30 Years of Experience in Teaching Spanish!
The Spanish Experience Center:
The Spanish Experience Center’s origin dates back to 2004, when in Cuernavaca, the capital city of Morelos, 6 teachers and 1 former student set a goal to create the best Spanish school in Mexico. United by a shared passion for the culture and language of Mexico, we moved to the beautiful coastal town of Puerto Vallarta and created The Spanish Experience Center. With a combined 30 years of teaching experience, and language degrees from the Uninter University, the faculty of SEC brought a superior level of professionalism and skill to the new school.
The “former student” leveraged her acquired Spanish proficiency into her continuing successful career in Mexican media and sports, rising to the top of her field and moving to Puerto Vallarta where she purchased and remodeled a traditional Mexican hacienda into the beautiful campus it is today. Together, our team inaugurated the new campus and welcomed our first students in 2005, we are now proud to be a member of the Education Ministry of Jalisco State and the only certified Spanish immersion school in Puerto Vallarta.
Offering comprehensive Spanish classes for students of all levels enhanced with an introduction to Mexican culture and traditions, the school offers a true Spanish immersion experience. Extracurricular activities such as cooking classes specializing in teaching traditional Mexican dishes, slang Spanish classes, tours of the city and numerous social events, offer our students more than just language classes, they offer the true Spanish experience.
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Accreditations
Visit the website of the SEP in English
We are proud that our school has been approved by the Secretariat of Public Educatoin (SEP). The mission of the SEP is to create general conditions that will allow all students to access quality education, at the level and in the discipline they require and wherever they need.
Our Philosophy
Objective
To provide programs and activities that will allow our students to experience the culture of Mexico while developing language skills in a full immersion learning environment which embraces the school's motto,
Living it is learning it!
Our Mission
The mission of our Spanish school in Puerto Vallarta is to share our culture’s arts, colors, flavors, sights, smells and experiences so that learning the Spanish language arises in a natural way, waking up the Latin within, in order to give each student a piece of Mexico they can take with them forever.
The Staff:
Our academic staff has worked closely with and given Spanish classes to executives, senior and junior managers from some of the biggest companies in the world: United Airlines, Lufthansa Airlines, Pepsi, Swiss RE, Daimler Chrysler, The World Bank, SBC, GM de Mexico, Bank of America, Henkel, and with diplomats from Canada, the USA, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
They all have been trained and are certified at an academic level to teach Spanish Language as a second language. Moreover, their passion for the Spanish language and the Mexican culture is contagious as you will discover during your stay at our Spanish School in Puerto Vallarta. Each one with their Specialty, from Mexican food to Latin music dancing class you will have it all :)!
Here is a few word from all of them:
Enrique Jiménez - General Director
Enrique Jimenez is the Director of the Spanish Experience Center and over the years has become the personality of the school as well. Enrique was born in the city of Cuernavaca, where he also studied and earned degrees in International Business as well as Teaching Spanish as a Second Language from the Uninter University of Cuernavaca. He moved to Puerto Vallarta in the summer of 2005 to become the General Director of the Spanish Experience Center and sometimes a teacher as well. Enrique’s passion for teaching Spanish, especially beginners and conversation classes, has allowed him to meet hundreds of people from all over the world. One of his great joys is learning of his students’ cultures while teaching them about his. As all former students know, Enrique has two dogs who come to work at the school each day named Charro and Gayla, who he walks every afternoon and occasionally takes them to one of the many beautiful beaches near the school. Music, dancing and exploring Puerto Vallarta’s dynamic culture is a part of Enrique’s life that he shares with “the equipo” (equipo means team), a great group of locals, students and teachers who have all become great friends. Enrique’s week-end excursions with the equipo have become famous all around the world and he considers the equipo to be his Puerto Vallarta family.
Enrique believes that his greatest personal satisfaction comes from his students achieving proficiency in understanding, writing and expressing themselves in Spanish.
Susana Chávez - Administrative Assistant:
If you’ve been to the Spanish Experience Center even once, you know how wonderful Susana Chavez is and how important she is to the SEC family. Susy is from El Grullo, a lush agricultural town situated in a mountain-rimmed valley in Jalisco southwest of Guadalajara . She has been living in Puerto Vallarta for 7 years and working at the Spanish Experience Center for 6 years. According to Susy, working for SEC is like working from home, with her colleagues and students feel like family and the hacienda campus feels like her home. It is clear from being around Susy the pleasure she takes in being able to contribute to sharing the Mexican Culture with the students from around the world. Susy takes great satisfaction in the fact that year after year, the majority of our students return to live the SEC experience once more. It is important to her that not only the students have an opportunity to live a study abroad experience, but she also gets to enjoy a day by day multicultural experience, receiving students from all over the world.
“All of this achievement is possible thanks to our amazing team and the confidence of all the people who chose us for being the best option to learn Spanish in Puerto Vallarta.” Susana Chavez
Saraí Ramirez - Head of Academics and our Mexican Food Expert
My name is Saraí Ramírez Fernández, I have a degree in Teaching Spanish with a specialization in Hispano-American History at the Uninter University in Cuernavaca, Morelos. Cuernavaca is where I am from originally and is located just one hour south of Mexico City. I have been working at the Spanish Experience Center for 8 years and it is a great experience: I have had the chance to meet very interesting people from many different countries.
I love my job. I love to live in such a beautiful, safe and quiet place, like Puerto Vallarta, surrounded by the ocean and the mountains.
I like to read historical novels or magical realism novels, information about other countries and to share cultural and historical information about Mexico with my students.
These 5 years I have in Puerto Vallarta so far have really been wonderful ones.
Adriana Bedolla - Teacher
Hi there! My name is Adriana Bedolla. I was born and raised in Cuernavaca where I studied Special Education at the Morelos State University (UAEM).
After graduating in 1998, I moved to Chicago where I lived for 3 years. In 2001, I returned to Mexico and obtained a post-graduate degree in teaching Spanish as a second language. In 2005, I joined the founding team of the Spanish Experience Center where I have been teaching students of all levels. So, whether you are a beginner or an advanced student, please join one of my classes for some challenge and a lot of fun!
Tania Huitrón - Teacher
My name is Tania Huitrón, proudly born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, “the City of the eternal Spring”, where I studied teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language.
I decided to come and live in Puerto Vallarta because at the Spanish Experience Center I have the opportunity to grow both professionally and personally. Working here is an incredible experience; I love the family atmosphere that we experience day after day at the school. The life together with the students makes life away from my family a lot easier.
I love meeting new people from all over the world, and through them, knowing different cultures. IT’S LIKE TRAVELLING AROUND THE WORLD EVERYDAY. I like the beach, the sun, listening to music and singing.
I am also a theater actress, I took part in various plays, visiting many States of the Republic of Mexico, but Vallarta definitely got my heart. :)
The Building
Our Spanish school in Puerto Vallarta is located in a beautiful renovated traditional Mexican Hacienda in the heart of Puerto Vallarta. Only one block from the beach and 3 blocks from the Malecon (boardwalk), the building is ideally located close from everything. The school has 6 air conditioned classrooms to offer Spanish classes for all levels. Distributed on 3 floors, our Spanish school in Puerto Vaa providing all the modern comfort set in a traditional Mexican atmosphere. We have a beautiful colonial fountain and a huge terrace where students can study or relax, and from the 3rd floor you can even admire the ocean during recess!