ILERI Spanish School was founded in Escazú, Costa Rica in 1992. In 1994 we opened a branch in Betania, Panama City. The school is run by two professional women with degrees in both International Relations and Spanish as a Second Language. The owners and directors are Ana Leonor Ramírez.
Formal classes consist of 4 hours of Spanish instruction daily, 5 days a week. From the beginning, students are taught exclusively in Spanish through the Total Immersion Method.
Upon completion of the course each student receives a diploma.
Associated with the formal Spanish Language programs offered by our Institutes are «homestays», during which students live with local families. After classes, students have the opportunity to practice Spanish daily with their families in an informal setting while simultaneously experiencing the culture more thoroughly.
Costa Rica is culturally rich and has been at peace with neighbors for over a century. The commitment Costa Rica has made to the preservation of its natural resources has made this tiny country world famous. If you want to travel more extensively in Costa Rica, we can help you make all the necessary arrangements.
We invite you to come to Escazú to learn Spanish in Costa Rica and enjoy our country and culture!
COSTA RICA
Costa Rica officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica) is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east.
Costa Rica, which means «Rich Coast», constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949. It is the only Latin American country included in the list of the world’s 22 older democracies. Costa Rica has consistently been among the top Latin American countries in the Human Development Index, ranked 62nd in the world in 2010, and is cited by the UNDP as one of the countries that have attained much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels.
According to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index and is the «greenest» country in the world.
CAPITAL CITY: San Jose, estimated population : 1,200,000
SIZE: 51,060 square kms (19,714 square miles)
POPULATION: 4 million (source: World Bank)
LOCAL TIME DIFFERENCE: GMT minus 6 hours
LANGUAGES SPOKEN: Spanish is the official language, although English is widely spoken in the business community and at most tourist destinations. RELIGION: Majority Roman Catholic, then Evangelical; Methodist; Baptist; Episcopalian; Jewish and Bahai Faith.
ETHNIC MAKEUP: The majority of the population, 98 per cent, is white or racially mixed, except in Limon province on the Caribbean coast, where an estimated 70,000 blacks and 5,000 Indigenous people live. The Northern Guanacaste province also has a sizeable Indigenous population.