Amistad Institute

Not Verified What's this?
8 / 10 after 10 Reviews Based on overall, support & value average ratings
Program website: http://www.aicr-edu.org/

Submit a review

Amistad Institute is a truly dreadful language school. DO NOT go there. I booked a Beginnners Spanish 4-week intensive course which started in October 2012. Their website advertised that the school was in the centre of Heredia, Costa Rica but it is 10k from from there located in a tiny village. It takes anything up to 50 minutes to get into the city by bus. There is nothing to do up here whatsoever. The website promised various weekly afternoon classes, but these never materialised during the first week. The place is badly run with no information on noticeboards. When I asked the staff about afternoon classes nobody knew anything. My first homestay was a disaster - the woman was clearly not interested in talking to me and it was obvious she was only doing it for the money. She gave me rice and beans for every meal. I moved to another homestay after 2 days. In the classrooms there are small hard wooden chairs, the type that you used to get in junior school in England 30 years ago. The teaching consists of the teacher standing talking 'at' you; there is no role play; pair work; audio/visual delivery; little conversation between the students. In every class I have taken we had to sit for 4 hours (with a short break) whilst the teacher did most of the talking. I was expecting to learn Spanish for use in practical situations. The standard of teaching has been truly dreadful - I know, I am a qualified English teacher. I decided to leave 2 weeks early as I can't stand the place any longer.I am currently in argument with Amistad Institute in order to get my money back. If they don't agree to a refund I shall be taking them to court for misrepresentation. They are an utter disgrace and should not be allowed to operate.

Program:
Location:
Posted: October 25, 2012
Overall:
Support:
Value:
By: A N Other
Age:

Comments

Dear Jo, Please tell the true and let everyone know you did not book this experience with Amistad directly; so you cannnot say we announce our school to be in Heredia downtown (there is a google map of our school in our website where you clearly see where we are located); we offered you all what we do in OUR website, but you did not want to take the classes, of course we have videos and signed documents of other participants taking the classes you decided not to take (to the first class you arrived more than 30 minutes late). Your fist host mom had a mouth surgery (that´s why she did not talk to you) and you were moved the next day of your arrival after lunch; so you actually took 2 meals in that house. Being an English teacher in you home country (where English is the main language) does not qualify you to talk about total immersion in another language. As you came with an intermediary agency (you booked your program with them and you actually paid to them); we haven´t receive any kind of claiming for money or anything else, and we should not because you did not come in a program with us. Please, talk to your agency about this, as we have not idea of what is going on; of course, I have proof of everything I am saying... do you? Best, Rebecca Demes
Before I respond to your reply regarding my post about Amistad School, I would like to know who you are, Rebecca Demes. Once I know who you are, I can correct a couple of inaccurate statements you made about me.
Dear Jo, I am one of the founders and owners; you met me a couple of times as well as you met other people in the organization; you also forgot about them and did not recognize them one week after (i.e Marco Bolaños who is also a partner and picked you up at the airport and talked to you all the road to your host family, and you did not know who he was one week after). Please go ahead and correct the inaccurate statments you are making about Amistad, starting by the fact you are making it look as if you came directly with us, and we offered you things (in OUR website) that we did not give to you. I don´t want to start a discusion here; but please tell the true and let others know we did not offer something in our website to you, you did not come directly with us, and you did not pay us but another organization. Neither are you asking US for any money back; as you did not pay to us. I am sure you will agree with me, as this is the truth. Let me know if Amistad can help you with this situation in any way; but please use the proper names and channels to solve your complaint.
I have indeed already used the proper channel to make an official complaint. Therefore I do not wish to enter into a discussion regarding my experience.
I thought so; can you please tell what organization´s website you saw and booked your program with, and make the clarification that it was not Amistad´s (is up to you is you give the name of the agency you used), as that is not as you said in your first review. There are other people coming to us with the same agency (before and after you) that did not have any problem with the program, as you did; maybe because they took the time to review the information and did not have any special condition.

With the program offer by Amity Institue you can spend one year teaching your language in USA.

For me was a great experience not only becouse I could meet so many people and learn about the american culture also becouse I learn so many English.

The host family was just amazing and the experience was totally advisable.

You just need to pay for your flight and thats it, you can live one year in the US

Program:
Location:
Posted: October 2, 2012
Overall:
9
Support:
10
Value:
9
By: nacho114
Age:
26

My husband and I have studied Spanish and the Costa Rican culture at Amistad Institute for the second time. We have now taken two four week courses and our Spanish is at the conversational level. The teachers were excellent and very helpful. The accommodations were generous with a great view and friendly people, reasonably priced. AI has a private reserve that functions as its' campus full of plants and wildlife situated on a beautiful river. Two classes we really enjoyed were the Latin dancing and Food preparation. Some of the fruits at the food class were amazing and now I know what to look for at home. Although we are older and most of the students were young we had a delightful time! Would recommend this organization to anyone of any age. Jane Kazaros, Virginia

Program:
Location:
Posted: October 15, 2011
Overall:
10
Support:
10
Value:
10
Age:

I wanted to share my experience with Amistad Institute and their wonderful team. It was truly impressed by the attention we received and how inclusive they were of all of our needs during our stay. We were a party of 6, traveling with my children (middle school) and my mother (a senior). What impressed me the most was the programs are designed to cater to all ages.

My mother enjoyed her visits to the noteworthy art galleries, historic sites and museums. She was very impressed with their information and advice on how to retire and invest in Costa Rica. My children really loved the Kids program and the fun curriculum really encouraged and inspired my children. The method is really immersion based, so they were not only quick to learn, but also to retain the basic language skills. The way the material was presented was fun, interactive and kept them engrossed and engaged.

And as for myself - I had a wonderful time refreshing my language skills after a long period away from Central America. It was so inspirational and rekindled my love for the country, and I especially loved the Latin Culture and Sports Lovers programs.

All in all, we have 6 very satisfied visitors that wish to thank Amistad and their wonderful hosts, staff, teachers and family. It was a pleasure to interact with and be welcomed by such an energetic, knowledgeable and awesome group of people who clearly love doing what they do. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

Program:
Location:
Posted: October 15, 2011
Overall:
10
Support:
10
Value:
10
Age:

I just spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica at Dominical Beach.

I was told by GoEco (who turned out to be the middle man) all about the program... this is obviously information they were receiving from Amistad. I was told about the work I'd be doing, such as doing maintenance and nightly beach patrols in shifts. None of this information turned out to be true. We did pick up some drift wood.. some days. And we were never directed to do it, we'd just get up in the morning and go. We also hardly did beach patrols. One of the directors was supposed to stop by and pick us up each night but, after the first night, she never showed up. The girls who had been there before us said that the director showed up sometimes for them, but if there was any rain she wouldn't (which happens a lot this time of year). So once again we would, undirected, do for a quick walk on the beach each night. I'm certain that this lack of directed walks is the reason we didn't see a single turtle egg. Basically, we didn't do much work at all, even though I was told I would. This means either Amistad isn't gathering enough information about the project or they are lying to GoEco about it.. either way they are not correctly doing their job.

Furthermore, I was told in an email from Amistad that the water would be perfectly fine to drink at the project site. After arriving at the site we went and visited the waterfall.. we were told by a local that this is directly where the water came from for the town. The water was absolutely not safe to drink. As well, the man who was looking after the house we stayed in told us directly not to drink it. It's safe enough for locals to drink, but not visitors. This forced all the volunteers to purchase water from the local store every single day. This was money that could have been easily avoided if Amistad had included this in the contract they had with the home owner regarding food purchases. Juice was included, yet water wasn't.

Our orientation happened to occur on Mother's Day in Costa Rica. Turns out that this is a very important holiday. Yet, GoEco was unaware of this because Amistad failed to tell them... had I known that it was a holiday and we weren't going to be doing anything I would have booked my flight for later in the weekend.

As well, they didn't tell us anything about getting to the project site until we asked. Then they told us to get off at the very last stop of the bus and that it would be impossible to miss.. had we of followed their directions we would have ended quite far away from our project site. Luckily enough one of the volunteers was paying enough attention to notice we were in Dominical so this must be where we got off. When we got off there was nobody around to meet us and when we asked locals about the turtle project nobody had any idea what we were talking about. We then happened to meet another couple volunteers who brought us to the house. A couple people I was with also did not receive enough money to pay for the bus to the project and so had to pay out of their own pockets... after being completely confused by the bus driver telling them they were short in spanish.

Overall, I would not ever travel with Amistad. And I had it lucky... I met other people who had an absolutely terrible experience (such as showing up to their project site and finding there's actually no project there...). And no, Amistad, just because I'm writing a bad review does not mean I'm somebody from a competitor. I really did volunteer through Amistad and I really did hate them. Loved the location... but I could have just as easily went on vacation and gone for a stroll on the beach... and for cheaper than I paid.

Program:
Location:
Posted: August 30, 2011
Overall:
4
Support:
4
Value:
4
By: baileya
Age:
New User

Comments

A last word on this; everything was such an invention that we are still here waiting for the complaint, the videos, the pictures and all what was told. We still in business growing a lot and offering great experiences. Of course not working with certain agencies, but still doing a great job as providers in Costa Rica. You can follow us in Facebook::: https://www.facebook.com/amistadcr

Pages