Academia Iria Flavia

Academia Iria Flavia language school was founded in 1994 in Santiago de Compostela. It's very centrally located, just a 2-minute walk from the historic district of the city and very close to all the major monuments.It is a small, family-like school managed directly by the owners.It offers 6 classrooms and an area with computers with free Internet access for students.

There is also wi-fi connection available in all the facilities.

The total number of students can reach 90; the average group size is 5 students with a maximum of 8. It is very easy, therefore, to contact all the school staff, both teachers and administrative or managerial.Relations with teachers is one of the most important values you will find while you are here. You relate to your teacher in the classroom, but also to other groups’ teachers during coffee breaks or other activities.

In order to select the teachers for our Spanish courses, we assess their training and professionalism, but also their human qualities: friendliness, capacity to create a good environment in the classroom and their liking “giving a hand” in and out of the school.

All these points sum up to reach our objective: helping you learn Spanish in a relaxed, familiar and entertaining environment.

Most of your course will focus on talking: with your teacher, with other groups' teachers, in and out the classroom, during coffee breaks, with our secretary, in the activities, in the market where you are likely to go one day with your group and teacher (Just a tip: do your shopping there and have a talk with the ladies tending the stalls of vegetables, fish or meat).

Of course we must save some time to teach you the grammar rules that will allow you to speak so much.

The activities we propose in the classroom are focussed on encouraging the dialogue and the exchange of ideas. That is the aim of the discussion topics we introduce, and of the exercises in groups or pairs... We like dealing with current events: they encourage the dialogue as any other, but moreover they are useful to let you talk about them to the family you live with. We intend to make what you do in the classroom useful “out there”.

The classrooms are arranged so that this methodology is possible: they are large enough, sunny and decorated to make you feel at ease. And what is more inportant, students and teacher sit around the same table, which encourages conversation and makes it easier.

A typical week could be the following:

Monday

On the first day of your course, Academia Iria Flavia takes you for a guided tour to the city, followed by a glass of wine and some tapas in the old part of the town with the rest of the students who begin the course with you. We are sure it is the best way of beginning a good relationship.

Tuesday

Film showing at the school.

Wednesday

A visit to the Galician People Museum, where you can get in touch with the different expressions of traditional craftsmanship, the musical instruments from the Pórtico de la Gloria, the traditional trades (fishing nets, agricultural traditions, basketwork) and a part of the far-off past of Galicia : Celtic forts and Roman settlements.

Thursday

Trekking along the Old Path of Sarela River, in the outskirts of Santiago.

Friday

Tapas tour in the Old Town

Saturday

One day trip to the Barbanza Peninsula. There you will see extraordinary beaches and you can also visit one of the Celtic forts that you saw in the Museum.

Sunday

Take the opportunity to practise some sports, or to visit, alone or in a group, the Galician places you might be interested in. Ask us for advice.