excellent teacher she allowed me to learn at my own pace and was very patient and helpful with many examples. I have had many, many professors in my many years of school (Ph.D.) Valerie is among the best because of her understanding of people and the different ways of learning. In my second week, even though there were 2 students in the class, the profesora took time to make certain both of us understood each lesson. Merlyn used life stories to make the use of the verbs and new terms relevant to us. The extracurricular activities also gave us more opportunities to practice Spanish. Merlyn has so much energy and makes learning so much fun! If errors were made in homework or in class work, she went out of her way to help in a nonthreatening way. We were required to only speak Spanish in class and this was reinforced by all the staff here. I will have to come back next year to participate with Club A. All of the other activities were wonderful. It was also very nice to meet and talk to the other students in other classes on the activities. I enjoyed the cooking class and the trip to Llanos de la Cortez as well as the walking tour of Liberia. Going in the taxi to the waterfall was very good because the taxi driver and the guide spoke only Spanish with me and taught me many new words. Bethany and all the other staff are so professional and so kind. I never felt I was bothering anyone with my questions. The campus is super clean and everything in each classroom is well organized. My hostmom Dinora is my friend for life! From the very first day, she made me feel at home. The food was SO delicious and plentiful with a lot of variety.Dinorah spoke Spanish with me always and encouraged her family members to do so as well. I hope when I return that I can stay in this wonderful home again!! Overall, from my first encounter with Estelar by email to my last day in class, my experience has been perfect! I love my host family, the staff and the professors.

Estudié una semana en el curso avanzado intensivo de español en Instituto Estelar. El curso cubrió mucho material, pero le presentaba muy bien. Me gusta mucho la profesora! Me encanta el Club A!!! Club A era la experiencia mas positivo por toda la semana! Tambien, me disfruté mucho el intercambio individual y me habría gustado tener mas conversaciones como esto. Todo en el instituto fue fabuloso. Mi mamá Tica Dinorah es increíble! Se escogió excelente para mi porque parece como la mejor opción del mundo. Dinorah es muy simpática y prestaba mucha atención a todo en casa. Cocinaba muchas comidas vegetarianas sin problemas y preparaba mas platos que el mínimo para el programa. También, ella le gusta charlar mucho, y eso me ayuda aprender mucho! Le recomienda con confianza!

Me quedé en Liberia por 7 semanas y estudié español intensivamente por 5 semanas. La profesora Merlyn tiene historias que son muy divertidas, ella usa los para enseñarnos mucho. Ella tiene mucha energía, ella es la mejor. Aprecio su pasión por la vida. Dance and cooking class with Karen were great! In the Spanglish Social I met a Tica who spent a lot of time with me here in Guanacaste enjoying the beaches and swimming. She is invaluable to me. Club A era un experiencia bonita con los chicos. Siempre voy a recordarlos. Quiero dar gracias a todas las personas - Karen, Diana, Marta, Daniela y Carol. Ellas tienen corazones de oro puro. Muchísimas gracias a Bethany por este oportunidad de asistir aquí en Instituto Estelar. Yo quedado con una Tico familia. Todos mis necesidades fueron satisfechas, pero no me hablaron lo suficiente. Esto fue una gran decepción para mi. Hablar todos los días en casa hubiera sido un gran ventaja. Ellos mejoraron después de que Bethany les habló, entonces eso fue bueno.

My wife and I participated in Estelar's immersion and homestay programs for two weeks. I have had various teachers and instructors in Spanish, but Walter at Instituto Estelar was the best I've ever had. He had, of course, a thorough knowledge of the subject, but beyond that, he was energetic and made maximum effort to keep the class engaging and useful. His approach was at once flexible but also adhered to the requirements of the curriculum. I'm very glad to have been his student. My wife enjoyed her instructors, Caroly and Merlyn, who made the lessons fun by using lots of games and were always patient correcting her mistakes. The extracurricular activities were useful and entertaining. It would have been nice to have more participation from students. The fact that only a few of us participated limited their utility to some degree. The individual language exchange would have been improved by having shorter sessions with more people, perhaps in a rotating session, rather than a full hour with one person. It was interesting to talk to local people in the Spanglish Social while playing games. The trips we took were very enjoyable. The trip to the river was amazing - highly recommended! I was very pleased with the friendliness, helpfulness, and degree of commitment demonstrated by staff at Estelar Bilingue. There are always unexpected complications when one travels to a foreign country, and the staff and director were tremendously helpful in managing these minor crises. The campus itself is clean and well-maintained. The materials we recieved by email prior to our journey were fantastic. Everyone is always very helpful and friendly. Our host mom, Iris, is super friendly and a great cook. She does everything she can to make you feel at home. She and Johnny are wonderful hosts and made us instantly feel at home. Their house is super clean and the food was amazing and plentiful. They spoke only Spanish with us all the time and this was very helpful to us with improving fluency. They treated us like family and helped to make our experience here in Liberia wonderful.