Global Crossroad's Spanish language and culture program offers you the opportunity to explore the beauty and intricacies of the Spanish language and Peruvian culture prior to beginning your volunteer project. Our Spanish language school is located in the beautiful city of Cusco . Peru 's most enigmatic city, and the center of the ancient Inca Empire, Cusco is a fantastic blend of ancient Incan buildings and beautiful Spanish colonial mansions.

Our Spanish classes are taught by professional Spanish teachers and tailored to meet your current Spanish level and specific needs. The program is comprised of intensive language training and visits to local markets and other places of interest around Cusco .

Spanish School

Our partner's Cusco Spanish school is located in a modern office building just 3 blocks from Cusco 's historical Plaza de Armas. The school has been designed with the needs of our volunteers in mind. There are 11 classrooms for group and private classes, a small library, and modern laptop computers running Windows XP, all with high-speed Internet connections.

Every classroom is equipped with comfortable chairs, a whiteboard, and a cassette and CD player. The main teaching room has a surround sound system, DVD player, cassette player, and TV.

Outline of the Program

On your first day, you will participate in a brief orientation, take a language placement test, and then be placed at an appropriate level. Throughout your language training, the teacher will continuously assess your ability in the 4 language skills – Speaking, Listening, Reading , and Writing; and the 4 language systems – Grammar, Vocabulary, Phonology, and Function.

Spanish Levels

Basic

Basic classes are for volunteers with no previous experience in Spanish. Volunteers will be taught basic grammatical structures, vocabulary, and will immediately begin speaking in Spanish, thereby gaining a concrete foundation in the language.

High Basic

For volunteers with an elementary knowledge of the Spanish language, theses classes focus on reinforcing grammar, teaching new vocabulary, and increasing speaking capacity, enabling you to express yourself clearly in daily situations.

Pre-Intermediate I and II

These classes build on volunteers' previous experience with Spanish, reinforcing all areas of the language, with an increasing importance placed on speaking, reading, and vocabulary-building.

Intermediate I and II

At this point, volunteers likely speak Spanish, but are still struggling with the more difficult grammar points. These classes focus primarily on conversation, reading, and vocabulary-building; as well as on increasing your grammatical accuracy by reinforcing areas such as the use of the ‘subjunctive' and ‘indefinite past'. Focus is on the ability to express yourself spontaneously and to interact across a variety of social situations with increasing accuracy.

High Intermediate I and II

These classes build on volunteers' conversational base in Spanish, and begin to more finely tune communicative competence by building vocabulary and introducing students to idioms, slang, and points of ‘common usage' in Spanish. High Intermediate classes also include emphasis on written expression.

Advanced I and II