Centro Latino

I upgraded my review to three stars because the head of Centro Latino addressed my review of two stars personally, and told me that she will makes some changes. I really appreciate it when a business takes the time to read their Unilocal reviews, and address people’s concerns.
The staff is very nice and so are the fellow students. My disappointment occurred when I took a six-​week class (Advanced) for $ 220. The class consisted of conversational practice as we were guided and corrected by a native speaker. One student took up a significant portion of class time discussing his personal topic, and the rest of us sat and listened. The instructor made no attempt to draw others in.
I am currently taking an eight-​week (Advanced) class here in Oakland for $ 120. The instructor demonstrates creative techniques in keeping a balance of students listening and speaking. This class is twice the size of the class that I took at Centro Latino.

I took spanish classes at Centro Latino for a little over a year and was very sad when I had to leave the class about a month ago since I moved out of state. By the time I left, I could have conversations about a wide variety of topics and I’m now able to read books in spanish at about the reading level of Harry Potter (i still have to look up vocabulary fairly often, but not so often that it feels too much like studying. It’s actually starting to feel like recreational reading!).
The course is great for adults looking to learn in a fun and comfortable environment. I really appreciated my teachers understanding that I had a demanding job and that some weeks I was able to commit less time to my spanish studies that I would have liked, while other weeks I was able to study a lot! Also, taking the class on Saturday for two hours was much easier to manage with my job than an evening class so I was glad they had that option. When I had weeks that I needed to travel for work (or vacation), I was able to make a plan with my teacher to make up the material, sit in on a different class during the week, schedule a few private lessons to catch up, or if I really couldn’t fit in anything just show up the a week later with a bit rusty spanish. Also, I appreciated that the responsibility of learning was on my shoulders and that they were there to help me but not babysit me. The class sizes were small (three or two of us for my whole year! Just a few weeks where we had four or five) and when we were really confused about a topic, we could just add more lessons on that before moving on.
Most importantly, I had a lot of fun and I finally got over my fear to speak. I chose to learn spanish since my fiancé’s family does not speak english. And although I had spent a lot of time with native speakers previous to starting the class, I always felt too self conscious about my spanish to say more than a handful of words. My teacher (Humberto) as well as others in the school (Esther and Marcel in particular) created a very safe environment where I immediately felt excited to speak instead of afraid. My teacher and classmates quickly became friends I was excited to see and people that I was used to only speaking with in Spanish. I would highly recommend Centro Latino!

Fantastic… A bit pricy… But small classes… (my class had three people in it) Super comfortable. Just finished a summer beginners class with instructor Alex (from Uruguay) and I learned so much in four weeks… Without feeling intimidated. Thank you Alex (and centro latino) for an amazing summer learning experience! Gracias!

I cannot stop highlighting all the dedicated work from teachers at Centro Latino. I truly think it’s a great learning place for Spanish with native instructors who do their best to teach, encourage students to learn, and fundamentally share the latino culture.

I spent two weeks in Spanish classes at Centro Latino and learned more in that time than I did with 2 courses of Spanish at a local Adult school. Why? Because Centro Latino tailors its courses to your level AND they build small groups for classes. My class had 5 students (including me) so I got plenty of «talk time» and lots of individual attention! I had Teresa and Patricia as instructors and both were excellent. Too good to be true? Well, sort of. It is expensive and getting my dates scheduled was a little tricky but it is SO worth it!!! Tratelo, es excellente!

Could I love this place any more than I do?
I took a beginning spanish class for a couple weeks at the Albany Adult school and the teacher was phoning it in for a class of 30 people. I learned nothing. It was the most depressing thing and big waste of time.
Then I discovered Centro Latino. The classes are small and you get tons of personal attention. You really learn to speak Spanish. The format is quite intensive and they are definitely more expensive than Albany Adult School, but if you want to learn Spanish, this is absolutely the way to go.
I’ve had classes with Erica and Theresa. Both great, but Theresa really whips your spanish butt into shape. She moves quickly, pushes hard and you learn Spanish! It is like spanish bootcamp!
Erica is a little softer in her approach, and the class is a bit easier… she is great too.
I am so thankful I found this place, it rocks!

I took a Spanish class here for about 3 or 4 months. It was great. One month there were only 2 other people in the class, which meant the students got a ton of attention. I learned a ton of Spanish in a short amount of time and had fun doing in. They have several teachers and also have Portoguese classes. They also do one on one tutoring. I’m definitely partial to my teacher Teresa who was a blast and very easy to learn from.