What's not included: Flight, Visa Costs, In-country Transportation
Project Overview: Our Learn and Study Spanish program was designed to give upcoming volunteers a chance to get to know the Costa Rican people, environment, and culture while bettering their Spanish skills. Attendance will be at a language school that welcomes students of all levels. You'll be provided with plenty of fun, immersive activities in which you can learn Spanish and practice conversing with fellow students and the locals of San Jose.
You'll be taught according to the methods of the school founder, Dona Guiselle Quesada. She used more than 30 years of experience teaching Spanish to develop a system that helps students master Spanish essentials and practical communication . After finishing your course, you'll be able to get the most out of your following volunteer projects in Costa Rica, where you'll use Spanish daily. Past students have confirmed how helpful this program has been in helping them work and develop friendships with native speakers in Costa Rica.
What will I be doing? You'll participate in daily lessons to learn the basics of Spanish and develop more advanced language skills. The curriculum is versatile, challenging you through fun and interesting activities with your classmates. Your accommodations with a host family will give you a unique opportunity to practice and learn Spanish outside of your lessons.
Where will I be volunteering? You will be based in San Pedro, a well-to-do area in downtown San Jose. Situated on the eastern side of the capital, San Pedro is one of the most popular neighborhoods of San Jose.
The language school is located in a safe and tranquil middle class suburb of San Pedro. San Pedro is a very sophisticated area with many attractions and a variety of shops, restaurants and bars.
What will be my schedule? The project schedule requires that you work 5 days a week, Monday to Friday, for a maximum of 4 hours per day in the mornings.
Below are testimonials of previous volunteers on this project. Click though to their full reports where you can view their video reports, photos and you can also contact them directly by email to ask about their experiences with us in Costa Rica.
San Ramon is a perfect and safe location for the volunteer base. The town is small enough that you can walk from one end to the other in around thirty minutes, and buses arrive and depart San Ramon very regularly making it very convenient. We stayed in a volunteer dorm with two other volunteers.
I've wanted to travel abroad and volunteer for the past four years now, but have never had the time or money. This Spring I graduated University and made some money over the summer so this was the best chance I was going to have for the foreseeable future. Two other friends who graduated were also interested in a volunteer trip, so we scoured the internet and talked to friends and heard many good things about uVolunteer
uVolunteer went beyond my expectations. In San Jose I lived with a very pleasant homestay family. Every morning before going to class I would have a conversation with my casamama during breakfast, in Spanish. Sometimes we would talk about the weather and other times we would share our life philosophies. She was incredibly patient and respectfully corrected my Spanish whenever needed.
My volunteer criteria was that it must be somewhere in Central America with the option to learn Spanish. This was exactly what uVolunteer offered with their link to Epifania Language school in San Jose. The school and my homestay was amazing and in 2 weeks (which I recommend as a minimum for beginners) I felt comfortable with the basics and confident enough to try conversations with locals.
I get individual attention and I love it. I am able to practice my Spanish all the time. It was here in my homestay that I got to start applying all the Spanish I learned in San Jose. I am a pretty picky eater so the homestay was a great choice for me.
I also had the opportunity to work on other projects which is another great aspect of uVolunteer. The flexibility to try new things adds a whole new dimension to the overall experience. I worked painting a community centre, teaching an English class at the local University, visiting another school and working in a community education project. I learnt so much from trying all these activities and the best part about it was making new Tico friends.
My mother and I arrived in San Pedro right on time, and got picked up an hour later. We drove to meet our host mom who would be looking after us while we studied Spanish.
The next Saturday Wagner from Language School came to pick me up. He was super friendly and he explained everything...
When I arrived in San Jose I was really excited to finally be in Costa Rica...
I didn't have any problem filling in my weekends in CR during the three months. I've got a rich repertoire of places I visited - I won't even start listing them!
Traveling every weekend was one of my favorite parts of the experience. Costa Rica has so much to offer and is easy and inexpensive to get around.
There is no more appropriate way to end this testimony than by ending with PURA VIDA!
Costa Rica is our chosen destination for Latin America. Costa Rica is a tropical paradise; this tiny gem of a country in Central America possesses incredible beaches, cloud forests, mountains, and unbeatable biodiversity. Costa Rica is a safe and ideal location for first time travelers. Its laid back 'Pura Vida' lifestyle will ensure that all volunteers are treated to a warm, welcoming experience.
