Since the 1960s, foreigners have been heading to Cuernavaca to learn Spanish and experience Mexican culture. Despite its bad press during the past few years, it is still a safe, quiet and relaxing place to learn Spanish in Mexico. Only an hour outside of Mexico City, Cuernavaca offers the benefit of lots of cultural activities, both within the town and outside. Here are the city’s best schools.
1. Universidad Internacional
School, University
It seems that across the board, the Universidad Internacional (Inter) program at The Center for Linguistic & Multicultural Studies gets the best reviews from locals and students alike. This school offers a wide range of programs. Students can take group classes or sign up for private lessons, and the groups are never more than five students per teacher. It also offers an Executive Program for business managers, where it adapts the classes to individual industries (i.e., specialized terminology), and a semester program that students can use for college credit with pre-approval from a home university. The school will also help you set up homestays with families in
Cuernavaca for full cultural immersion.
2. Escuela Cuauhnáhuac
School
Another favorite Spanish-language school in Cuernavaca is the Escuela Cuauhnáhuac. One of the oldest language schools in the city, the Cuauhnáhuac institution offers a regular intensive and super intensive program (six hours a day). It also has programs that focus on business Spanish, legal Spanish, medical Spanish and even religious Spanish. The school has developed its own, unique teaching methods approved by Mexico’s Ministry of Education, and students follow a series of four textbooks that the institute wrote themselves. This program is accredited by a handful of US universities, so if gaining credit for your study is important too, it’s best to check in advance.
3. ASLI-Spanish Language Institute
School
If you are ready to step out and explore Mexican culture, the classes at the ASLI-Spanish Language Institute might just be what you are looking for. The school organizes specific cultural programs to complement the Spanish you will learn in class, including a salsa track where you will learn to speak and dance and a volunteer track where you will interact with the local community. ASLI also offers online Spanish classes to keep up with what you’ve learned after you leave or prepare for your trip to Mexico.
Encuentros, as you can imagine from its name (literally ‘Encounters’), is all about putting its students in touch with the locals. For that reason, it strongly recommends homestays with Mexican families as a way of not only improving language skills but also getting a sense of local culture and how people live in the city. Like many of the other schools mentioned,
Encuentros offers a lot of field trips for students, taking them out to meet-and-greets at local businesses and other cultural centers. The school also hosts language exchanges on campus between locals and students.
5. Anders Languages Mexico
School
The Anders school differentiates itself from the above options by offering a residence stay on-site at the language school in Cuernavaca. The residences have all the amenities of a hotel – private rooms, an on-site cook, free drinks 24/7 and even a swimming pool – while at the same time allowing you to mingle with other students and staff on-site. It also offers programs geared towards cultural interaction; it has a Spanish and golf program, a Spanish and gastronomy program, and a Spanish and culture program. This school focuses on adult and business students, not families or kids.
6. Ideal Language and Cultural Experiences
School
The Ideal school offers a wide range of classes from private lessons to small groups and business vocabulary. It has another school location in Oaxaca, and it encourages students to arrange homestays with local families through the school for the full cultural immersion. Ideal will craft a program to the special needs of larger groups of students and also offers online courses for continuing education. Their biggest focus at all language levels is that their students can walk away comfortably conversing in Spanish; therefore, it provides a lot of opportunities to interact with Spanish speakers on a one-on-one basis.
Culture Trips launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes places and communities so special.
Our immersive trips, led by Local Insiders, are once-in-a-lifetime experiences and an invitation to travel the world with like-minded explorers. Our Travel Experts are on hand to help you make perfect memories. All our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.?>
All our travel guides are curated by the Culture Trip team working in tandem with local experts. From unique experiences to essential tips on how to make the most of your future travels, we’ve got you covered.
