The instructor did a great job of explaining the material as well as answering questions. I learned the language quickly.

This area has a relaxed atmosphere and is much cheaper than the more popular cities here.

An enchanting area…friendly locals… happy children playing in the streets…

The individual parts of the school were good, unfortunatley, the total experience was not good. My home stay was about an hour away from the school. I had the option of either walking about 1 mile to the subte or taking a bus and then walking about 3/4 mile to the school. It made experiencing the night life difficult. The home mother (a very nice person) did not offer me a map or any help in finding the way from the home to the school. Thankfully, there were other students in the house. The school promised a city tour and 2 outings per week. Neither of these occured. The print quality of the workbook was bad and the exercises had poor explainations and like topics were often out of order. The Borges readings were done without any commentary on Argentina being the home to this famous writer. The web site said if there were no other students at your level you would have private classes at the same rate. This was false. A fellow student was reduced from 4 to 2 hours per day for private classes. I was put in a lower group because there was no group above me. Students came each week and were added to our group, which interrupted our flow and interaction. One week the class size exceeded the maxium number of students. When I asked about dividing the group I was told the decisions was of the director, who was away. My last week of study was in Cordova. After speaking with the school director she promised me she would call the school in Cordova and arrange a family close to the school. The result .... I went to a house that was not expecting me and had no room. (They were very nice, fed me and allowed me to double up for the night). The home I ended up in gave me a room on the third floor, no hot water and the shower on the second floor. Meals were provided, but all were eaten alone as the family was working a small grocery store on the street level. Would I go back .... NO!

Overall I had a good experience with COINED, though it could have been better. The first day every new student takes a placement test. I somehow ended up in a class lower than my actual level, but after one day in this class my teacher and the school arranged for me instead to do 2 hours of private lessons a day. The lessons themselves were good and well thought-out, but I don't know if that is thanks to the school or my professor. My homestay was close to the school, which was nice. The "student residence" was really just a hostel in central Córdoba. The people at COINED were pretty accommodating, though, and were open to the student's ideas for activities. One night they even opened up the school so we could have a going-away party for a couple of the people leaving.