IES Abroad Salamanca

If you really want to improve your Spanish, come to Salamanca. I came to this city not having taken a Spanish class in the year before I arrived and was extremely nervous about my four months abroad! The wonderful thing about Salamanca is that the locals here WILL speak Spanish to you- we tried using English our first week and quickly discovered that we would be culturally immersed, whether we liked it or not! Fortunately, my entire experience in Salamanca was absolutely incredible and unlike any other. I lived in a homestay and got along really well with my host parents (not to mention that my host mom was an amazing cook!). The classes offered by IES were surprisingly rigorous, but really forced you to learn and think in Spanish. The lengua class in particular deviated from a "standard" grammar class, and it was really cool seeing both my level and my classmates' levels of Spanish grow throughout the semester. I took 2 classes through the university as well and got to experience an entirely different academic culture with Spaniards and other international students.

Aside from academics, Salamanca is a fun, fun place to be in. There's always something going on, and Thursday and Saturday nights are full of students going out. There are lots of opportunities to meet other students from all parts of the world. USAL has student groups and clubs for all sorts of activities- I played volleyball while I was abroad and had the greatest time ever!

The IES Salamanca program provided me with experiences of a lifetime. The staff is supportive and understanding, and added so much to my semester abroad.

In terms of classes, the required language intensive courses are well-planned and helped me both improve my grammar and increase my confidence with the language. Upon arrival, you are required to take a language placement test, and will be put into one of three levels. Each of the classes is catered towards the level you are placed in, and the small class size is ideal for touching up on grammar concepts.

Although a homestay is not required, I highly recommend it if given the opportunity. It is a chance to fully integrate with locals, eat traditional foods, and come back everyday to a loving family. My homestay experience surpassed by expectations.

Overall, I highly recommend spending the semester in Salamanca. The college town atmosphere is extremely welcoming, the architecture is beautiful, and the city is full of history. You won’t regret it!

The IES Salamanca program is an impressively organized and supportive institution that is truly dedicated to giving students a well-rounded and unforgettable abroad experience. I had heard outstanding reviews about the program before I even went, and now, after my own experience, I can confidently say that the Salamanca program is really that of high quality. This program really excels at giving students a dynamic experience that encourages academic excellence as well as cultural immersion.

The IES professors are fantastic! The classes are both engaging and challenging. In particular, the language classes are truly outstanding. From my language classes, I gained a whole new level of confidence in my ability to speak and understand the language. In addition to traditional grammar lessons, we learned colloquial terms & phrases, cultural etiquette, and gestures. The language classes are very well-rounded courses that are designed to help students academically and culturally understand the language.

I had a very good homestay experience. It was great to live with a host mother and to experience the rich culture through that perspective. Upon arriving in Salamanca, I was under the impression that my host mother would treat me just like part of the family and that she would have as much interest in my culture as I had in hers. Unfortunately, this was not the case as my host mother has hosted 5 students a year for the past 10 years and is very accustomed to having American students stay with her. Although my host mother was truly a fantastic woman, I very much felt like I was just renting a room from her. This was not a bad experience at all, it was just different from what I was anticipating.

Overall, I was very impressed with the Salamanca program. Such a strong program in a beautiful and historic city! I wouldn’t have wanted to study anywhere else.

I studied in Salamanca, Spain through IES during their Summer Session I. This program is a month long and perfectly timed for busy students who have a rigorous class schedule during fall/spring semester and/or have other summer commitments. As a pre-med biology major, I was unable to study abroad for an entire semester. However, this summer program allowed me to greatly enrich my Spanish language skills over a shorter period of time through language immersion.
During my trip, I not only learned a ton but also had an adventure of a lifetime. From the beautiful beaches of Portugal to the majestic Alhambra in Granada to the historical streets of Salamanca (where I spent most of my time), I had an amazing time traveling and discovering the beauty and culture of Spain.
I highly recommend studying abroad through IES. They are helpful in making trips affordable through financial aid opportunities, they provide students with a safe environment to learn and amazing host families to live with, and they give students the independence to make their experience what they want it to be.

My time in Salamanca, Spain wouldn't have been the same without my host family. IES placed me with an amazing host family that really made me feel at home. They took me out around town, brought me out to tapas bars that the locals love, brought me to family events to truly be emerged in the culture, and always were there to help me in any way I needed. They made Salamanca a second home for me.

As a Spanish major and language enthusiast, it only made sense that I would study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country, and after the recommendation from a professor and a little more research, I settled on Salamanca because of its history (it has the oldest university in Spain, dating back to the early 13th Century), its size (not a big city), and its connection to the Spanish language (it advertises itself as “La Ciudad de Español”). This was a fantastic decision.

I lived in homestay with a host mother and host brother. My host mother teaches Spanish to foreigners for a living. This wasn’t the case with everyone’s host families, but I couldn’t be more grateful that it was the case with mine. If I ever didn’t understand something, she was eager to help me understand the concept and would explain and explain in an effort to eliminate the need for a dictionary.

The classes were definitely challenging. Of all of them, the required language class is the most invaluable. The professors are some of the best I’ve had, and their approach to teaching is totally different from any traditional “grammar class” I’ve had in the U.S. Two great opportunities were the internship, which let me work in English classes at a local school, and the university classes, which not only taught me the material in the class, but also gave me the chance to say, “I did well in classes designed for native speakers,” which is a huge confidence booster.

Our program went on a number of trips, and I got to travel on my own. I chose to stay in Spain, so I had the chance to experience a number of cities and the process of planning transportation, lodging, and activities while managing to not go home broke. The abundance of cultural activities and ways to experience the culture in Salamanca ensured that there was always something to do.

The only thing I wish I had known prior to choosing Salamanca is that it’s an immersion program. That means the staff speaks predominantly in Spanish (though some of them do speak English) and all the courses offered are conducted in Spanish. This would’ve been a selling point for me had I known it, but it’s still good to know.

And to top off the experience, its Plaza Mayor is one of the most beautiful in Spain (Google it if you don’t believe me—it’s practically a fact).

As Cervantes said, "Salamanca, que enhechiza la voluntad de volver a ella a todos los que de la apacibilidad de su vivienda han gustado." Salamanca became like another home to me, and I’ve already started looking at ways to get back there.

The keyword for IES Abroad’s program in Salamanca is ‘balance.’ The setting itself is about as balanced as can be, uniting a classic Spanish university town with ancient architecture and a modern, bustling city like any other in Western Europe. Given that my home school is a small school of about 1,600 students, Salamanca was perfect for me because it was big enough to be exciting, but not so large as to be overwhelming. Because of the constant influx of American and other European students into the population, Salamanca manages to possess something of the international flavor that you might find in larger Spanish cities like Madrid, Barcelona, or San Sebastián, while imparting a more intimate and welcoming cast to one’s experience. There is no shortage of cultural programming in Salamanca, which consists mostly of literary discussions or readings and theatrical productions. I was able to see a very good performance of Verdi’s opera 'Nabucco' in town for only thirty euro; a production of a similar caliber probably would cost in the hundreds of dollars in the U.S.

The nature of the program itself is also very finely tuned, as it effectively balances structure with freedom. The weeklong orientation program at the start of the semester is exhaustive (and often exhausting). However, as the semester progresses, it becomes clear that the program allows you to budget your time and plan your activities as you see fit. Nevertheless, the IES Abroad staff is always available should you need guidance with some aspect of life abroad, and the Center puts you in touch with cultural activities throughout the program, most of which are free. At least in my case, I felt that the level of counseling on classes that I received on picking classes was appropriate, although I did hear of some of my classmates having difficulties with university courses which are not frequently attended by foreign students. In particular, I cannot say enough about the mentoring program which connects local university students to IES Abroad participants—this was a major help in navigating the social scene in Salamanca.

In sum, I highly recommend IES Abroad Salamanca, with glowing reports for both the program and the city.

From the moment I first stepped foot on Spanish soil, I swore to never be afraid to try new experiences, and to not let any opportunity escape my grasp. And by studying abroad through the IES Salamanca Program, I found such an amazing array of opportunities to get involved not only by taking stimulating courses on the Franco Regime, medieval literature, and a linguistics course at the local university, but also to become a part of the community through intercambios with native Spanish students and volunteerism at the local cultural center for immigrants to Salamanca as a volunteer English Instructor. In my home stay, I lived with my host mother, another American student, and our Yorkshire Terrier, Jaco. This became one of the most memorable components of my time abroad, and I can definitely say that through IES, I found my second family as a part of the experience. I still text my host mom every day, and hope to return to Salamanca to see her as well as all of the IES Abroad staff! Everyone at the center was so helpful and encouraging throughout my time there. While at first it was challenging to become adjusted to a completely new language and culture, I was pleased to find assistance and guidance throughout the entire semester, especially when I expressed interest in pursuing a volunteer opportunity within the community. We also took a lot of different trips around Spain and beyond -- during the Spring semester we were able to travel to Segovia, Toro, Zamora, Madrid, and Portugal. Not only a really fun time, these trips were a great way to form close bonds with students from across the United States in the absence of our native language and culture. I made some life-long friendships with several amazing people I met through my program, and I will never forget some of those long bus rides and the many memories we all share together. Overall, the entire semester was filled with so many different ways to become immersed in the Spanish way of life, and I can say without hesitation that my time abroad through IES became a life-changing experience, one that has shaped who I am now and who I dream to become.