Edmonton Hispanic Bilingual Association — Local services in Edmonton

EHBA will connect you right away, if you let it, with the Hispanic (mostly Latin-American, as opposed to Spanish) scene in Edmonton; a scene which will hopefully grow fast, because it will enrich this city immeasurably. I started classes in Level 3 (of 6) a year ago, as I had already done some Spanish by myself at home. Not sure if I'm allowed to plug a specific method here, but it starts with a P and ends in imsleur. The teaching staff at EHBA are from various Spanish-speaking countries (por ejemplo Colombia, Chile, Cuba, Spain itself, and in one case Brasil but very close to Uruguay and where Spanish is used a lot) and they have the openness and joie-de-vivre (alegría de vivir) that you would be hoping for if you find Anglo-Saxon living a bit cold and bland. Oh, and you'll learn Spanish as well. The textbook could be better, and some links to other reference books would be a good idea, including a good dictionary and the equivalent of a Bescherelle. For example, Dorothy Richmond's vocabulary and grammar books, I have found to be very helpful, as well as the For Dummies 500...

It is an excellent program for those who want to start learning Spanish for travel or work related purposes. All instructors are native Spanish speakers with university degrees. Many also teach at University of Alberta so they are all very experienced. The price is very affordable, a fraction of what you pay at the university. As one progresses through the learning, the class sizes are smaller and normally are 4-6 people at pre-intermediate level. Students receive a lot of attention from their instructors. The only drawback is that the training is limited to level one to six and there is no advanced levels so one would have to leave the program at the end of two year training if one wants to master the language at an advanced level. The program is more than enough to prepare an individual to travel comfortably in a Spanish...

I was pleasantly surprised by the structure and format of the teaching, as it wasn't what I expected (apparently it's called 'Conversational Spanish'). All of the instructors I met were very good and very friendly. It was a no pressure learning environment that I felt comfortable in, and my class made it all the better. I found the work book to be a bit confusing at times, and noted there didn't seem to be answers I could look up on my own. The instructor did help in this area in class, but we didn't always go over everything as there was always more to learn. I feel like the classes could stand to be 12 weeks over 10 weeks if it was an option, as there is always so...