Despite being Filipino, I never was taught Tagalog growing up. I recently was inspired to learn…read moreTagalog, and I was super pleased to learn there was a place nearby that teaches it! I wanted to better connect with the language associated with my heritage, so I decided to invest the time and money to learn Tagalog. I took the Level 1 hybrid course with Rhya in early summer 2026. Overall, it provided a great foundation for introductory grammar and vocab for Tagalog. By the end of the first course, you quickly become comfortable being able to ask simple questions (like where are you from? what's your name?), answering with affirmative/negation statements, and even being able to ask "how much/how many" with Tagalog numbers right off the bat. The class structure felt perfect, with the small class sizes. The course was very interactive, as we were constantly engaging and practicing the language throughout each course. And of course, it provided a safe space to make mistakes and grow with the language. If we made a mistake, Rhya would walk us through our mistake to help understand where it was and why the correct answer was provided. The class structure was also perfect for my work schedule. There were times I had to travel for work and miss a lecture. Because I was signed up for the hybrid course, I was provided class recordings after each session, allowing me to catch up and not feel left behind. The sessions are definitely catered to working adults, with all courses being offered in the evenings. Each session was 90 mins long each week for 7 weeks. I learned a lot from Level 1, and I'm excited to continue on to Level 2!

SJLC (San Jose Learning Center) has a great number of language classes - online, hybrid, or…read morein-class - and a variety of schedules, esp. for busy adults. The instructor that I had, Keiko is great. She is very patient and always willing to help. (The courses can be fast though depending the language and the books being used). The other people there are always very polite and helpful as well. The facility, while basic, is clean and conducive to learning. They seem to use a mix of media (e.g. slides, Quizlet, etc. which is good). FYI - it is near SJC - San Jose Int'l airport and the jets taking off can be somewhat loud at times.

I've been graduated 6 years from MIIS with a MA in International Policy & Development. I can…read moreconfidently say that it's set me up to make six figures right after graduation & connected me to tons of alumni that have become lifelong friends. The key to being successful in grad school & post grad school are #1.) Specialize (I chose human security) & #2.) Network like crazy the entire time you're in school to prep yourself to land a solid job coming out of school & #3.) Travel & apply your skills during internships while in grad school. I hired & been with my career coach for 6 years to help me write my CV, LinkedIn & interview prep & that too has made a difference. I was making $40k with a BA as a high school English teacher & now I'm a program manager in big tech making $150k-$200k+ depending on how my stock is doing. I highly recommend MIIS

I contacted Eva Gudbergsdottir by the way, the representative who left a passive-aggressive message…read morebelow my review. I guess she couldn't be bothered to respond to either my Yelp direct message or my email. She's not located in Monterey, she's in Middlebury College in Vermont. I still get messages from users asking me to explain a bit more about my experience at MIIS, and I am happy to answer. I encourage everyone to read the "not recommended" reviews at the bottom of this page; you'll find insightful commentary there. I also encourage you to read my original review: I share some insights on the MA TESOL program, more of which I can share a bit below. I get a few questions about the MANPTS degree, or the Nonproliferation/terrorism studies degree. If you already have a job which is sponsoring you to do this degree at MIIS, that's fine. The degree itself does not lead to any kind of career outcome, however; ONLY pursue this degree if you already have a job. The MA in Environmental Policy is a joke. It's the easiest degree at MIIS, and it's known colloquially as the "poster-making" degree because much of the course content involves making visual posters. You can do this if you really want a Master's degree, although honestly you can also get a Master's degree from a private for-profit university, and it will basically be the same thing. The T&I programs are the only successful programs at MIIS, and even to this day attract a good number of students. To my knowledge, it's one of the only programs (possibly THE only program? I might be wrong, please correct me if I am) in the US for translation/interpretation. The city of Monterey is small, isolated, and largely a tourist town, so there is no inherent reason for the country's premier interpretation school to be there. Why couldn't there be a program in NYC, the location of the United Nations? As bad as the MA TESOL program was before, it's even worse now. In an attempt to stay socially relevant in a changing economy, the program has doubled down on a bastardized version of what they call "social justice." In order to pass your courses, you need to find ways to pander to an upper-middle class white liberal audience by paying lip-service to contemporary popular social issues. You'll need to identify your gender pronouns, and create curricula that require students to understand white supremacy in the USA. For a fucking teaching English degree. The statistics on the MIIS career website are laughably false. 99% of all graduates are employed after graduating? Seriously? There's no way this kind of statistical misrepresentation can be legal. Given how expensive and niche the school's degrees are, your classmates are going to be trust fund babies, and the staff/faculty are painfully naive. It pains me to see men and women in their 40's who don't have an understanding of the labor market. By all means, please contact me in a private message and I can tell you more (about the current work environment, about the comical housing situation, MIIS's tuition scholarship hustle...). I promise to be more responsive than Eva Gudbergsdottir.

I love the ESL school. Teachers are so nice and friendly to students. We have different ways to…read morelearn english. Students are coming from South America, middle east, China, Japan, and Korea. I can learn lots of different cultures. If you want to come to ESL school, Language Pacifica is your great choice.

All I have to say is this school seriously helps succeed with my integration to American life…read more This is simply beyond the norms of any language courses I have attended. I learnt through play and fun the basics of English, and I enjoyed those extra activities school organized to discover nearby Stanford, Palo Alto, and San Francisco area from different angles. How I missed my friends and the good times we had during those festivals, museum visits, tours... miss my host family, and the neighborhood, it was great and convenient. The attention to details and the effort put forth by teachers and the staff as a whole was also remarkable. As a person who came from a different country and culture background I was welcomed and respected with the utter most loving people. I want to thank them for helping me learn the language as a living breathing entity. I want to thank them for teaching me everything I now know about the language, and thank them for the best experience as school can give. For me this is a school hard to leave, and I can't imagine a more invigorating place to learn English. Thanks everybody from Language Pacifia, and I'll always miss you guys! PS: Sophia, Ruth... You guys rock!

My 5yo took private Mandarin lessons with Vickie over the summer and really enjoyed them. She's…read morevery knowledgable and works well with kids. She comes to the classes with fun activities, prizes, and stickers. Also, she provided resources and materials to keep learning at home. I would recommend her!

Vicki has done a great job introducing mandarin to all four of my children, ages 4-11. We are…read moreexcited for our move to China!

I took an intro French course recently with Celine Val. I really liked the class and our teacher. I…read morethought it was reasonably well structured and that she did a good job teaching us first how to pronounce, then how to read and write. We studied formal and informal. If you have any background in a language I would suggest you refresh yourself and test into something other than the intro course. Starting at the beginning was perfect for me since I have never studied French before, but it was very, very basic stuff. Had I taken that level for a language I had previously studied I think I would have been bored. Pros: - Conveniently located to the 84 and 101 (and Caltrain?) - Convenient times after work - Great way to sample a new language to see if you're really interested in it. - You get to keep the text book (they are used, mine had writing it...) Cons: - When you are only meeting once a week it's really easy to say: "I'll study this weekend." "I'll study tomorrow." "Oh crap, class is tonight, I better study." - Cost - it's roughly $40 a class (give or take) so if you're going to stick with it long term it's going to add up. A college course may be cheaper (though with the way college tuition is these days maybe not?). Private lessons seem to run $30-$40+ an hour, so I think their costs are reasonable. It just adds up over time, which hurts my head when I do the math... - $50 one time set-up fee per student

I took private intro spanish lessons with Erick. He was very flexible with my scheduled and allowed…read moreme to have a different meeting time each week to accommodate my schedule. Erick did a great job of assessing my current level of proficiency and then adapting an appropriate curriculum to advance my skills. We met at the Menlo Park school at times, which is a very easy to access right next to the Facebook campus off of Willow Road. Other times we met at a location we decided upon. The staff at ABC were very helpful in my billing or any questions I needed to get answered. Highly recommend ABC for anyone interested in any foreign language, no matter what level they are in. They will have an instructor for whatever language you are interested in.

There is something seriously broken here. The suicide attempt/success rate is out of control and…read morethe full-blown mental health crisis gobbles up and consumes every Army soldier. It's dangerous. And TRADOC's answer to this? We're going to hurt them more. Squeeze them harder. Deny any and all access to a healthy work-life balance and punish anyone who desperately needs to live their life. I'm lucky to have left this place alive. The same cannot be said for all of my battle buddies.

It was a stormy Tuesday night around 8PM. Jarg and I were stuck indoors. The weather can be so…read moreunpredictable on planet Winnebago. Fortunately we both had our stun rays with plenty of extra cartridges. You can never be too careful. Trouble is like the weather on planet Winnebago. Unpredictable. Also, it's bs that mom grounded me. Like anybody cared about that vase. "If those bastards make a move on us, I'm going to blast them three parsecs to the Wachovia sector!" Jarg muttered under his breath. "Yeah, to the Wachovia sector" I chuckled. Jarg was a mean bastard but he made me laugh sometimes. I'm not sure why. I believe I'm a moral and responsible person but sometimes I also wonder. My mom is the inventor of something called the Kolerstein morality scale. That's where you complain about politics, a person, or the world in general for about 5 or 10 minutes and in the end say if that someone or thing is moral, not moral, and by how much. Like for example if someone were to break a vase, after you're done complaining, you might announce that whoever accidentally broke that vase is a twenty three on the Kolerstein morality scale. Twenty three my ass. "Let's go blast these Winnebagoes" I yelled to Jarg. "Yeah" Jarg yelled back. "I act according to my code whereby I am moral by my principles. Morality is not an absolute and certainly not a number" I said. "God damn right" "Jarg confidently affirmed Jarg and I had some planning to do. Tomorrow was Wednesday. Wednesday is very dangerous on planet Winnebago.