Where should I learn Spanish in Washington, DC?

November 27, 2006 9:00 AM

There are plenty of places that offer Spanish courses in DC or Northern Virginia, but I have no basis for narrowing them down beyond the color scheme of their respective web sites. What should I be looking for?

My employer will pay for a certain amount of training and education each year. It's not enough for a trip abroad but it's enough for most courses I could take locally.

Spanish is not required for the work I do but it would be a strong advantage. My profession has certain ways of talking about things that I would need to be able to transfer to a new language, but not a lot of jargon. I work a job that is mostly 9-5 right now, but my hours are somewhat flexible.

I am most interested in recommendations from people who've had good experiences learning a language in the DC area, but I would also appreciate heresay and negative recommendations.

posted by crabintheocean to education (6 comments total)

I have had good experiences with other languages (specifically Chinese and German) at the USDA graduate school. My instructors have always been native speakers, the class schedule is very work-friendly, and the courses were much cheaper than paying by the credit hour at GW, Georgetown, or AU.

I've also been told by others in the area that NVCC (Northern Virginia Community College) is a good option for many of the same reasons listed above (yay, hearsay!).
posted by somanyamys at 11:24 AM on November 27, 2006

NVCC is an ideal location for me, and I didn't even think about it. I'll check it out.

I heard the class size at USDA is very large, did you find that to be a problem?
posted by crabintheocean at 11:27 AM on November 27, 2006

Inquire with the Organization of American States. They have classes, I'm not certain if they're open to the general public. I can't imagine a better place though, for new world Spanish. (I worked for the OAS awhile back).
posted by Goofyy at 1:48 AM on November 28, 2006

I heard the class size at USDA is very large, did you find that to be a problem?

Not for Chinese or German... and Chinese seems to be pretty popular. The courses are capped at a certain number of students, and they are not shy about opening new sections of a class if the first section fills.

Not sure exactly what the magic number is, but I think there are about 20 people in my Chinese class... we do a lot of small group work, and there are usually 5-6 groups of 3-4 people. Also, the size of the class on the first day is not what it will be for the rest of the semester... attrition will probably take care of any initial overcrowding.
posted by somanyamys at 9:36 AM on November 28, 2006

I had a friend that did the German class at USDA and she really did recommend it.

I took Spanish a while back and some other classes at NOVA (NVCC) too. Cheap and doable and a nice mix of people. From your location on your account, you seem to be in DC - NOVA costs about 60/credit for instate residents, so out of state is something ridiculous and I would go with USDA (which is also metro accessible)

If you end up going NOVA - they just opened up a campus in Arlington. The only other one that's transit accessible from DC is Alexandria, via the DASH bus from King Street - i actually drove from DC (worked in dupont, lived in U street) out there because the last bus to the metro actually left by the time class ended (my stats professor managed to make a four hour class last PAST four hours every single week)

On going abroad - i did that twice in Latin America - and it helped my Spanish more than anything else. Past the plane flight, doing a short homestay/language school can be really, really cheap - like 150-200/week max for everything. not a bad idea either, if your employer will pay for it.
posted by jare2003 at 9:04 PM on November 28, 2006

The OAS is located a few blocks from the Executive Office Building. I can't remember which letter street it was (this is their admin building, not their headquarters). It is staffed mostly with folks from Central and South America, plus a few from sundry islands as well as some USians (and I assume Canadian, but didn't meet any).

In fase the name is confusing (reasonable, for a USian) the 'American States' refered to are the nation-states of the western hemisphere.
posted by Goofyy at 5:53 AM on November 29, 2006