April 1, 2009

Education is not solely what a student learns. It is a mixture of how, what, where and by whom. The professor from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is every student’s nightmare, with his monotone voice and obvious lack of enthusiasm. We’ve all had similar professors at some point in our lives, the ones whose classes we can’t seem to remember, probably because we slept through them. Not all schools are like that North Shore high school. Barcelona has some hidden old-school treasures that are more double espresso than Valium.

Walking into the L.I.P language school is an experience in itself. The front is a small bookstore filled with a variety of Catalan and Spanish books and happy people. Looking around the historic, stonewalled room, the feeling of authenticity is strong. The back is filled with a few small, cozy classrooms with wood floors and high ceilings. One really feels as if they are in Barcelona, unlike the cold modern classrooms filling many of the other language schools. Although the atmosphere is one-of-a-kind, nothing beats the staff. The owner, Sofia Pariente, always has a smile on her face. She opened the school one year ago with the goal of “making the students feel at home while living the language.” The truth is they really do. With excellent, friendly teachers, a beautiful location and low prices, the difficult part isn’t learning Catalan, Castellano or English, it’s leaving.

As you leave the bustling noise and crowds of Las Ramblas and make your way up the stairs to a school called Spanish Now, the loud click and hum of the light illuminates the climb. Almost without fail you’ll be greeted by one of your professors as you arrive. It’s not often these days you stumble across an old school room filled with blackboards and antiques. High tech has never been high on the agenda of
this esteemed establishment. It’s been operating successfully for 11 years without so much as a website or mobile number. A fixed phone line and word of mouth are all Ricardo and Teresa have needed to stay afloat in a city flooded with learning options. The Catalan pair acts almost like a tag team
theatre event in class, always energetic and animated. They use handmade exercise books, rather than mainstream series. Personalized grammar exercises take up half of the class. The other half concentrates solely on conversation. With Ricardo and Teresa sharing the teaching responsibilities, two hours goes by in what seems like two minutes. What you will find here, like L.I.P, is an intimacy and personal touch that is likely to remain with you longer than the language itself.

These schools may have an attitude from the past but they are the schools of the future. Their students come out feeling confident and well educated. If only more schools could be like them.

L.I.P. C/ Avinyo, 50. 93 318 65 91
Spanish Now. Las Ramblas, 85. 93 317 48 92