Outstanding

Like so many other people I know I had spent over 5 years learning Spanish thru Duolingo but found that I would freeze up when someone would start speaking Spanish to me. I even had a tu tot twice a week but that wasn’t working. So, I decided to do an immersion program. After considering several I chose Na’atik because they just felt right.

My instincts proved correct. Over the course of 7 days in the town of Carrillo I took 5 days of 4 hour classes which were outstanding. But even better was the fact that I was surrounded by people speaking spanish 95% of the time (for 11 days total - we spent 4 days in Cancún. That experience is definitely transforming. I finally can differentiate the individual words that I’m hearing. I didn’t start speaking confidently durian the trip but now that I am home I find myself speaking in Spanish in my mind, constructing Spanish answers to English questions. Now it’s not just vocabulary or grammar. It’s using the two to make sentences.

My adult daughter came with me which was a special treat spending all that time together. The staff and our host family made us feel truly welcomed and at home (and we were WELL fed with home cooked meals cooked by our host family 3 times a day). The town of Carrillo is a definite contrast to our American way of life. The local people live more simply with less stuff and they are happier than most Americans I know. They are a warm community and we felt completely safe walking all around the town every day.

We both plan on returning sometime in the next few years and staying longer.