PAU/PCE University Exam Preparation

My teacher was ok, but there was not much effort made to find out where I was in my current GCSE preparation and help me progress from this particular point.

She mentioned that 5 lessons were not really much time for my one-to-one hour long lessons, and this made me feel that she really didn’t expect me to progress very much, which was disappointing.

The school was beautiful and in a central part of town. The classes were well paced with periods of concentrated learning followed by something more relaxing and revision of what we'd learned. Our teacher was always encouraging and I never felt like a stupid person despite my many mistakes. She had an amazing talent for understanding what we were trying to say despite our dreadful accents and poor grammar and then gently helped us find the right words. I would definitely go to this school again.

My homestay experience wasn't at all good. I think 'family' needs to be more than one person so that we are exposed to every day chatter.

I got covid in the middle of the first week and went into the school at a quiet time to ask what t do. I would have thought that a student with covid was a fairly common occurrence. The woman at the desk was just cross with me for going in and told me not to go back. I felt dreadful and really needed somebody to be nice to me. I was making arrangements on my own in a foreign country while feeling absolutely awful. The school did email me the next day but I'd sorted myself out by then. I went back in the middle of the second week.

The activities seemed rather like tourist outings. At a language school in Italy the teachers took turns to do 'interesting talks' to the whole school at 4pm. They were useful and memorable and what I would have liked in this school.

The school is very well located, near to the main attractions and the building is very clean and the staff friendly. Due to the season, there were not too much people into classrooms and the teachers have changed during the classes, which is a little bit annoying but the overall satisfaction is very good

Some background for context:

I'm almost 40, I started to learn Spanish 6 months ago, and had 2 intense weeks of individual lessons before. I've lived in Málaga since then.
I'm a French Native speaker with a very good understanding of occidental grammar since I am also proficient in English and German. So learning Spanish is relatively easy for me.
Also, I'm a very fast learner and am bored quickly in group lessons, so I opted for individual lessons back then and this time.

I booked 1 hour per day - instead of 4 like at the previous school - for 2 weeks at Enforex.


I liked that teachers who gave me individual lessons were both interested to help me with something I wanted to learn more about. I loved how the second teacher would know exactly what the previous one already taught me.

I did not like spending all ten lessons on this one subject matter though, with a lot of grammatical explanations and few opportunities for me to practice and speak.
At times we "drifted off" and had proper conversations during which I was able to use what we were just learning, but I felt that the teachers did not want to have such conversations, but focus on "explaining" me how things work. This was not the best approach for me, since I do not have difficulties understanding rules. What I needed was practice and being corrected on the go. The first teacher provided learning material handouts, exercises and homework. The second week I got no handouts at all.
Since this was not clear to me beforehand, I would make sure I'm mentioning this to my next teachers: I need more conversations and exercises, and less explanations.
I found it sad to not be able to build rapport at all despite surprisingly political topics brought to the table by the teachers during lessons.

The location was super central, super easy to find, close to where I lived. That was super handy. Also: the building is fairly fancy and made a very clean impression. I appreciated the emphasis on proper Covi-19 precaution measures. I felt safe.
On the other hand, the building itself gave a pretty "cold" impression to me. It felt more like a dental practice than a lively school to me.

During my stay I did not use any facility nor participated in any activity. I believe there were none due to the pandemic.

I was housed privately, since I am currently living in Málaga and didn't need an accomodation.

To sum it up:
Very good quality teaching and environment, but too "normal"/traditional for me. I will probably go to another school when I can resume taking lessons again. There are plenty in town. It's surely a question of taste and special needs though.

I was surprised by the quality of the teaching methods as well as the incredibly nice and motivated teachers! I didn't think I would learn that much in one month. The classes are perfect in size and there is not too many students. I really recommend this school! I will maybe be back in the next years. The location was good and it was near the beach, so it was quite useful after class.

Although the building was a little warn out, the staff was very welcoming and inviting. The location was nice because near the beach, but far from the center. I know their is a new school being built, hopefully the next students will be able to experience the new classrooms. Overall, very nice teachers and the housing was very welcoming also. My mother made sure we tasted the true Spanish culture, through food, rituals and music.