Comments:
I had the best host family! Their kindness made me feel so welcome. The food they prepared was amazing and so was the hospitality.

Comments:
This is one of the best schools that I have ever corresponded with. They communicate quickly and clearly.

Comments:
The school has a brilliant location, near everything!

Comments:
I had a better understanding of the language because of the teacher's excellent manner of explaining and presenting the course material.

Comments:
I thoroughly respect my instructor and I enjoy her teaching technique.

Comments:
I have been learning languages through immersion programs on and off for about 20 years. Academia Latinoamericana provided excellent services. My instructor was very approachable and modified the class to my interests while focusing on the grammar and vocabulary skills I wanted to develop. The staff was equally responsive. My accommodations with a host family were superb. Every day a different fun activity was offered to enhance language learning. I highly recommend Academia Latinoamericana in Cusco, Quito, and Sucre.

Comments:
Excellent school! Before my departure and after my return home have exceded my expectations. My teachers were wonderful, their methods were dynamic and interesting. My Indigenous culture class extended much beyond the classroom and always challenged me. I felt like my speaking and reading have greatly improved. My health and safety was just as important to them as my simple comfort and peace of mind.

Comments:
This school would have been great if I had not been trying to get university credit. I had to - I didn´t want to - and it turned out to be a bit of a problem. I first went to the Academia´s branch in Sucre, Bolivia for three weeks, where most of the problems stemmed from (see my review of that school), but the Cusco program for getting credit could use some work, as well. The general setup is that as a for-credit student, you are put in the same classes with people who are in the non-credit "intensive" program. That´s fine and great, but you´re paying a -lot- more for the privilege of the same classes and no extra learning, just tests and evaluations. Plus, of course, you have to arrange with a school in the US to get the credits through, pay them even more, and I at least had to do even more tests and evaluations through them - via the internet, which is not super speedy in South America. And the tests - oh, the tests. They´re unbelievably badly written, with lots of mistakes and badly done rewrites. It´s very frustrating to feel like you´re getting it in class, and be very encouraged by the teachers, and then be beaten down by a badly written test. The academic coordinator is not the most personable of people, either, and was a major frustration for many of the students going for credit. If you´re not going for credit, though, you don´t have to deal with her much past the first day. It also bothered me that my three week, three credit class required a five page research paper (not on what you did that summer - actually on some topic that you need to research, and it is required to be about Peru) and a twenty minute presentation. As part of the credit requirements, you´re supposed to get cultural experience by being out and about in Cusco, but having to write up a paper and prepare a presentation took two of the three weeks in the afternoons. It was frustrating to be doing junk on a computer while in a place that has so much stuff to see, three months of all free time wouldn´t be enough. Overall, if I were to do it again, I would get the credits I needed through some online class in the US, then come down and just -learn- at a school like the Academia. Trying to get credits here is way too much of a pain. The teachers, though, were good, and the facilities were all right, if a bit cold. Cusco´s a lot of fun. Our homestay was not quite what we expected of a cultural integration experience, but it was good for our Spanish. So yeah, Academia Latinoamericana Cusco is a decent school, although I don´t have much to compare it to, but do NOT go for credit!