Expresiones en español: Meter la pata

Taronja is a great Spanish school and also great fun! I have been to Taronja twice before, both times for 2 weeks of their intensive course. The course is for 20 lessons a week, over 4 hours each day Monday to Friday and there are also lots of cultural and social activities run by the school for students, normally without extra charges. These include cooking presentations at the school, cultural walks, lessons off-site at interesting locations, group outings to restaurants, bars and other attractions and cultural presentations at lunch-times as well as the weekly paella party for current and past students.
Teaching is done in small groups (6-10) of people with a similar level of Spanish and is done in a creative way and all in Spanish. As well as following a broad curriculum and working towards the standard learning levels, the lessons include a lot of fun activities and all sorts of diversions into exploring Spanish language and culture.
I can recommend this school very highly and Valencia is a beautiful city well-worth exploring. It is especially good during the Las Fallas festival 15-19 March each year and I will be returning to Taronja again this year 2019 to see it.

I am a retired language teacher (at high school and university level ) and as such I feel I can offer a qualified opinion on the teaching method of the Taronja staff. I am pleased to give it 5 stars. All lessons were well prepared, engaging and fun. All staff members were supportive yet challenging. I was pleasantly surprised not to feel my age as a handicap among students largely much younger than me. I had fun with them and met many other older students as well. As to the activities offered by the school, there were so many of them that you could pick and choose. My husband (studying at a different level than mine) and I, did exactly that. We didn't go to all but enjoyed what we had chosen. We enjoyed the cooking class, the songs, the movies, the Saturday excursion. I saw a critic among the reviews concerning a bull fight and I thought that was totally out of line. If you disagree with an offered activity that is part of the culture you are supposedly trying to learn about, just don't go. But don't blame the school for offering other people with different values than yours a chance to experience that activity! Anyway, we had such a good experience that we are seriously thinking about going back to study in Taronja next spring for a couple of weeks at least. Well done Taronja staff, the whole team, teachers, office staff, organizers. We loved the school, we adored Valencia. We will be back. Thank you all so much!

Great school, excellent oprganization and wonderful teachers. I dont know how it is in high season (July, August), but in June there were small groups of 3 - 7 people, which gave the opportunity to speak frequently. The teachers spoke only Spanish which was a great lesson. I spent two weeks there and regret that it was so short. I highly recommend!

Beeindruckend! Ich bin wirklich beeindruckt von dieser Sprachschule!
Sehr gut ausgebildete, sympathische, junge Lehrer, die auf unser Sprachniveau gut eingehen, geduldig und humorvoll sind und jeden im Kurs (wir sind 9 SchülerInnen) auch "zwingen", zu sprechen, ganz wesentlich für mich!
S. hat uns sogar mit seiner perfekt gespielten Gitarre ein Lied gesungen - im Text mussten wir die fehlenden Verben in der richtigen Zeit einsetzen und durften dann mit ihm nochmal gemeinsam singen - also auch einige Talente gibt es hier! 🙂
Die Lernmethode ist intensiv, anders und im richtigen Maß, um schnell Fortschritte zu machen.
Die Schule, die Korrespondenz mit ihr, die Informationen, die wir bekommen, die Organisation generell ist super strukturiert und durchorganisiert - estupendo! Noch nie in dieser Weise erlebt!
Ja, und sogar auf meine Reklamationen bezüglich meines Appartements (einige!), in dem ich hier lebe, geht man geduldig und liebevoll ein und es ändert sich auch was!
Freue mich schon auf die zweite Woche und auf weitere Lernerfolge hier!
Muchas gracias por sus esforzias, Taronja School! 🙂

Nice and cool to be here, am a filmmaker learning Spanish at the moment, am finding it interesting already.....

Awesome school and amazing teachers! A great place to meet new friends and learn Spanish. So happy i chose this school!

OVERALL As a school teacher (of Maths and some other things), I had supported the Spanish trip here with my pupils in April 2023. I could see what a transformative experience it was for them so much so that I wanted it for myself. My time at Taronja can only be described as excellent. Everyone at the school tries to ensure you have the best time possible which is impressive based on the carousel of students who come-and-go each week. All the staff treated me with kindness and respect. Thank you to Maxi and Fernando for running such a unique place. The last 4 weeks at Taronja have been exciting, interesting, eventful, busy, enjoyable and compact with information. The last time I studied a language was 14 years ago. I was not very keen on languages in school but my time spent at Taronja has made me believe that I can learn a language to a much higher level than I ever thought possible. That alone has been worth it. LEARNING EXPERIENCE The teachers were fun and engaging. As an absolute beginner, I did the Intensive course + conversation class + private lessons. That helped with my exposure to the language and the private classes were helpful in ironing out some issues. I did this for the first three weeks, then extended by a week and "dropped down" to "only" the intensive course, which is plenty. If I were building up for an exam I would definitely pick up the private classes again. And the conversation classes were energetically delivered to give you important insights of Spanish conversational etiquette. Overall, I was able to enjoy lessons taught by patient, *knowledgeable* and kind teachers, who have reminded me about the importance of these characteristics in my own teaching practice. Teaching beginners must be tough and it was done with grace, style, poise and importantly, a smile. Thank you Laura, Carmen, Antonio, Miguel Angel, Nestor, Carol, Jenny, Nerea, and especially Mica and Paula for your infectious energy and humour. ACADEMIC ADMIN The organisation of the timetable and classes was clearly communicated in advance via WhatsApp. I know some people didn't feel as though they were in the right class for their level and changes were made almost instantly to help. This was managed by the academic team. SUPPORT Organising, arriving, and extending my stay was made very easy by the ladies at the front desk, in particular Elena and Roza! Emails were responded to promptly and they were always so helpful. Waving to them in the morning and getting a wave back made things feel a bit more like home! SOCIAL Plenty of opportunities to socialise with others at the school. Most people I attended school with were between 19-25. But there was also a considerable contingent of older pupils too (e.g. 31, 40 and 70!). This is all taken into consideration when forming classes and social activities. There are activities organised by the school for every day of the week. I went during high season (i.e. the summer) so there were a lot of people. Some activities are linked to other language schools which broadens your pool of potential connections. A lot are free. Many are heavily subsidised. Because there is a fluid change of people from week to week the extent to which you find things socialable will depend on who you share your time at the school with. But similarly minded people would pay money to attend a summer school, so it's likely to be fine for you, as it was for me! As an over-27, I was added to a WhatsApp group for additionally organised activities. BOCARIOS (Interns) An excellently led intern team support the activities and were a good group to talk to in general. Very helpful! GENERAL THOUGHTS When in Spain and doing things, there is a naturally occurring opportunity to practice the language. Whether you decide to is your own choice! And indeed your experience in general heavily depends on you 😇 . Approach it with an open heart and fresh eyes.

Great Week at Taronja Both my children have been to Taronja to work on their their Spanish (my daughter four times so far) and have both made excellent progress. Then, at long last, Dad made it too! I was looking for an advanced course, which can be difficult to find in smaller schools so it was great to find somewhere that can offer courses at a more demanding level, and even better, that are well taught. All this was backed up with daily printouts of the topics and new vocabulary that arose as we went along. Plenty of great extracurricular laid on outside the formal teaching. Inevitably this was better suited for those a wee bit younger than myself but my two (18 and 21) had an absolute ball! I opted to stay with a Spanish family and was very lucky to be assigned someone who was not only great company but who upon discovering it was my birthday, even laid on a birthday party for me!