Habla Ya Spanish School - Campus Boquete

Fun and productive. I learned more in two weeks of emersion with Habla Ya than in 10 years of effort at home in California. I opted for Boquete and did a home stay. I’m 51 and have a vegan diet. You would think that would be hard to fit me into a homestay, but Habla Ya found a perfect fit. The family made me feel at home right away
I took one hour of private classes with Kimberly in the mornings, and a four-hour group class with Alex in the afternoon. I was the only person in my group, so it was really 5 hours of one-on-one every day. By the end of the second week I was able to speak with random people in Spanish without too much trouble and was able to advance one “level” in the Habla Ya system. Plenty to do on the weekend, and the best part is that the whole time, everywhere you go, your able to just absorb more of the language.

I just finished four weeks of Spanish school with Habla Ya in Boquete. It's been a great experience all around. I stayed with a wonderful local family and my host mum Lucy was fantastic. I had booked myself in for four weeks of small group classes but in the end I had one-on-one lessons all along as it was only me in the intermediate category. My teacher Alex was super nice and showed a real interest in my work and fields of interest. Besides the regular book subjects we talked about yoga, the Egyptian pantheon, religion, politics, equal rights and the essence of a happy life. It's been fun going to class and the class structure was generally put together really well. All staff at the school were super friendly, professional and helpful and I can only recommend this place.
In ways of quality, attention, friendliness and professionalism this is the place to choose!

I spent 2 weeks studying at Habla Ya in Boquete (6 weeks total, I also spent 4 weeks at the Bocas location) and had an awesome experience. My teacher Leidys was excellent. She did a great job of making the classes challenging and fun at the same time, and she was very patient. I learned a TON of Spanish. When I arrived in Panama I knew only the most basic Spanish, and after 6 weeks I was having conversations with locals. The student body at Habla Ya comes from all over the world and I really enjoyed making new friends from around the globe.

If you take the classes seriously and try to speak with locals outside of class hours you will be amazed at how quickly you learn!

Our family spent 2 weeks studying Spanish at HablaYa in Boquete Panama. Our daughters had a private group class as well as my husband and I. The type of instruction, pace and personalization was superb. We had 2 different teachers and both were exceptional. Our teacher the second week was Alex and he was fun to work with and we learned so much! He planned excursions for some of our time together and that helped tremendously with learning how to be more conversational in Spanish. Highly recommend.

My husband and I had a great experience learning Spanish with Alex at Habla Ya for 2 weeks. Alex was a fun and engaging teacher, and although 4 hours per day of Spanish seems really long, I found myself looking forward to school every day. Thank you, Alex, for a great experience!

Location-wise, the school is perfectly situated—right on the main street going through Boquete. Note that Boquete is not your average town in Central America. The prices here are more expensive than comparable towns in the region, and that includes the prices at Habla Ya. At these prices, I would have loved more schedule flexibility (we only had the option of afternoon classes) and better communication from the staff (we didn't receive information about making up a cancelled class due to a holiday until days before - causing us to re-arrange our plans). Overall however, an excellent experience, and highly recommended for long-term visitors/new residents to Boquete.

My family and I spent two weeks at the Habla Ya Boquete campus. Our experience was great. My teachers Alex and Leydis were outstanding. They were attentive and tailored the content to my learning needs. This was my first experience taking Spanish classes and I feel much more confident speaking now!

My daughters (10 and 6) had classes with Erian who was absolutely incredible - the girls were excited to be there, worked hard for the entire 4 hour class and picked up a ton of Spanish.

The town was beautiful and felt very safe. Important, traveling with a young family.

I enjoyed spending a week taking a daily private Spanish class with Leidys at Habla Ya in Boquete. She was a fun and effective professora. I learned a lot and looked forward to my class everyday. This is a very professional organization, and they were quick to respond to all my questions prior to our arrival. My daughter was a student as well, and also enjoyed the experience. We participated in several of the activities that the school organized and offered for us, including a traditional Panamanian dinner at the school, which was also a really cool experience. Highly recommend!

Habla Ya was a great experience for both learning Spanish and experiencing the culture of Panama. I speak some Spanish and wanted to improve my language skills for an upcoming trip to Ecuador. I spent two weeks at the school in Boquete and definitely accomplished my objective.
My teacher was Leidys Pitti and she was excellent. The classes lasted 4 hours each weekday and were conducted entirely in Spanish. This contributed to the total immersion concept and really worked quite well. Leidys also spoke very clearly and slowly which was a great help for improving my comprehension. She followed a structured lesson plan complete with workbook and examples on the whiteboard, but there was also plenty of free-flowing conversation about subjects in which I was most interested. Leidys was a joy to work with and you would be lucky to have her as your teacher.
Boquete is the perfect location to study Spanish. It's a pleasant little town in the mountains of Panama with plenty of restaurants, etc. Importantly, few of the locals speak English so I had to use Spanish. Luckily, everyone was patient and appreciated that I was there to learn their language. I stayed with a host family a short distance from town. The Del Cids were a wonderful, traditional, couple who also did not speak English. This provided a great opportunity to practice my Spanish and learn about the local Panamanian culture.
One final note about the Habla Ya school staff and policies. Every staff member I had contact with, whether the initial phone conversations with Tori, helping organize a tour with Ivan, and arranging my ride back to the David airport with Giselle, was great. They all made sure my experience went well.
I was scheduled and paid for group lessons. When I arrived, they felt I was not at the same level as the rest of the group, so I ended up with private lessons for no additional charge. This worked out great and demonstrates the school's focus on the needs of the students.

I 4 weeks of Spanish instruction at Habla Ya in Boquete, and I had such a great experience. My teacher Ivonne was very patient with me, she challenged me just the right amount, and I felt like I left Panama at a "conversational" level in my Spanish (and I started with just one semester of college Spanish under my belt, which I took 9 years ago). I was very lucky and got one-on-one instruction for three weeks and only had the price of group lessons (there just happened to be no other students at my level at the time). So I ended up having more of a private lesson experience -- 4 hours of one-on-one instruction each day. I loved working with my teacher Ivonne-- she led the class in a very conversational manner. She delivered direct instruction, but the greatest lessons I learned were from our conversations.

The school also set me up with a family, who I absolutely adored. I think if you're going to try to become proficient in a foreign language in a short period of time, it's very important that you live with a family who speaks the foreign language only. I was very blessed to get to know the amazing people of Panama through my experience at the school and in my home stay.

I will say the one major drawback of the school is the volunteer component. I didn't go there to volunteer, but three people I met through the program wanted to volunteer and were led to think they would get to take part in volunteering each day, and the volunteering experience seemed very inconsistent and disorganized.

Personally, though, I wouldn't change a single thing about my own experience. Thank you, Habla Ya!

I only spent two weeks in Boquete with Habla Ya, but I learned so much, and cherish my time there! All of the teachers and staff were incredibly nice and helpful. My teacher Alex Cano made learning the grammar basics easy and fun, and he incorporated conversational exercises throughout class to improve my speaking skills. Alex was flexible with class time to include specific things I wanted to learn, and he even planned a field trip to the three waterfalls since I wasn't able to book a tour!

I studied at HablaYa in Boquete for 5 weeks. All of the teachers and staff were incredibly nice and super helpful. My teacher, Alex, did a great job of ensuring that all students participated in and learned from the class. On Fridays, he organized field trips to practice Spanish outside of the classroom and to learn more about the local culture. The classes were interesting and engaging, and my Spanish abilities improved significantly during my time at HablaYa!

I really enjoyed my time learning Spanish with Leidys at Habla Ya in Boquete. She knows how to make learning fun and she was very patient with me as an absolute beginner. I only completed 1 week with Habla Ya but feel that I did learn many of the basics of Spanish and I am confident that with Leidys as my teacher I would have progressed much more if I had more time. The location in central Boquete is great for exploring this beautiful city.

In December 2018 I took a 3 week course with Habla Ya. My instructor was Alexander Cano. Alex is a patient, kind and effective Spanish teacher. I enjoyed being able to learn new Spanish concepts and have the chance to practice speaking Spanish in class. I liked the extra-curricular activities that Habla Ya offered. I participated in a group dinner and we went to a Panamanian garden. We also played Scrabble in Spanish and I learned lots of new words. All of the Habla Ya staff are very kind and helpful and I plan to return.
Valarie

I have been extremely pleased with my experience with Habla Ya. I have tried several online Spanish tutors and this, by far, is the most professional and organized school I have run across. There method is to balance grammar and conversational skills in a stepwise and logical progression.
I think the world of my instructor, Yaria Muñoz. She is very engaging, patient, and has a good sense of humor. I look forward to our classes together. More importantly she is an excellent teacher. She is able to determine my areas of weakness and then focuses our efforts to improve those skills. I have made fantastic progress with her guidance.

My husband and I just finished four weeks of Spanish immersion classes at HablaYa! in Boquete, Panama. Our advanced class met 4 hours/day, 5 days/week and was taught entirely in Spanish. We got lots of individual attention, as there were never more than four students in the class. Our teacher Alex Cano was professional, patient, and encouraging and supplemented classroom instruction with word games like Scrabble and field trips to local points of interest. Other teachers and staff at the school were equally competent and friendly. I highly recommend HablaYa! to other Spanish students.

I spent 7 weeks at Habla Ya Boquete campus and had Tamara as my teacher for 6 weeks. I started Spanish from scratch in group classes. There was a lot to take in, and somedays I felt like I was going nowhere, especially being with some of my classmates who already knew +/- 4 other languages;), but Tamara made it a super fun, laid back, and comfortable learning environment and kept me going! She always took the time to answer my questions. She also always had different activities to do to keep the class engaged. At the end of my time there, Habla Ya had become more of a family than a school, and I had a hard time saying good-bye. Thank you so so much for this great experience and most of all, for teaching me Spanish!!

I spent four weeks at Habla Ya in Boquete and had a fantastic group teacher, Yubal. He made class fun and was clear with the material so me and my classmate learned a lot! He also speaks very good English which was very helpful in times of confusion for clarification, and he was sure to review anything we weren't clear about. I looked forward to going to class every day.

Also for private classes I studied with Kimberly and Jeremy, who both were great and helped a lot with learning new vocabulary and remembering it. Thanks for the experience, Habla Ya!

Boquete is small and beautiful mountain town. It's very peaceful with plenty of hikes/walks, and every tour I took was excellent! The tour guides as well are awesome, and I definitely recommend spending some time in Boquete in a trip to Panama.

I spent three weeks in Boquete with Habla Ya. I came to Panama with no Spanish language experience and left with the confidence to try and a greater ability to comprehend the spoken language.
My teacher Erian was great at explaining concepts and the classes are kept small and the conversations interesting and useful.
I’m excited to continue practicing and learning throughout the year and look forward to visiting HablaYa again in the future.

We just had one week private Spanish lessons with Leidys and it was really great! Me and my boyfriend are having different Spanish levels and she managed that perfectly. She explained everything in Spanish though we could follow even with limited Spanish knowledge. She was a very helpful, enthusiastic and motivating teacher and we really had fun learning Spanish with her. The course was organized really good and we got great learning materials. In general the whole organization of Habla Ya was really great. Futhermore we enjoyed being in Boquete, as it is a very beautiful little town with an amazing landscape!

Raffaela and Lukas

I had such a great time in Boquete. Leidys was THE BEST teacher and I enjoyed both the instruction and the conversation in our classes. She was professional, but very personable and very easy to talk with, even though I struggled with my Spanish conversation skills. This was why I came to Panama! Boquete is a great place...perfect weather (not too hot, not too cold), lots of activities to do, amazing food and great people!