The Best Language Schools in San Miguel de Allende

Life in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico offers expats a range of beneficial advantages and thrilling experiences.

With delicious cuisine, a beautiful desert landscape, exciting cultural celebrations, and various galleries chock full of impressive art around town, there’s plenty of exciting aspects to living in this central Mexican town.

However, if you aren’t able to speak a drop of Spanish, you’ll miss out on opportunities for engagement with the local people and culture of San Miguel.

Although many Mexicans in San Miguel do speak English, no one wants to be the North American expat bumbling around and miming gestures in order to communicate.

Fortunately, San Miguel has various high-quality language schools that make studying and speaking Spanish not only easy–but fun and entertaining as well.

Here are our picks for the four best language schools in town…

#1: Liceo de la Lengua

Located right in Centro, Liceo de la Lengua offers small class sizes (no more than five students per class) for adults, teens, and children.

If you’re looking to test the Liceo de la Lengua out first, you’re in luck–your first class is free!

According to former student Jessica Antonelli, the school’s strong suit was its “very friendly and capable instructors who were really good at spotting what you needed to work on and shaping classes to the needs of the small group.”

Antonelli also notes that the classes were a great size and included “interesting historical asides about the city.”

Another former student, Erin McDonald, explains that “I chose [Liceo de la Lengua] because you could go by class rather than having to commit to a whole program of all day or all morning.”

The school offers a range of single class or package options. However, to give you an idea of price, 20 hours per month of classes will cost you $200 USD at Liceo de la Lengua. 

#2: Warren Hardy

Warren Hardy is one of the most popular choices in town, perhaps due to their unique teaching methods and curriculum.

The founder, Warren Hardy, created a unique language learning system, that works especially well for older adult students, who tend to learn new languages differently from younger students. 

Unlike many of the other schools, this program takes less of an immersive approach, and explanations are in English so that students can easily grasp the concepts behind grammar, vocabulary, and more. 

With Warren Hardy, in addition to on-campus programs, you also have the option to purchase their self-paced home study program, which combines workbooks, flashcards, and audio lessons.

Former student Daniel Nally believes that the Warren Hardy in-person program is a terrific option because “they focus a lot on learning verbs, and it’s a lot of rhythm-based learning that helps you memorize different tenses.”

They offer a variety of courses for different levels of Spanish language learners (most of which run for two to three hours per day, three days per week, for three weeks in total).

And the price? Each three-week course costs $285 USD.

#3: Habla Hispana

With classes running from 9am to 1pm Monday to Friday, Habla Hispana provides consistent classes throughout the week that won’t eat up your afternoons.

Their teachers have an average of twenty years experience in teaching Spanish as a second language, and classes have 10 students maximum.

According to the website, “All activities are in Spanish with an emphasis on improving speaking and listening skills. With the interaction of language, culture, and society, learning is not confined to the classroom.”

One twenty-hour week of standard group classes will cost you $170 USD, while one on one classes will cost you $16 per hour.

#4: Academia Hispano Americana

Founded in 1959, the Academia Hispano Americana was actually the first Spanish Language School in San Miguel de Allende to specialize in teaching Spanish as a second language.

The Academia’s methodology combines four areas of learning: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Their program is fully immersive, meaning that everything from vocabulary to grammar is taught exclusively in Spanish.

The offer both intensive (6 hours per day) and semi-intensive programs (3 or 4 hours per day).

Each program includes language learning classes, as well as seminars and workshops covering Mexican literature, history, sociology, oral communication, pronunciation & diction, grammatical problems and folk singing & dancing.

One week of their intensive program will cost you $250 USD, and one week of their semi-intensive programs will cost either $155 or $185 USD.

As an expat, whether you select Warren Hardy or Academia Hispano Americana, Liceo de la Lengua or Habla Hispana isn’t so important.

They are all excellent options that include professional and passionate teachers, and more than likely you’ll be more than satisfied with your experience.

What matters is the fact that you’re taking steps to learn the local language–and that makes all the difference!

Interested in getting health insurance while living abroad? Get a free quote today by clicking below.

Get a Quote

Phone Consultation