Ole - 76000 Santiago de Querétaro

Tome la clase muestra y desde la imagen del profesor dejo mucho que desear (se veía desarreglado sin planchar y desfajado) y en cuanto a la clase que era de un nivel básico hubo momentos en que otras personas tenían errores de pronunciación y el profesor no hizo intento por corregirlo.

I took dele exam there.they’re not well prepared. No clock, I heard the staffs chatting outside of the room while exam, the audio part couldn’t be worse because they even didn’t have a speaker so I had to be attached to the laptop which has horrible quality in volume, additionally the audio from other room (that apparently and luckily had speaker!) distracted me.

I attended OLE for two weeks and was very pleased with my experience. The instructors and staff were excellent. I wish I could have stayed longer! If you are interested in truly working on your language skills, I would highly recommend classes at OLE. This applies whether you are a new student or a student that needs to review things like me. The most valuable part of the classes for me were the conversations that helped me with speaking Spanish. I plan to return for further classes. While I was there, a large group from the U.S. returned for further classes. Clearly, they also thought very highly about OLE. If you plan to attend, I would suggest booking directly with OLE and not through one of the many re-sellers that are on the web. My direct contact with the school prior to attending was excellent and the responses were always prompt and clear.

I took private lessons with two different teachers when I was in Querétaro for a week. Loved the school, easy walk from my Airbnb in the Centro Historico. Classrooms are inside, but the shared spaces of the school are an open courtyard so during breaks or before/after you are "outside" and get to enjoy plenty of sunshine and fresh air, not cooped up inside a building all day. Olé helped me set up my lessons with very little notice and so if you are late to organize your plans, but want to take classes you should still reach out and they can probably help! Very friendly and helpful staff. Check them out!

I'm an advanced student of Spanish. After years of study I have achieved a fair level of fluency. Two years ago I had one-on-one lessons with four different teachers at Olé. One was terrible, one was pretty bad, one had a good attitude but was very young and inexperienced at teaching, and one, Carlos Hernandez, was fantastic. Before I arrived at the school, I had explained that I was an advanced student and needed a teacher who knew Spanish at a high level and could teach accordingly. This is not what I got. Moreover, the school seemed disorganized and, when I started explaining why I wasn't happy with a particular teacher, the administration didn't know what to do about it. They would switch me to another teacher who was as bad or worse. Finally, I heard Carlos giving lessons to another student and realized that he was a superb teacher. I asked for him and had him my last day at the school. He was so good that I followed up with him and now do lessons with him via Zoom. Why were the first teachers bad? The worst had an advanced degree in linguistics but no intellectual curiosity about her field, and seemed to have learned linguistics by rote. She was semi-asleep most of the time in class, never smiled, and kept trying to teach me like I was a beginner, giving me formulaic exercises. When I would ask her questions about the subtleties of grammar, for example, she couldn't answer coherently. The next teacher was similar, again with a linguistics degree but little knowledge and no skill at teaching. It appeared to me that Olé hires their teachers according to whether they have a degree, but doesn't monitor whether they can actually teach. The third teacher was very young, just out of college, but with a great personality and willingness to learn. I've been a college teacher myself of English composition and grammar, and I've spent a lot of time learning how to teach effectively, so I found myself in the position of teaching her how to teach me! I taught her some of the basic theory of second-language learning, and she caught on fast. But still, it was frustrating to be teaching a teacher who was supposed to be teaching me. Another demerit for Olé! The fourth teacher, Carlos, was wonderful. Intelligent, lively, engaging, and intellectually curious. He was everything a good language teacher should be. If Olé had its act together, they would have hired him to train and oversee the other teachers (and fire some of them). Bottom line: Olé appears to be a typical language mill that depends on a constant rotation of tourist students who are there for a week or two and don't realize the teaching is terrible. I suppose that if you're a beginner and just want a smattering of exposure to Spanish, it could work for you, although you'll mostly be wasting your time, but they are no way equipped to handle serious students. It appeared to me that Olé's main focus is on administering the classes, i.e. on collecting students' money and scheduling classes, and not on monitoring, planning, or improving the teaching. I haven't been to another school in Querétaro, so I can't recommend one that's better. Unfortunately, most Spanish language schools, in my experience follow the Querétaro language-mill model, so it's hard to find a good one. I can recommend an excellent, tiny school in Ensenada that is relatively inexpensive and has overall great teachers, due to the owner/administrator, Lupita, who is very serious about good teaching. It's called the Pacific Spanish Institute. Unfortunately, Ensenada as a city has nowhere near the charm of Querétaro, although it does have a beach. But if you're serious about Spanish learning, consider the PSI. Good luck!

It has been a few years since I attended Olé. Perhaps things have improved. But since then I have attended extraordinary schools in Puebla- Sí Puebla - and Oaxaca City - ICO - and related I should share my perspective. Most schools in Mexico will encourage the use of Spanish. Olé has culture classes in terrible, difficult to understand English because it opens these classes Spanish beginners. The result is no one understands the classes. Olé’s teachers do not have academic backgrounds in their subjects so can only answer questions that are already answered in written materials. Olé spreads negative messages about the safety of Mexico to ensure that it’s staff stays with students night and day. Apparently so they can charge more. Queretaro is very safe yet Olé staffers act like dangerous cartels are on every corner. You will learn more, enjoy yourself more and leave with a much better impression of Mexico if you pick a better school.