Aisling, Ireland

Female, 20 - 29 年齢
2 週間 中に Jul 2009
The accommodation provided was very bad. Firstly, they informed me of a change of accommodation three days before arriving. I also had to stay in two different apartments, one each week, involving a move over the weekend. The second apartment was filthy and I received extremely bad bites from bed bugs, three weeks later the scars are still obvious.
The teaching was OK. Many classes didn't have, I believe, a proper structure. We would just be presented with worksheets photocopied from a number of books. Another problem was that our teacher couldn't cater towards a mixed-ability class. I had specified to the school that I wanted an elementary class as I had no Italian. There was only one other person in the class with the same level as me, all five other students were beginners/intermediate. They woiuld have many conversations which I couldn't understand. On one occasion a conversation regarding the Catholic church lasted 40 minutes. I was able to understand the jist of it but not the details and I couldn't participate. I found this (among many other conversations) extremely frustrating.
Along with this there was little variety to the lessons. We would correct homework, do endless endless worksheets and some tapework. Occasional games took place also. I felt there was far too little pair/group student conversations (not involving the teacher, but guided by her). These I feel are essential for beginners wishing to speak Italian!
I would not return to this school for another course and I would not recommend it to others.
Response from school:
We from Scuola Tricolore are very sorry for the bedbugs in the room of Aisling and after discovering the problem we both closed down the apartment for disinfestation and refunded the student. Unfortunately we only discovered afterwards and therefore couldn’t act in a timely fashion.
Aisling booked both her course and accommodation at the last moment (2 weeks before course start) and made a mistake with the dates of the apartment. As a consequence we lost precious time and we could only offer her two rooms in different apartments, which she happily accepted.
Our classes do have a proper structure although for students this is sometimes difficult to perceive. The material may differ based on the development of a class. All other students in Aisling's class were highly satisfied. It is however fairly normal to consider the whole experience as negative if you encounter something like bedbugs.
Once again we are very sorry for Aisling’s experience. If only we had known before, we could have acted, as we don’t dwell on problems but solve them.