Program Reviews

The Spanish program at Instituto Estellar Bilingue is fantastic. Not only is the program itself comprehensive and geared to promote your learning quickly and intensively, but the extracurricular activities and the involvement in the community are indicative of a school that prides itself in inclusivity. If you would like to learn Spanish, then I highly recommend Instituto Estelar. I came for two weeks. La profesora Caroly es muy sympatica y paciente. She spoke always slowly and clearly, repeating herself many times in many different ways until everyone understands. In addition, her manner in correcting our errors was always kind and comprehensive. I was very pleased with Caroly as my Spanish teacher. The second week, Merlyn was my teacher. She taught with enthusiasm and inclusivity. She also spent considerable time in conversation with her students. Her engaging personality was infectious and she stimulated conversation in even the most shy of students. The school was clean and organized. I was pleased with all of the activities in which I participated. Carmen, my hostmom, is an absolute angel. I could not be happier. Carmen (and Jorge) were very gratious and welcoming. I miss my conversations with Carmen a great deal. She is a beautiful person.

I really loved my experience here! I learned a lot and feel like I got a truly authentic experience in Liberia with many opportunities to practice my Spanish. I felt so welcome at Estelar and was provided with a great environment for learning! The school felt so welcoming and I appreciated that they took the time to make sure I was placed in the appropriate level in order to learn as much as possible. It was a challenge but one that I was up to! They were also great about giving advice for whatever I had questions about- be it currency exchange, buying a sim card or excursions to nearby beaches. I would definitely recommend Estelar! I loved my teacher - Walter was beyond fantastic! I learned so much with him. I appreciated the way that he always corrected my mistakes but did so in a way that I could learn from and didn´t make me nervous to make more. He kept the classes very interesting and I genuinely looked forward to coming to class every day. I felt that he provided an appropriate amount of homework that complemented my in class learning. I enjoyed going to the Feria and the Reserva Biologica! I really enjoyed the cooking class! Club A was a really interesting experience that I am glad I was able to be a part of. I also enjoyed the individual intercambios. Thank you also for helping me plan extra activities. All of the staff here were very approachable and I felt very welcomed and at home in the community that this school creates. My family was fantastic! They made me feel so welcome and I was a bit sad to leave them. The house was very clean and I had more than enough delicious food. They were patient with me and my speaking and I felt comfortable practicing my Spanish with them. They truly made me feel like a member of the family. They were patient with me practicing my speaking with them and it definitely enhanced my experience having stayed with them!

Extremely High Quality of Spanish Classes, customization of interactive, instructional courses, organization of homestay, organization of extracurricular activities inside and outside of the school, excellent direct communication from Director/Owner Bethany Kirk - The setting is perfect for one who truly wants to learn and immerse themselves within a Spanish speaking environment! The location of the institute is next to a couple bakeries and we felt safe walking to and from the school. My husband and I "hung" out in the lobby while they kids were in their classes. We enjoyed the excursion to the waterfalls on one the days after class. It is a hot climate, so one should be prepared to pack light and airy clothes. WE didn't find that air conditioners were common in the homes and places within the country. We adapted quickly enough to not let the heat and lack of "refreshing" air to get in the way of our adventure!!

I loved this school! Deidy is an excellent teacher. I have never had a person speak so much Spanish to me, and I could actually understand her. Her lessons were very engaging, and I learned more than I could ever have imagined. As a former teacher, I found her exceptional. Great activities to reinforce what we are learning in class. I would have like a little more TPRS in my Spanish course, especially for practice hearing and saying the verbs multiple time. But I understand it is not everyone's cup of tea. I loved the intercambio. The movies were not too good for me because I really need subtitles. Love the staff. Everyone I have come into contact with at this school is fantastic! So kind and helpful, they go out of their way to make you feel at home. Annia and Luis, my host parents, treated me like family. The food was fantastic and I learned even more by practing Spanish with them. I literally cried when I said goodbye.

Spanish class with Merlyn is like falling in love with your first grade teacher, again! This teacher is the best I've ever had! I felt like she was able to cover a lot of useful information in just one week. I enjoyed all of the activities that Merlyn incorporated in our classroom. We had a good balance of movement, writing and speaking. My hostmom Leticia is amazing! Her home was very clean! Her family and even cat welcomed me with loving arms. They speak little Spanish, which made me work at it, and that is exactly what I wanted. Leticia´s cooking is wonderful! Everyone and everything at Estelar was fabulous! The school is very clean, organized and established. This school is a little gem in Liberia. Club A was a truly unforgettable, rewarding experience!

The class was small and personable. The teacher taught only in Spanish but gave several examples to be sure we understood. Everone was extremly nice and helpful in the learning and supporting rolls each one played. My teacher was the best! Merlyn was very joyful and proficent. She made the learning experience interactive. I have been in many professional classes and this one was excellent. I am just learning Spanish so it was difficult for me but she made me feel good. When our brain was "fried" she could tell and pulled out games such as jenga and cards to learn in a playing way. I did attend the Spanglish social and that was extremely helpful. The language exchange was wonderful. The staff is always friendly and helpful, and the institute is always in a very clean condition. Our Host family was the BEST!! Iris and Johnny went above and beyond to meet our expectations. The house was exremely clean and well kept and the food, delicious! They helped with my understanding and practice. Completely loved the immersion program! The activities were above average. The staff and building were great: everyone and everything was fabulous!

I had a great time here in Costa Rica studying at Estelar. The staff made everything very convenient including transportation to and from the airport, arrangements with my host family and day to day activities. Classes are great. Merlyn is a fantastic teacher! She made everything fun. She is very flexible, loves to listen and also explains many detailed concepts that I can use everyday. My other teacher Diedi is very helpful and totally awesome! She speaks clearly and slowly which helps me understand. I give her an A plus. Working with the native children in Club A was an awesome experience and so much fun to participate with them in an after school activity. I also got to meet a few native Costa Ricans who are learning English and was able to help them as well as learning from them. The extracurricular activities are great and a good way to connect with people and learn Spanish. This program not only offers Spanish, but also great extra trips to explore CR. The staff is excellent! Actually, everyone has been more friendly and helpful than I could have hoped for. They took care of everything. My host family was excellent and served the best food in town! The family was very receptive, very patient, and the food was great! My hostmom Digna is a great cook and hostess. She took care of everything from daily meals to washing clothes. She also tried to help my wife and me with our Spanish, although I wonder if we made her impatient with our lack of knowledge of Spanish, lol.

I absolutely love the format and pace of the classes here, they allow for optimal time to learn and practice. This week the instuctor was Deydi and she is super knowledgeable about all things espanol which is super helpful! I wish there were more opportunities for interactive experiences in the class. We spent a lot of time listening, which is super important but I wish we would have had more time talking. Overall, it was a great week.

Is is evident that Deydi really knows the Spanish language, she is a great teacher and corrects us when we are stumbling which is helpful. I wish she incorporated more activity-movement-games into the lessons. I felt as though I was sitting more than normal. I also would like to have more words-sentences-phrases written on the board to help us learn. I really liked how she talked to us about real life scenarios to help us practice our listening skills.

I absolutely LOVE all that Instituto Bilingue has to offer...what a great program!!

All of the experiences are amazing! I love Club A because it gives you hands on practice with kids from the area. I also love the excursions planned and otherwise. The Poza de Pipa is a hidden gem and there are no tourists there which is amazing and allows you to practice your spanish if you interact with the locals. The one thing I would like to see in the future is guided tours. Most of the ¨tours¨ are self guided meaning we pay for the transportation to-from but there is no guidance at the location and I would like to have more actual guidance.

I love everyone here! The teachers are great, the cleaning staff and receptionists are so super pleasant and hard working. Franklin is a fantastic driver...those roads to Poza di Pipa are NO JOKE! And Bethany is like a ray of light!

Are you serious? My family is amazing! I would live with them forever if I could. They have been MORE than accomodating with their meal preparation and their patience with my horrible spanish! I really could not have asked for a better more friendly more amazing family!

I am taking two weeks and love the Spanish immersion program and profesora Merlyn. Merlyn is an excellent teacher. I learned so much just talking with her. I find her very easy to follow and talk with. Bethany, the director, was kind, helpful, and responsive, and the whole staff was great! She is working with me to create the program I need. I really appreciate the flexibility. I wish I could participate in all the activities after class. My favorite activity was our walk around town. I wish I had a month here to experience all the activities. Intercambio was great. Love talking with new friends. Recommendations, better chairs in the classroom, and practice sheets for the homework. Love how clean and comfortable the classrooms are. Except the wooden chairs. After 4 hours they put my tail to sleep. My hostmom Iris is wonderful. Can she adopt me? It’s been a long long time since anyone has made my bed and served me breakfast in the morning. She doesn’t mind my attempts at conversation. Both Iris and Johnny are very kind and accepting. That’s all. Muchas Gracias!

This review is based on a two-week homestay / Spanish course experience in February 2019, taken by a married couple. The Institute has 15 class levels (Beginner 1-5, Intermediate 1-5, and Advanced 1-5). Each unit lasts one week. We enrolled in Beginner 2&3 and Advanced 2&3, respectively. Classes are assigned based on performance on an on-line written test and a web-based video interview in Spanish. We found our placements to be appropriate, neither too basic nor impossibly advanced. Class is four hours per day, five days a week. Anticipate 1-3 hours per day of homework, excluding Fridays. All of our classes were in the mornings. Afternoons and weekends were free time for outings and individual exploration. (There are afternoon classes, but we had none.)

The instructors were uniformly excellent. They were dynamic and focused on teaching us Spanish. Each four hour class typically begins with free discussion at the student’s level. The focus of these discussions is to build confidence in speaking in Spanish. Errors are gently corrected, but the emphasis is on keeping the conversation moving. After the discussion, workbook-based didactic sessions are interspersed with games or videos. The pace is rapid and the courses are demanding, but the instructors did a great job of maintaining a fun, energetic mood in the class. Both of us are in our 50s. We aren’t kids, to be entertained by silly games: the games are sometimes indeed silly, but the intent is serious. We found them helpful both in reinforcing the material being taught and in keeping our attention focused.

The homestay was wonderful. The couple in whose home we stayed, Iris and Johnnie, were just lovely. They made us feel welcome and worked us into the fabric of the life of their extended family. They provided plenty of opportunity to speak in Spanish and were patient with our stumbling abilities. They went out of their way to make sure we had a pleasant stay, giving us advice about how to travel safely on our various journeys and making sure that the --wonderful-- food stayed within our dietary restrictions. (One of us cannot eat preserved food or certain cheeses. Iris did a better job of remembering that restriction than we did.)

Food in Costa Rica is not particularly inexpensive, though of course breakfast and dinner are included in the cost of the homestay. A cheap lunch in a local “Soda”, an open-front café kind of place, runs about $7.50. Sit-down restaurants tended to be much more expensive. Transportation, on the other hand, is quite cheap. The bus to the local beach costs about $2.00. A taxi ride of 3/4 mile or so is about $1.25. Hiring a car and driver for three people to go on an all-day guided beach tour was $150. The driver, Diego, was fantastic, knowledgeable and talkative, happy to give informal Spanish tutoring while filling us in on local history, culture, and economy.

The staff at the Institute is friendly and helpful.

We went during the dry season. It was hot, with lows at night in the 80s and highs mainly in the 90s, sometimes pushing 100. It was not terribly humid, but it wasn’t dry heat. The closest beach is about 20 miles away, a little more than an hour by public bus, about 45 minutes by car or taxi. The Institute was happy to help us arrange travel. The beaches are stunning. Some of them offer opportunities to snorkel. The Institute organizes trips to local rivers and the rain forest, for an additional fee. One of the weaknesses when we were there was that participation in those structured trips was not high among the other students. That was one of the few criticisms we had.

Other structured activities include “Intercambio” during which students taking English and students taking Spanish talk one-on-one or in small groups, alternating 50-50 between the two languages, 30 minutes in Spanish, 30 minutes in English. That activity was a good opportunity to practice Spanish, do a little English teaching, and get different perspectives on Costa Rican (and Nicaraguan) culture and daily life. The Institute maintains an active English program, for students of all ages. Those classes are mainly taught by young native English speakers working on 9-or-more-month contracts. It was interesting to meet those instructors as well.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay tremendously and learned quite a bit of Spanish. We would both go back again, and in fact may do so.