I can't say thank you enough to Eugenio!

Reviewed on 06/12/2018 by Melanie from Brunswick

I attended the Ailola School in Quito, Ecuador for one week. I chose Ailola because it had great reviews and had a great price.

When I arrived, Eugenio from the school picked me up from the airport and brought me to my hostel. He was so nice and helpful. Instead of staying in one of the hostels they recommended I decided to book one on a booking site (big mistake!). It turns out the place I booked didn't exist! It was already late but Eugenio drove me around for over an hour trying to find my hostel and tried calling for me too several times. He ended up calling another hostel for me and got me a room. I don't know what I would have done if he wasn't the one who picked me up at the airport! I can't say thank you enough. This proved to me right away that they really care about their students.

I enrolled in the group lessons in the morning and private lessons in the afternoon. Both teachers were very friendly and knowledgeable. However, my teacher in the group lessons would only speak in Spanish which made it very difficult for me to understand a lot of what she was teaching because I didn't know much Spanish before attending the school. If you don't know a lot of Spanish I would highly recommend that you just take the private lessons. I found those to be the most helpful. And when you take the group lessons AND the private lessons, it makes the days really long and I missed out on a lot of the free activities they offer because I was in class.

I can't say enough good things about my private tutor Zayra! She's the best! She made class fun and really focused on helping me learn what I wanted to learn about. The group lessons were more about proper grammar, etc, but Zayra focused on what I wanted to learn. I'm traveling solo so I was more interested in how to order a meal, get directions, and have a brief conversation with locals so she focused on that. And helped better explain the things I had learned in my group classes that I wasn't quite understanding. She would speak to me in Spanish and help me reply correctly in Spanish but if there was something I didn't know she would explain it to me in English so I could understand. This was SO very helpful! She made me flash cards, which were very helpful, and gave me some helpful flyers too! She was very patient with me. I really struggle with pronunciation and she was so kind and helpful! If I had the chance to do it over again I wouldn't have taken the group lessons; I would have just taken more of the private lessons.

So, if you already know Spanish and just want help with grammar, then I recommend taking the group classes. If you don't know a lot of Spanish (like me) then I highly recommend just taking the private lessons, and request Zayra! She taught me so much!

Hello Melanie,

Thanks so much for your comprehensive feedback. It’s great that you enjoyed your stay.

You have written the longest review so far ;-) I really appreciate that and send you a BIG thank you!

Keep on learning Spanish!

All the best,

Philip and the Ailola Quito team