My daughter and I did the Spanish language paint night and I had a great time! This is my first…read moretime doing a paint night so I was a little nervous about how my painting was going to come out. But I love my Picasso-esque painting. Ed did a great job teaching us and guiding us through the process. It was also great to have some Spanish language lessons incorporated into the night. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention his delicious tortilla Espanola and the live music!

Rola Languages is a great language school nestled between Porter and Harvard Squares in Cambridge,…read moreMA. Students have the opportunity to learn multiple romance languages that will help them achieve their personal and professional goals in a flexible and comfortable setting. Ed Rocha, in particular, uses evidence-based strategies to motivate his students towards success. 10/10 recommend him and Rola as a hub for language learning, community, and connection.

I took Spanish lessons under Jose at The Greater Boston Spanish Group for a few years. Prior to…read morethese lessons, I'd spent years in high school and college with teachers who focused primarily on Spanish grammar, but Jose pushed me to just speak the language. From him I learned to listen for context and to use words I know to describe words I don't. He catered our Spanish language conversations to my work and my interests to make it easier for me to speak at length. While I'm by no means fluent, with Jose's guidance, I now trust in my ability to communicate in the language. I strongly recommend booking a lesson with The Greater Boston Spanish Group.

I gladly spent time in Boston Realty Institute with instructor Mr. Bah who was extremely thorough,…read moreprofessional and pleasant to learn from. It was an extremely helpful and informative course. Training materials were well organized and provided good case studies. 我很高兴在波士顿地产学院花时间与教练Bah先生是非常彻底，专业和愉快的学习。 这是一个非常有帮助和信息的课程。 培训材料组织良好，并提供了良好的案例研究。

Get Instructor Bah…read more This review is purely for the classroom portion. To reiterate other reviews, it'll cover all the necessary material needed for the test. Parking has always been an issue within the city so public transportation is highly recommended. The star of this course is the instructor. This man oozes professionalism, charisma, and teaches with applied practical examples. He is flexible in his and your schedule and will answer your questions. The short of it is, he's there for you. If you ever needed a shining example of what a real estate agent is, this man has it all. The process for taking the test has changed ( at the time of this review ) compared to when I took the class. If you're planning on just taking a class, graduating, then immediately taking the test and hoping to pass, I won't stop you. I recommend taking mock exams before and after class so you have access to the resource that is this fantastic instructor for any questions you might have. I highly recommend Instructor Bah.

There is systemic injustice at Harvard Extension School. Their policies as stated on their website…read moreare not upheld. I had a professor who graded anything beneath a 90% as a 0%. So, in other words, if you don't get an A you fail your assignments. I withdrew, brought this to the attention of the Dean, and asked for financial credit so I could take another course instead. She did not respond but simply forwarded my concern to a registrar who refused to do anything about it. The registrar said, wrongly, that the professor was acting in accord with HES policy. The grading system on the website does not in point of fact map onto the grading system of all the professors. So be forewarned that you may end up with a professor who will give you an F if you get less than an A. Don't waste your money at HES and don't expect the administration to act justly. I've matriculated a different program. HES just lost the 30K they would have made if they would have simply rendered a just decision.

I am extremely saddened to say that HES does not help International Students solve their financial…read moreissues at all. There are no Financial Aid options coming from the university itself, and 2 out of 3 student loan companies that their office recommends actually don't really accept Extension School students. The third one needs a lot of extra paperwork that the school isn't willing to help with. In order to enroll you need to pay in full and you don't get a letter of enrollment until after the drop out period, when it's too late. You can't get a loan without paying and you can't get enrolled without a loan. So it's a chicken and egg situation that has no end. They say the university helps cover for you until the loan is approved, but in reality, you have to pay in full first and they will reimburse you after the loan is paid. Which defies the entire point of asking for financial assistance. There is a very short window in which to apply for the loan after registration before being dropped out for non-payment. Paperwork takes more than a month, which is not nearly enough to get everything done. I've spent hours and hours with both the lending officers and the financial aid officers, and in the end, nothing got solved. Nothing. I am unable to join the courses. I am unable to get a loan. I feel like my potential is wasting away... Harvard has failed me.

I took one session of classes with Isabella, but would not take another class with her. Her style…read moredoesn't work for me. In our on-line classes, we took turns reading a simple story out loud. When we mis-pronounced something or made another mistake, Isabella pounced on us, instead of letting us finish and then correcting us. Since we were not taught the sounds of Italian and since we were beginners, it's to be expected that we'd make mistakes. I'm not objecting to being corrected--I want that--but it's very jarring when she interrupts and speaks over us. I got very little from the class.

I've been a student of Isabella's for about a year. Unfortunately, due to COVID the courses were…read morevia Zoom. Isabella's enthusiasm and creativity really shined through to make the courses still entertaining. I absolutely love having her as a teacher and strongly recommend taking courses with her. She is very good keeping students engaged, and you feel part of a family when you take courses with her. Grateful to have found such a lovely school!!!

My experience at ISAL was wonderful ! Thank you for creating such atmosphere that motivates you to…read morestudy harder. I improved my English skills , more than that , knew a lot of interesting things about American culture and slang :) Good prices for programs . Highly recommend this school !

New Way does a great job of providing clear language guidance and then getting you to use it over…read moreand over again in various situations and applications. They really get you talking a lot in the classes, while also putting you very much at ease. It is an incredibly safe environment in which to learn and learn quickly. I was surprised at how quickly they had me engaging in conversation back and forth that I could understand and speak. The instructors are pros and very well organized - and they constantly customize the classes and content to the individual student's needs.

GISB is not only our three kids' school, but it is also our family's cultural home. All our…read morechildren started in GISB preschool, and by now, our oldest daughter is studying neuroscience at Boston University, our son is writing his "Abitur" right now and will decide if he wants to study in the US or in Europe, and our 8th grader can't stop talking about how excited she is to go for a school exchange with Oslo next school year. Over the 16 years at GISB, our kids have always been taken care of, both emotionally and academically. The teachers are young and committed, the principal is competent and visionary, the parent community is strong and supportive. The German International School Boston has that name for a reason. The curriculum is German based but also covers the American highschool curriculum, and our families are international. Last year we had 39 different nationalities at our school. The annual turnover is hard, many families come for a predefined amount of time to Boston and then leave (some also stay!). But that also means that you have friends all over the world since GISB by now has a worldwide network of families who help each other. Our graduates finish school with the International Abitur and the Massachusetts High School diploma, opening doors all over the US and Europe. If you want your child grow up in a warm, nurturing setting where he/she will be raised with excellent academics and a strong focus on character-building, then you should consider this truly wonderful school!

My children attended GISB for four years. Below is an honest review of our experience. I wish I…read morehad an honest review of the school before we had decided to enroll there. Hopefully this will help parents who are considering GISB make an informed decision. Location: The traffic in Allston is bad now and will only get worse as Harvard opens its new Engineering Campus in 2020. Facilities: Upper campus is an old Catholic school that is quite shabby in areas. There is no air conditioning in the summer. The heat fails in the winter. The paint is worn out in the stairwells. The parking lot has rusty twisted broken fences. Some specific spaces such as the library have been renovated recently and are OK. Lower Campus, where the pre-K and K grades are located, is a recently converted office building. The lower campus space turns out to be quite cramped when it is full of students. If you have a young active child that needs to move and get their wiggles out over the course of the day this will be a challenging environment for them. Tuition: The German International School of Boston (GISB) demands all the tuition upfront for the school year and there are no refunds for any reason. Buyers beware of any service that demands all the money up front and puts "no refunds for any reason" in the fine print. There are also a lot of various extra fees for the after school classes, ski week, vacation week camp, etc. School Calendar: The GISB academic calendar follows the German academic calendar rather than the American academic calendar. This means that there are two week breaks in February and April where parents must scramble for childcare. Teacher turn over: In the four years that my kids attended GISB they lost teachers every year (sometimes even mid-year) for a variety of reasons (disputes over pay with the administration, visa issues, pregnancy, health problems, etc.). There is no substitute teacher pool to draw on so when a teacher is sick it is a mad scramble to cover the classroom. Even when there is plenty of advance warning of a teacher's departure. (This teacher is pregnant. She will be going out on maternity leave in 4 months.) There was no planning on the part of the administration on how to cover the class room and it was an ad hoc assortment of people covering the class which was very detrimental to the students. Teacher's Credentials: Being a private school the teachers are not subject to the same credentialing criteria as public-school teachers. When I asked the administration if I could see the credentials of my kid's teachers, I was told no. What are they hiding? Why won't they share their teaching staff's credentials? Teaching style: Modern pedagogy acknowledges that students have a variety of learning styles and that teachers need to craft their lesson plans to cover different types of learners. GISB seems firmly stuck in the 19th century with one method of teaching and if your kid doesn't get it too bad. It obviously must be the kid's fault. My older child entered public school a full year behind in reading skills than his peers after we left GISB. Thankfully he was immediately identified as someone who needed some extra help with learning to read and after just one semester in public-school, he was up to grade level. Clearly there was no learning disability on my child's part. My child just hadn't been taught to read. I have talked to other parents who have left GISB for public-school and they have related similar experiences. If a school can't do something as basic as effectively teach kids to read... Social Environment: The small classes mean that the social environment is somewhat stifling. If you kid doesn't make a friend in the handful of other kids in their class, it will be a long lonely year. If your kid becomes the target of a bully, there is no avoiding the bully. The bully is right there all the time. The teachers seem at a complete loss of what to do when bullying is brought to their attention. The teachers and school administration at GISB clearly view the student's behavioral, emotional, and social development as not their responsibility. My experience so far in the public-school system is the complete opposite. The public-school system views its mandate as helping children grow as a whole person and this includes the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral development. Addressing of Concerns and Grievances: The GISB administration, parent council, and GISB board have no interest is addressing issues that are brought to their attention. There is a constant shirking of responsibility. The standard excuse they all give is "But you have to understand GISB is a young school." GISB has been around for 18 years and there are plenty of resources available on how to effectively run a school. The public-school principal of my children's current school has a clear "The buck stops here." attitude which is so refreshing after GISB.