I got a lot out of it, more so than any other language class I have ever taken.

The instructor is generous, patient, and dynamic. His passion for the language is contagious.

I already have so many wonderful memories. I wish my time here would never end.

Nightlife, theatres, culture, and museums. This city was everything I thought it would be, and more.

Highly motivated teacher who was incredibly enthusiastic and ensured the class made noticeable improvements over a short time. Good lesson plans and still made it fun (though at times hard work!). Great social scene attached to the school - both in the activities organised and the group I was there with were always meeting and making the most of BsAs. School is close to central metro stops and shops - and though the facilities could be improved (v slow internet) the staff more than made up for it in helpfulness and friendliness. Highly recommended (I've studied in 8 Spanish schools so have seen the good and the bad elsewhere). Feel free to email me for more info at kersland1@yahoo.co.uk

The rating on this site for COINED is very good. I DISAGREE. For me it was average or below. A lot of the promised extras did not exist. There were no extra activities and the instuctors did not seem knowledgable about providing advice for activities away from the school. My house was fine, but located about an hour away from the school. I transfered and spent my last week in Cordoba. The family there did not know I was coming and did not have space for me. The family I stayed with was had a room available on the third floor next to the laundry area. There was a bathroom attached, but without hot water. In general, the teachers were good. The book, however, jumped a lot and was not connected to a good sequence of learning. At times, the pages were hard to read from being copied so many times. In Cordoba I asked three times to go over a certain exercise later in the book. The instructor said yes each time but kept forgetting and I left without reviewing this information. I will return to Buenos Aires, but will chose another school.

This school offer a poor service for an extortionate price. The classes are often shorter than the 4 hours advertised and the inflexible workbook system is indicative of a resolve to operate a hassle free operation from the point of view of the management, (it is also a way of softening the effect of the high staff turn-over). The freindly teaching staff appear to be paid terribly and would be able to provide a good service if it were not for the stringent management. The Home stay was not a good invironment in which to learn. I applied to stay on my own with a family. I was with 5 or 6 other students (english speakers) and the 'family' was really just a woman and her adult son. CONCLUSION - WASTE OF MONEY!! tango classes were excellent and the only redeeming feature. This slick and impersonal company is not representative of the glorious country in which it is situated. It is very easy to find excellent teachers for a very reasonable price (5-8 US$ PER HOUR, coined charges 30 us$ per hour for private tuition!!!!!) on arrival in Buenos Aires. If you are serious about learning/improving your Spanish, find a private teacher, get a better service, pay in PESOS not dollars.

Expensive for B.A., but you'll be with crazy brazilians and wacky americans the whole time. The teachers are wonderful.

The first school I started at in Buenos Aires was COINED. It was easy to find and in a good location. The staff seemed nice and the school was in a good location. They walked me through the school description, classes have a max of 8 students and average 3-4, 4 hours of classes per day etc etc. I want to be fair and say that the school facilities as well as their accomodations were very nice. The teachers were also nice and very good. However now for the bad things about COINED. First off, classes start about 10-15 minutes late, the 20 minute break goes for about 30 minutes and classes end 5-10 minutes early. Plus the teachers tend to spend about 1/2 hour per day on cultural stuff like playing Tango music. So, your 4 hours of classes are more like 3 hours. Second, my class was packed with 8 students..the max and I had very little opportunity to actually speak and was not learning very quickly. Plus a lot of the students speak portugues from Brazil and are still considered beginners but they are on a whole different level. The books were not very good and most of the work we did was on photocopied papers. We also had a holiday week for my second week where the school was closed on Friday. They advertise their classes as 20 classes per week for a set price. However on these holiday weeks, they charge the same price and do not allow you a rebate or the opportunity to make up the missed day. basically charging the same price for 16 classes that should have been 20. Plus, when they charge you, they don't set their prices in pesos, they set it in USD's, then convert the price to Peso's (at an exchange rate that was ALWAYS about 3% higher than the actual rate) and charge you in Peso's...i felt this was a rip off b/c the dollar has been continually strengthening. The worst part is that I talked to the staff about all of these things and the basic conclusion that I reached was that after the school has you signed up (they charge a $65 sign up fee) they don't care. They kept pointing to the fine print in their contract. They could care less about the learning experience, they only wanted to be paid and to maximize their profits. Anyway, they didn't care. They don't want you to learn because they want you to keep getting classes. I did two weeks at COINED and then changed to a new school that did not charge a sign up fee, they discount holiday weeks, they charged us about half as much and I had semi-private lessons (2 students, 1 teacher) for 2 hours a day. The staff was so much nicer and instead of asking us everyday about payments, they asked us about what we learned. To anyone looking for schools, pick one that cares about the learning experience first. Just like we say in the states, if you take care of the customer, in the end your business will succeed.