School Blog

Firstly, the location. Granada is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain, and while there are other that are bigger, or have a beach right on the edge of the city, none has the charm that she does.

My second point is along the same tracks, but more precise. The location within the city. It is pretty much in the city centre so it’s easy to get to and you can go sightseeing straight from the class without wasting time. Yet it is not in the busy, noisy, tourist laden part, so apart from the lone dog barking from time to time, the area is very quite, which as you can imagine, is quite the ideal place for a school to be at.

Now since this is a school, let’s get into the good stuff, classes. I spent a couple of weeks here doing the Standard Spanish course, and over the course of my time there, I had classes or at least contact with pretty much every staff member. They are, obviously, all different, but they do have one thing in common though, and that’s the passion for teaching and the patience required to do so well. All of them are very friendly and try to find new ways of reaching and captivating their students, as they know that the old ways are not necessarily always the best. Ranging from board games, through watching videos and movies to discussing the hot topics of the day (Cataluña in my case) there was always interesting to do. Obviously, you can’t just skip grammar, but it can be complemented by interesting and fun things to do, so after having learned something, you use it in order to remember it  for longer than the first 30mins after the class is over.

And last but certainly not least, there’s the cultural program that they offer. Cultural program is an important part of language apprehension, as it’s not just the language classes that you need to have in order to learn properly, you also need to get to know the culture/s behind the language and socialize a bit either with other students or locals, which once again, promotes the use of Spanish, that is the only way that you truly learn and improve.

TL: DR - I had a blast while in Escuela Montalbán, and would deffo recommend to anyone. 

(Roman Novotný / 23 years / Slovakia)

Your guide Teresa is fantastic and we really loved Mecines Fondales and the hotel she recommended. The small town had a very small delicious and unique restaurant, and the hotel was small and beautiful with many plants. Our room had a balcony and a beautiful view of the mountains. It was a nice break from the cities and not touristy. Teresa was very knowledgeable about the history of the area and the archeology and she gave us the hiking tour mostly in Spanish and helped us with learning it. I highly recommend Mecina Fondales, the hotel, the restaurant, and Teresa.

Peter, the photographer, is very knowledgeable about photography and he shared that and his knowledge of the history of the area and of Spain. We enjoyed seeing parts of the Albacin and Sacramonte we hadn't been to and went to several quiet viewpoints. He spent extra time with us and was very helpful.

Our olive oil tour guide was great too. She was super knowledgeable and very nice. We learned a lot and really enjoyed the tastings and seeing the historic presses.

Salsa dancing was somewhat difficult for me, so I am not the right person to give an opinion, but I think the teacher was nice, and Laura, who has taken dancing many times before, did great! And Laurie did well too. We all had fun.

And our teachers from the school were wonderful. They made learning Spanish fun and comfortable.

And lastly, I really appreciate all your emails and help as we planned this big trip. You were always pleasant and patient!

It was a wonderful trip for us.
Thank you.

Rochelle Howe (USA / 58 years)

Both programs were excellent. The Spanish teachers were very professional and provided numerous insights into Spain, current local events (like a massive free music festival and a unique flamenco event) and history. Two weeks of class would have been even better.

The Arab culture sessions were eye opening- a different perspective on the influence 800 years of the melding of cultures. The class helped me to see southern Spain very differently and gain a greater appreciation for the many years of cross-cultural exchange that has occurred on architecture, art (see it in the Alhambra,) and gastronomy.

I highly recommend the school and its programs.

Edith Thacher (USA / 64 years)

Cómo has conocido la Escuela Montalbán?
La encontré en la pagina web. Yo había sabido que quería estudiar espaňol en Granada. Y empecé con una búsqueda en internet .. y allí encontré la Escuela Montalbán.

Quiénes han sido tus profesores?
José (clase de gramática)
Marisa (clase de conversación)

Cuál es tu opinión sobre los profesores?
José y Marisa son profesores superbuenos.

Me gustó mucho que en las clases con José dedicamos tiempo no sóĺo a gramática, pero que también hablamos de la cultura y historia de Espaňa y Andalucía. Pero al mismo tiempo, pasamos bastante tiempo con gramática. Cuando José estaba explicando la nueva gramática a nosotros lo siempre hizo en manera sistemática. Pues, José es el mejor profesor de gramática espaňola en mi vida!

Y Marisa es la mejor profesora de conversación en mi vida! Me gustó mucho que hablamos de la vida real y de temas que aparecieron al principio de cada clase. Me también gustó que la segunda semana de clases, cada uno de estudiantes en la clase debió preparar una presentación para los otros.

Qué es lo que más te ha gustado del curso?
Me gusta mucho que la escuala funciona como una familia, tambien me gusta estar en clases con los estudiantes de otros países, eso es especialmente interesante en las clases de conversación.

También, lo que funcionó para mí perfectamente fue que tomé dos semanas de clases, después viajé por dos semanas y después volví a la escuela para tomar una semana de clases más.

En qué actividades complementarias has participado?
Albaicín y flamenco
Cine en la escuela - "Un cuento chino"

Ambas actividades me parecieron muy interesantes.
El guía de ambas actividades fue Paco y fue estupendo.

Alojamiento
Viví en la casa de Elisa Franco en el bajo Albaicín y me gustó la atmósfera de su casa que sirve no sólo para los estudiantes de la Escuela Montalbán pero también como airbnb y eso es por qué la casa ofrece un ambiente muy internacinal, lo que me gusta. Y que más, Elisa es superamistosa y también prepara los mejores desaynos : )

Para mí, pasar las 5 semanas en Granada y Andalusia (y 3 semanas en la escuela) fue una experiencia fantastica y inolvidable.

Muchas gracias a todos en la escuela!!

Saludos de Praga! Jiri

P.S. Espero que un día vuelva a Granada y a la Escuela!

José es un profesor fenomenal. Cuando enseña nunca se limita a darte informaciones, siempre comunica una actitud, siempre combina hechos históricos o sociológicos con su experiencia personal.

Nunca voy a olvidar los paseos con él: en la vega de Granada, en el parque natural de la Sierra Nevada y sobre todo en el Albayzin de Granada. Durante estos paseos notas de repente que el mundo se abre y que empiezas a verlo con nuevos ojos. Vas detectando el espíritu nazarí y la idea de la vida buena. Es muy fácil imaginarse a José como ciudadano de la Alhambra en sus mejores tiempos, un hombre de letras, muy sabio, abierto y tolerante, enseñando Arabe para los incultos del norte..... (Nunca lo sabremos - pero merece la pena imaginarlo - ¿que habría ocurrido si José hubiese enseñado a Pelayo, el héroe de la Reconquista?)

Pero hay que destacar que lo que hace el curso verdaderamente especial es ¡la immersion total! Como muchos estudiantes antes de mí, he aprendido mucho de la familia de José también. Su padre es un filósofo jubilado, su mujer Marilyn trabaja en el periodismo y su hijo Hugo, de 12 años, ya se está haciendo un nombre como jugador de baloncesto. ¡Y por ultimo, la reina de la familia se llama Maya y tiene 4 años!

¡Una familia verdaderamente encantadora! Me han enseñado mucho a través de sus conversaciones y sus diferentes puntos de vista.

Muchas gracias.
Siegfried Joseph,
Profesor de aleman y español, Bavarian International School

My Spanish course includes 2 classes of grammar and 2 conversation classes per day. I started from the very beginning and improved my Spanish very quickly thanks to a professionalism of the teachers and very well selected groups. In fact, I was able to communicate with other students with the same level of Spanish, which helped us to learn Spanish more efficiently with a help of a teacher and have fun as well.

The staff of the Spanish school was extremely friendly and helpful, especially Paco. In the first day they helped me with my accommodation, informed me about different possibilities and important places in the city, and helped me to get my debit card in a bank, which was incredibly important as well. The accommodation was provided by the school. In the apartment I lived with 4 Spanish persons, who helped me to boost my Spanish and experience Spanish culture and traditions. They were very friendly, kind and open-minded.

On the one hand, teachers were very professional and provided well-structured content. On another hand, they were very funny making a lot of jokes. Thus, they delivered a great combination of serious and funny content, which helped us to feel comfortable and learn Spanish in a great atmosphere.

Another important part of learning Spanish language and culture took place outside of our classes. The school organized different social and cultural activities in the evenings and on weekends. In the first week we went to the Arabic bath, which helped me to relieve stress from the first days of my adaptation to a new country. Moreover, I discovered an incredible art-form, which was born in Granada and called Flamenco. The flamenco show included very emotional and expressional music and dance. I fell in love with it and would love to experience it again. Another incredible activity was a tapa tour with the teacher Marisa, when almost all the students went out together to explore the tapas culture in different local bars. There is a tradition in Granada to give tapas for free when you order a drink.

I would definitely recommend this school to everybody, who wants to learn Spanish and discover a great culture of the beautiful Granada and Spain in general.

The teachers were very nice and also enthusiastic. They spoke in Spanish, to help you train your ear to understanding Spanish. My class was exactly the right level for me and there were only 5 others in the class. I made some friends in my class from around the world who I will definitely be staying in touch with.

The school organises optional cultural activities on almost every day, so you get to meet lots of different people and are kept busy, if you want to be!

The accommodation I was given was so much nicer than I had expected. It was a student residence that was quiet, clean, comfortable and even had a pool. It was close to the city centre so I could walk everywhere and I always felt safe.
The school itself is in the city centre and a short walk to the main places of Granada. I would definitely recommend the school to anyone looking to learn Spanish.

(Katy Wild / 27 years / London)

I was for 3 weeks at the Spanish language school Escuela Montalbán to follow a level intermediate B2 course. The quality of the lessons is really good since they offer only small classes and teachers are really friendly and knowledgeable! They only speak Spanish to you, therefore, it enforces you to speak and it develops your Spanish!

The atmosphere in the school is great! The school is cozy and the teachers, people that work there are extremely friendly, knowledgeable and warm. But also being able to experience the culture and lifestyle in Granada cannot be underestimated. Therefore, they organize different kind of activities, one of them was a tapa tour through the center of Granada! This is a good way to know your classmates and to get an impression of the city!

I definitely want to go back to follow another course, maybe in combination with the cooking classes that they offer!

(Amber / 24 years / Netherlands)

I enjoyed my time there a lot. The atmosphere was relaxed and the staff was really friendly, so that I felt welcome and like a part of the school comunity. I learned a lot. The lessons were effective and interesting and I liked the teachers.

The school offered a lot of different activities, such as hiking, rock climbing and horse riding in Sierra Nevada National Park, Flamenco dancing, cooking classes or movie evenings. The activities make it easy to get to know the other students and to make new friends from all over the world.

Granada is a great city. I love the tapas culture for example. With every drink you get a tapa for free. What I liked the most was hiking in the Sierra Nevada and dancing Salsa and Bachata. There are dance partys every night and I improved a lot while being here. Dancing Salsa helped me as well to make Spanisch friends and to use my new knowledges of the language.

I was sad when I had to leave Escuela Montalban and Granada.

I will come back for sure as soon as posible and I can recommend everybody to go there as well!

Freya from Germany

1. Teachers:

Grammar: Berna
Conversation: Maria in my second week, cannot remember the teacher´s name who did the teaching during my first week

2. What I liked

We were a small group of students so that everyone could (and actually had to) participate quite extensively. No place to hide :-)

3. What I didn´t like

I studied some Spanish more than 30 years ago. In the meantime I had not had any contact at all with the Spanish language. When I did the level test at home I stated that the only tenses I could somewhat remember were the present tense and the pretérito perfecto. All other tenses had totally escaped me.
When we started to work on the use of the préterito perfecto and the préterito indefinido on my very first day in class, I was a bit shocked. Trying to work out which tense to use if you do not even know how to form the different tenses (not even for the regular verbs) is rather hard. It is also very taxing to make a conversation when your knowledge of vocabulary is so pathetically restricted (unfortunately mine is). Trying to put a sentence together by looking up more or less each and every word in a dictionary is actually not inspiring. It is a bit frustrating because it doesn´t make you feel confident about what you have already achieved but it makes you feel disappointed about all the things you would like to say and you just cannot.

4. Conclusion:

I enjoyed my time at the Escuela Montalbán. I learnt a lot - my listening skills have much improved. During the first 2 days I had severe problems to follow what the teachers said. At the end of the second week that was no problem at all. I would have preferred, however,  that the individual results of the level tests had been taken more into consideration when allocating the students to their classes. But maybe the reason is that you just do not have enough students in November to set up so many different classes.

Anyway I will continue my studies here in Germany because the time I spent at your school certainly prodded me to try to further improve my Spanish. Thanks a lot.

Andrea Vater-Adler from Germany