FAQ - Preguntas Frecuentes

We work with the six levels of the European Common Reference Framework for Language (Council of Europe): Beginner (A1 + A2), Intermediate (B1), Advanced (B2) and Mastery (C1 + C2). Each of these levels can be divided into sublevels, as many as needed to truly place you in a group at your level.

In the standard courses the minimum age is 18. (We offer special courses and summer camps for students under 18.)

Is there an upper age limit? ABSOLUTELY NOT! So far we have welcomed adult students from 19 to 83 years old. It´s always a good time to learn Spanish!

Since both courses are very good, it depends on what you want to get out of your course. If you are eager to advance more quickly, or to practise as much as possible what you learned in class, then the Super Intensive is very useful. If you want more time during the day to do as you please, then the Intensive course will offer you more "tourist" time outside of class.

If your goal is to make as much progress as possible and your time is limited, our Premium Spanish courses will allow you to study even more intensively than you would in a Super Intensive course, by combining mini-group (3 or fewer students in a group) classes with one to one classes, and the option to request specific material (business Spanish, industry-specific jargon, medical Spanish, etc.) for your one to one classes. If you choose to combine a group course with two or more individual classes per day, we offer you the chance to spend part of your class time over a relaxing meal with your teacher. This way, you will be able to maximize your learning without feeling like you’re always in a classroom

Of course they are! All dQ schools are recognized by the Cervantes Institute. We are also proud to be accredited or members of:
• Ideal Quality Certificate
• Eduspain
• FEDELE, CEELE, ACELE, Association of Spanish Schools Granada, Spanish in Andalusia, Association of Spanish Schools in Madrid, Association of Spanish Schools of Castile and Leon, AELE and AMEELE.
• ALTO, WYSE, NAFSA, ALTO, EAIE, CONSUMO

The minimum level required to participate in the Intensive Business course or in the Chamber of Commerce Basic Certificate Course is intermediate Spanish (B1).
For the Superior Business Certificate Course, you should have an advanced level of Spanish (C1).

If you are a beginner in Spanish, we recommend you enroll in a long-term general Spanish course - Intensive, Super Intensive or Premium- until you reach a level at which you are able to study business-specific content in One-To One classes or reach the B1 level (after approximately 11 weeks in an Intensive program) required for our group business courses.

Yes, don Quijote offers an Intensive Tourism course in Granada.
The full course runs for 4 weeks, but if you are short of time you can participate during part of the course for 2 weeks.
Just like the Intensive Business course, if you take the complete 4 month course, you will be able to take the Chamber of Commerce Basic Tourism Certificate.
We also offer the possibility to intern in Granada businesses after you finish your intensive tourism course, completely free of charge!

Our students have ranged in age from 18 to 83 so far, and we offer special courses just for kids and teens from 5 to 18. Student age varies widely with times of year and destinations at a school as diverse as don Quijote, but we can tell you that 45% of our students fall between 25 and 49 years old.
In short you are very welcome, whatever your age!
In our What Our Students Say section, accessible from the main menu at our home page, you can search for students your age and read about their don Quijote experience, or drop them an e-mail with specific questions. Try it.
It´s always a good time to learn Spanish, we tell you!

We determine the make-up of the group according to the students’ abilities. The first day of the course begins with an oral and written test. If you are a beginner you will start directly in a beginners group.

This is dQ’s original formula, in which we offer one totally free and voluntary hour, where our students can enjoy learning about Spanish and Latin American cultures in the areas of: Spanish and Latin America history, literature, music, local dance, phonetics and pronunciation, culture and civilization, Spain in a European context, etc.

We recommend you to take the DELE (Diploma de EspañolcomoLenguaExtranjera) for Spanish language students. There are up to 6 levels you can take, and if you follow the instruction we offer, you will pass the exam. Around 90% of our students pass.
The DELE is usually taken by students who want to increase their proficiency for better job opportunities, or to apply to universities, where you need to prove your level of expertise in a language. The courses have specific start dates throughout the year that correspond with exam dates. The course focuses on exam details, test-taking strategies, and exam practice.

And if you are more interested in business or tourism related subjects, we recommend that you take the Chamber of Commerce exams, available at basic and superior levels.

After completing the course you will receive a certificate for the whole course, if you have attended at least 85% of your classes. This will record: the course you have taken, duration, objectives and level of Spanish, special subjects, additional courses and number of hours. If attendance was less than 85%, the certificate will only record the actual number of hours attended. For students from the United States, we give the assessment results according to the American (A, B, C, D) grading system if they request it at the beginning of their course. With this certificate they will be able to claim credits at their universities.

It varies from person to person, and with the intensity of the course you choose (Intensive, Super Intensive or Premium), but if you take full advantage of your in-country stay and immerse yourself as much as possible, you will see significant progress from a course as short as 2 weeks, even as a beginner.
In general, students complete level A1 after 3 weeks of study, A2 after 6 weeks, B1 (Intermediate) after 12 weeks, B2 (Advanced) after 17 weeks, C1 after 23 weeks and C2 (Mastery) after 42 weeks of Intensive course (20 hours per week) study.

Of course! In addition to group courses, don Quijote offers one-to-one private Spanish classes. This program is offered in all don Quijote schools at all levels. You may also request customized language content to learn the vocabulary of a certain field, such as literature, business, medical Spanish or any other subject.

The price is per hour, with economical packages available when you take 5 classes or more per week, and/or study in private classes with a friend.

Our Premium courses allow you to easily combine a mini-group course with one-to-one classes, in one-price packages. Combining a group course with private classes is a highly effective way to make maximum progress in your Spanish skills in a limited time.

Yes! You can obtain university credits while doing your course at don Quijote.
We have agreements with a number of universities in the U.S., and, we are happy to supply our syllabi to your university, for review and approval of academic credits.
If you’re thinking of earning credits from your University, it’s very important that you let us know the first day of class. This is because you will need to take specific tests so we can evaluate you according to the American system.
Please see the Credits and Grants link from our main menu, or contact us for more information.

This is very unlikely at dQ. One of our strong points is that, due to the large amount of students we have all year round, we can always make groups not only for each level, but also for sublevels, which guarantees that you will always be with students with the same skills as you.

The main thing is that you want to work. There are just a few technical details such as: you must be older than 18 and younger than 35 (only for internships), a B1 level is required for volunteering and for internships in hotels, B2 for general internships, and for internships in hotels you must be European and/or majoring in tourism while doing the internship.

Of course it is! Don Quijote is proud to be a center that has one of the highest percentages of students subsidized by CSN.
Applying for grants and loans is easy: you can call CSN and ask them to send to you by mail the forms you will need to fill out. The number is: 0771-276 000. One of these forms (5509W) is a reservation confirmation that we will send you as soon as we confirm your registration (with a deposit of just 250 Euros).
CSN usually takes about 3 weeks to process the application from the time they receive it. That’s why it’s advisable to register at least 5 weeks before the starting date of the course. This way you can have the money in your account 2 weeks before classes begin (which is when you must have the rest of the course fee paid).

This is not necessary since our teachers make continuous evaluations. However, if you are studying with us over a long period, we would like to give you an occasional exam so that you can clearly see your own progress. This will encourage you to keep learning!

To ensure your Spanish is adequate for the work you will do for the charitable organization, the program requires that you first complete a 4 -week Intensive Spanish course. You must have at least a B1 level, although some projects require a higher level. The course assures the organization that you have the required language skills to interact efficiently in your new environment, but most importantly, it allows you to see the different projects and to choose the one that most interests you.

Of course! For all don Quijote schools (Salamanca, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Tenerife in Spain, and our schools in Mexico) we have recognitions from Hamburg (which are thus also recognized in Hessen). The same applies to Alicante, Marbella, and Seville. There is no deadline for enrollment for these Laender.

For the following Laender, we request for students on an individual basis whenever we receive the individual reservation, recognition for all the above mentioned don Quijote schools: Brandenburg, Bremen, Berlin, Rheinland-Pfalz, Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen. Each application in these Laender has always been approved for our schools. Not a single one has been rejected. However, the regions do have strict rules about the time-frames for requesting, thus we must receive each request a minimum of 3 months prior to the planned starting date in order to comply with these requirements.

In all the above Laender, you are required to book the don Quijote superintensive course. In Niedersachen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, students are obliged also to book additional private hours of class in order to comply with the requirements from Niedersachsen.

We strongly advise you to remain flexible when choosing your preferred volunteer program as they can change at short notice, and indeed, new programs are added continuously. For that reason, at the time of booking it is not necessary to specify the program that you hope to participate in, only the general area in which you wish to volunteer. Then you can select the exact project during the language course period of your stay.
Also, it’s often possible to prolong your volunteer period for longer than the minimum 4 weeks. This is something you can work out with your coordinator once you are doing your course.

All of our classes are taught in Spanish, even for the complete beginner. Our teachers are experts in the material they teach and they know how to make themselves understood in Spanish. This method achieves fast and real results. Although now you may think you can’t understand or speak, your enthusiasm with be evident after finishing your first week and seeing your improvement.

Of course you can! That’s the idea. With hotel internships however, courses and internships are usually not in the same city because most hotels are either on the coast or on the islands.

Many of our students end up getting work contracts after their internships, depending on the specific situation of each student, according to nationality, work permits, etc.

The Intensive Business Course is designed for students who already have an intermediate level of Spanish and wish to acquire good knowledge of business Spanish. The course runs for 4 weeks, and is made up of 20 specialised daily business classes, but you may enroll for only 2 weeks of the program, if you prefer. You can choose between Barcelona, Madrid and Salamanca.
If you decide to complete 4 weeks of an intensive business course, we recommend that you take the Madrid Chamber of Commerce exam. Depending on your level, you will be able to earn the Chamber of Commerce Certificate of Basic Business Spanish or the Superior certificate. Our results are excellent: 100% of our students have passed! Also, this is in an exam that you can take in the comfort of our school, in any of the cities we offer.

In the Intensive and Super Intensive courses we guarantee you will never study in a group of more than 8 students at a don Quijote school. In practice the average class size at don Quijote (varies with destination, course and time of year) is 5 students per group. Our Premium courses offer accelerated learning and maximum personal attention in groups of 4 or fewer students.

I am afraid this is not possible since shifts depend on your level and when you take classes. Of course we are going to do everything possible for you to be in the shift that you want, and we are usually able to give you your preferences, but we cannot guarantee it.

You will have class for a minimum of four hours a day, with a half-hour break. Classes last for 50 minutes, and take place between 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM. You may have classes in the morning or the afternoon, depending on the current groups available at your level, the type of course you take, the time of year, etc. We will set your schedule with you once you arrive and take your level test on the morning of your first day with us.

In the Intensive Course morning classes take place from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and afternoon classes from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

Yes, all study materials are provided to you at no additional cost. Some of our recommended partner schools, however, may charge small fees for course materials.

In all don Quijote schools we use our own teaching method and textbooks, Vive Español, developed over 21 years and published by a leading Spanish education publisher for use outside of Spain. Your teacher will complement the textbook with press articles, literature, advertisements, audiovisual materials, and more. Additionally, you will have unlimited access to our Online Spanish course (levels A1 and A2) in our computer room throughout your stay with us.

At the don Quijote schools we use an interactive method of teaching based on learning by practice. That means that grammar is covered - after all, grammar is one of the building blocks of a language - but as much as possible taught using practical situations. The emphasis is on conversation but, of course, we also pay attention to grammar, reading, listening and writing. Speaking and actively using the language is central to the continuous interaction between teacher and student. don Quijote has refined the communicative teaching method continuously through years of experience and constantly evaluating and applying student suggestions.

Of course! In addition to group courses, don Quijote offers one-to-one private Spanish classes. This program is offered in all don Quijote schools at all levels. You may also request customized language content to learn the vocabulary of a certain field, such as literature, business, or any other subject.

The price is 40 Euro per hour for courses in Spain and 35 US$ for courses at don Quijote Guanajuato, with economical packages available when you take 10 classes or more per week, and/or study in private classes with a friend.

Our Premium courses allow you to easily combine a mini-group course with one-to-one classes, in one-price packages. Combining a group course with private classes is a highly effective way to make maximum progress in your Spanish skills in a limited time.

It varies from person to person, and with the intensity of the course you choose (Intensive, Super Intensive or Premium), but if you take full advantage of your in-country stay and immerse yourself as much as possible, you will see significant progress from a course as short as 2 weeks, even as a beginner.
In general, students complete level A1 after 3 weeks of study, A2 after 6 weeks, B1 (Intermediate) after 12 weeks, B2 (Advanced) after 17 weeks, C1 after 23 weeks and C2 (Mastery) after 42 weeks of Intensive course (20 hours per week) study.

Since both courses are very good, it depends on what you want to get out of your course. If you are eager to advance more quickly, the Super Intensive is very useful. If you want more time during the day to do as you please the Intensive course will offer you more "tourist" time outside of class.

If your goal is to make as much progress as possible and your time is limited, our Premium Spanish courses will allow you to study even more intensively than you would in a Super Intensive course, by combining mini-group (4 or fewer students in a group) classes with one to one classes, and the option to request specific material (business Spanish, industry-specific jargon, medical Spanish, etc.)for your one to one classes.

Super Intensive courses are available all year long in all don Quijote schools: Barcelona, Madrid, Salamanca, Valencia, Granada and Tenerife in Spain, and Guanajuato in Mexico.
If you have previous Spanish knowledge, you may start any Monday. If you are a beginning student, you may start your course on the first Monday of any month.

You can combine a Spanish course with our Volunteer in Latin America program at don Quijote-Guanajuato in Mexico, or at one of our partner schools throughout Latin America. Contact us for more information.

When you enroll you will have the opportunity to choose from available projects.

To ensure your Spanish is adequate for the work you will do for the charitable organization, the program requires that you first complete a 4 -week Intensive Spanish course.
The course assures the organization that you have the required language skills to interact efficiently in your new environment.

You can start the Intensive Spanish course portion of your program any Monday in Guanajuato. If you are a beginner in Spanish, contact us for course start dates in our partner schools.

There are 3 specific business courses available at don Quijote, all available in Barcelona and Madrid:
- Intensive Business Course
- Chamber of Commerce Certificate of Basic Business Spanish
- Chamber of Commerce Certificate of Superior Business Spanish

The two Chamber of Commerce courses are designed for students wishing to take the Basic or Superior Business Spanish exams of the Madrid Chamber of Commerce.

The Intensive Business Course is designed for students who already have an intermediate level of Spanish and wish to acquire a basic knowledge of business Spanish. The course runs for 4 weeks but you may enroll for only 1, 2 or 3 weeks of the program, if you prefer.

Another excellent alternative for students wishing to specialize in business Spanish is our Premium course, which allows you to combine a mini-group course (no more than 4 students per group, for maximum personal attention) with one-to-one classes with a business, marketing or specific industry focus.

The minimum level required to participate in the Intensive Business course or in the Chamber of Commerce Basic Certificate Course is intermediate Spanish (B1).
For the Superior Business Certificate Course, you should have an advanced level of Spanish (C1).

If you are a beginner in Spanish, we recommend you enroll in a long-term general Spanish course, Intensive, Super Intensive or Premium ,until you reach a level at which you are able to study business-specific content in One-To One classes or reach the B1 level (after approximately 11 weeks in an Intensive program) required for our group business courses.

Yes, don Quijote offers two courses related to Spanish for Tourism:
- Intensive Tourism
Available in the Granada school. The full course runs for 4 weeks, but if you are short of time you can participate during part of the course for 1, 2 or 3 weeks.
- Chamber of Commerce Basic Tourism Certificate
This course also takes place in Granada and lasts 4 weeks. This course will prepare you to take the Chamber of Commerce Spanish Exam for Tourism.

Yes! You can obtain university credits while doing your course at don Quijote.
We have agreements with a number of universities in the U.S., and, we are happy to supply our syllabi to your university, for review and approval of academic credits. Please see the Credits & Grants link from our main menu, or contact us for more information.

After completing the course you will receive a certificate for the whole course, if you have attended at least 85% of your classes. This will record: the course you have taken, duration, objectives and level of Spanish, special subjects, additional courses and number of hours. If attendance was less than 85%, the certificate will only record the actual number of hours attended. For students from the United States, we give the assessment results according to the American (A, B, C, D) grading system.

We all know that the word “expensive” is relative. We can say something is expensive or cheap
when we purchase identical products, with the same features, and which offer the same results. With a language course, it’s essential to know what you want to acheive, how you want to acheive it, and in how much time. When you decide all this, we recommend that you take a look to see if going cheap is going to meet all your expectations.
don Quijote delivers the performance you want. Why?


 Because our dQ schools are the elite of the Spanish education field. Recognized by the Cervantes Institue, for more than 23 years (since 1989) we’ve been teaching Spanish, and only Spanish, to students from around the world. That‘s 80 different nationalities and more than 8,000 students a year!
 Because our teachers are carefully selected from the best. All of them have university degrees and specialize in teaching Spanish as a foreign language (we even have a certain prestigious writer). But most importantly, they are passionate about what they do and it shows in their results!
 Because through years of experience, we have developed our own effective teaching system. The key to the success of our methodology is our adaptation to each student. You are important to us, and that’s why you will be in small sized groups: you choose between 8 or 3 students. Also, although we offer the 6 levels designated by the Common European Framework and the Cervantes Institute, our volume of students and our commitment to you allows us to organize each week as many sublevels as necessary to guarantee that you will be placed in a group where your classmates won’t know more or less than you.
 Because we offer the best study environment available, so you can enjoy learning Spanish to the fullest: well located schools in emblematic buildings completely renovated with modern spaces where you can relax with other students, all over 18 years old, or where you can work on your laptop with our wifi system. We also give you excellent didactic, cultural, and tourist advising. And you won’t have to worry about the details of your study material: it’s all included, no matter how many books you need.
 And because even if you choose a destination that doesn’t have a dQ school, there’s still no need to worry! We have personally picked that schools that most closely match our standard of quality. Put your trust in us, and you’ll be back every year!

Yes, we offer special long duration prices (over 12 weeks) on courses and accommodation. For details, see our Spanish for Life course, accessible from the Courses link on the main menu, or download a Price List from the Price List link on the same main menu.

Former students of don Quijote who return for another course do not have to pay the enrollment fee for the course, thus saving 95 Euros in Spain and $100 on courses in Mexico. Keep an eye on our Special Offers page, for returning students-only special deals, as well.

Yes, we offer special duration prices on courses (5 weeks or longer) and accommodation (in certain cities). The discount can be significant, depending on the length of the course. You can get up to a 15% discount on courses that are 20 weeks or longer if you sign up for them all at the same time. For details, download a Price List from the Price List link on the same main menu.

We like receiving your friends and we like you recommending us to them because you are happy to have studied with dQ. That’s why we want to show our appreciation: for each friend you recommend us to that ends up signing up with us, we will give you a check for 20 Euros that you can accumulate and use toward payment on courses that you take now or in the future.

Yes! For groups of 8 people or more. Contact groups@donquijote.org to find out what special offers you can receive.

To book your course we require a minimum down payment of 500 Euro for courses in Spain and $700 for courses in Latin America. The total cost of your stay must be paid at least two weeks before your arrival.
We recommend that you book your course at least one month before your arrival date, whenever possible, to assure we can accommodate your first choice of accommodation, and to allow you time to receive all the information you´ll need for your arrival in Spain or Latin America.

On this website you will find a Quick Quote feature with which you can calculate the total price for your course and accommodation at don Quijote schools, automatically and immediately.
You can download our complete price list in PDF format on the Price List page (linked from the main menu), as well, or request a personalized price quote from one of our course counsellors, through the Quick Quote or Contact Us pages.