Mis Amigos Languages

Please take into account that this review is based on a walkthrough of the school and my kid never attended and I have no input on the teaching itself. For all I know they may be the most amazing educators to walk the earth but unfortunately, I will never find out. I say this because the walkthrough left me rather amazed. The place is tiny, three little rooms, a hallway and a reception. No bathrooms! The bathrooms are outside the fascility down a sidewalk further down the building next to the parking lot and belong communaly to the entire building. The six children in a class are taken all at the same time by one teacher and lined up against the wall then told to go one by one. In the middle of the hallway between the classes, there is a closet with no door and just an open curtain that houses what could best be described as a pantry/teacher’s lounge/​first aid kit. It is not a room, but a few shelves crammed with a coffee machine within reach of children and coffee supplies. Also within children’s reach was a big bottle of tylenol. The rest of the hallway was crammed with ikea toy drawers filled with… Toys. Hundreds of toys that frankly made it seem more like a hurridely put together daycare than a school of any sort. I can certainly understand that an educator can use inventive props to convey certain concepts but this was way beyond that. While we were being shown one of the three rooms, a three or four year old little girl just wandered in, sat down on the floor and proceeded to eat little marshmallows from these marshmallow sculptures on the floor. This went on for a couple of minutes. The lady giving us the tour did not even blink at the fact that there was a class somewhere missing a kid, and here she was eating a sculpture. That same room had blinds that were in tatters akin to something you may find adorning the windows of a roadside motel. Although I do not believe the lady giving us the tour was an educator, It was still a little disscomcerning that a spanish language immersion school has spanish speakers working for them and interacting with the children that drop the letter «s» from all the words they use to speak to them and others. If this were any other type of school then this would be acceptable just not ideal, here it leaves a lot to be desired. I actually preffer a school with uniforms as it simplifies things and keeps uneccesary distractions out of the equation. That said, this school requires all children to wear a cheap white tshirt with their logo and their phone number in a huge font on the front. I guess some parents don’t care but I don’t want my kid to be a free walking billboard for their business. The place is in general dissaray and that includes the welcome pamphlet printed on a page with long black toner lines on it with a business card paperclipped to it. I don’t expect a welcome packet bound in leather but a little more dedication, pride, and profecionalism would have inspired much more confidence in the rest of their program.

I am an English teacher from Hungary who started learning English at the age of 15. It took a lot of hard work, memorization of thousands of words and grammar rules. I was fluent by 18 but spoke English with a horrible accent because I did not have the opportunity to learn from native speakers. In college I was fortunate to have professors from England and the USA, and was able perfect my pronunciation by the time I received my diploma as an English teacher. I knew I did not want my future children to have to learn a foreign language this way. Judith Pasternac, the owner of the language school talks about a window of opportunity for learning languages and it is crucial that children are exposed to different languages as soon as possible. My husband and I do not speak Spanish and I wanted my daughter to learn the language as if it was her native tongue. I started looking for the perfect Spanish school months before my daughter was born. I found only one school in the Miami area that taught Spanish with the immersion method and had mommy-​and-​me classes for babies: Mis Amigos Languages. I knew this was the most valuable gift I could give my baby, the opportunity to learn a foreign language from a very young age, so she could later pronounce the words the way a native speaker would. When I met Judith, I saw her dedication to her program right away, and started classes with my 6-​month-​old baby. Judith and the teachers are wonderful and knowledgeable. They care about their students and are excited about the progress each child makes. The learning environment is nurturing and non-​threatening. The baby classes are very age-​appropriate, focusing around music and play. We did two years and loved it. My daughter is now two and a half and just advanced to the older class which focuses on art. The very low student-​teacher ratio is another special advantage of the school. Judith’s passion for language teaching is apparent in every aspect. My daughter loves the school and talks about it all the time. She remembers the songs and words and surprises us with them at home, even though there is absolutely no Spanish spoken in our home. I have seen the fun and educational activities the children do during summer camp and cannot wait to enroll my daughter next summer, even if we have to drive 40 minutes each way. It is well worth it. I am glad to have found such a gem, a unique language school in my neighborhood,

Our four year old daughter has attended classes at Mis Amigos Languages for over two years now and she learned to read and write in Spanish at Mis Amigos, even before she did so in English. Their teachers are very skilled, creative and effective and our daughter feels very much at home there. She also attended Mis Amigos’ summer camp last year and loved it !