The Guatemalan Immersion Experience

From time to time, I am asked about my experience with Spanish language immersion programs in Guatemala. Now that I have finally joined the rest of the world in blogging, I have gone to my email archives to give my readers a flavor of what it is like to live and study in Guatemala. For those of you who were not aware, I actually studied in Guatemala on two occasions, once as a college student in 1991-’92, and again in 2001 immediately after returning from Japan. The six months I spent in Guatemala were split between two cities: I studied in Antigua for 3 ½ months and Xela for 2 months.

Antigua is by far the most common destination for language students – and perhaps the better choice for someone wanting to ease their way into language study. But it truly depends on your personality and motivations. If you want the immersion experience, you can certainly avoid the foreign hangouts where your native language is likely to be spoken. For the student who desires fewer opportunities to use English, Xela is a fantastic alternative if you can stand the altitude (Xela is the two-mile high city).

ABOUT ANTIGUA
“I am living in the town of Antigua, which is located about 1400-1500 meters above sea level. The climate is perfect here, with the daily temperatures between 15-27 degrees Celsius year round. Antigua is surrounded by three beautiful volcanoes, none which are active. The streets of Antigua are made of cobblestone. For this reason speed zone signs are unnecessary. If you go too fast, you will tear your car apart! The buildings in the town are painted in various bright colors. Interspersed with these beautiful colors are the ruins of many large buildings and churches. In its history, Antigua has been destroyed in whole or in part three different times by earthquakes and volcanoes. Hopefully, that won't occur again while I am here:)”

LIVING EXPENSES
“If any of you are thinking about learning Spanish, Guatemala provides one of the best values in the world for language instruction.” “I am studying at a language school 6 hours a day, 5 days a week with a personal instructor. I am on a budget of about 4000 yen per week [$33] after my housing and schooling expenses. In Antigua, I paid about 7000 yen per week [$58] for housing, which included three meals a day, six days a week… The cost for schooling varies according to the number of hours you study per week. In Antigua, I paid about 14,000 yen per week [$116] for 30 hours of one on one instruction. So I guess my weekly expenses totaled about 25,000 yen [or $208]. I might add that schooling and housing expenses are about 25-30 percent cheaper in Xela,” so it is possible to enjoy a high quality total immersion experience for even less if you are willing to move further into the mountains.

ACTIVITIES
There are many things to do in (or near) Antigua in addition to language studies. Some of the possibilities include the following:

• Climbing volcanoes (both active and dead)
• Hiking (another word for climbing:)
• Renting bikes/motorbikes and hitting the trails (Be warned - lots of mountains)
• Learning how to dance the Salsa and Merengue (The advantage of choosing this is that at least you aren't climbing:)
• Weekend trips to the coast/beach (Lots of black sand beaches here due to underwater volcanic activity.)
• Visiting ancient Mayan ruins (These are generally weekend trips.)
• Traveling to other nearby Central American and North American countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico.
• If all else fails, hang out in the Central Park. It always provides a very comfortable environment to practice Spanish.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
“After 8 weeks of living in Antigua I finally decided to move on to other experiences. I took one week off in my studies in order to travel to Honduras. My first stop there was in Copan, the site of one of the most famous and best-preserved Mayan ruins. I hired a tour guide and spent the day touring the site. The Mayans had great civilizations in Central America long before Europe discovered the Americas. They had a system of writing using pictures, which could be compared with kanji or perhaps the Egyptian hieroglyphics. There are still many statues that bear beautiful characters of the language.

After a couple of days in Copan, I went northwest and spent some time at the beach in the little town of Omoa. There wasn't much to do or to see there, but I was able to visit a very large Spanish fort. The fort was built to fight against British pirates who would intercept Spanish ships loaded with all sorts of products, steal the plunder and escape back to Britain as heroes. Ironically, by the time the fort was completed, the time for pirating had nearly passed. The fort, which was built to house 2000 soldiers, never had more than 200. On one occasion, the British captured the fort, but left hurriedly in the middle of the night when they heard that Spanish forces were marching toward the town in great numbers."

LAST THOUGHTS
I mentioned earlier that I have studied on two different occasions in Guatemala. If I get the chance, there will be a third! You simply cannot beat the value or the experience. For anyone who is thinking about pursuing a Spanish language immersion program, I will be happy to share my knowledge of Antigua and Xela or answer any questions you may have.