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Skype user: The following are FREE extra activities at our Spanish school: Latin Dancing Lessons, Conversational Sessions, Movie Nights and some Get-Togethers. Our weekly Traditional Panamanian Dinners cost $5 per person and the Eco-Adventure Tours have their own fees and students pay their expenses when they decide to go to a bar, restaurant, poker night, field trip, excursion, etc.
Traditional Panamanian Dinners on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m.
Have you ever wondered how some traditional Panamanian dishes like "Sancocho", "Patacones", "Arroz con Pollo" or "Tamales" are made? Or would you just like to learn how to make some yummy traditional Panamanian dishes?
Well, why not put those culinary curiosities to the test by participating in our Traditional Panamanian Dinners! You'll not only learn how to make these yummy dishes first hand and take back home a couple of delicious recipes but we also guarantee a night full of laughter, sharing and loads of fun as you interact with your Spanish teachers, our host families, friends and your fellow classmates from all around the world.
And once in a while a change is nice... so when there's a great cook in town, be it one of our Spanish students or just a friend visiting us from Panama City, we organize a International Dinner Parties! In the past we've had Sushi, Tai, Indian, Italian and Middle East Dinner Nights... so if you're a great chef and you're heading our way, just let us know!
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Every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. we get together at some host family's house or sometimes we even get a Boquete restaurant to lend us their kitchen. Everybody puts $5 to buy the ingredients and those who are skilled cooks take charge. We assure you'll be up for seconds 'till your belly is filled. So, come and experience a relaxing night filled with good food and laughter after a day of arduous studies. Everyone is invited!
Eco-Tours and Adventure Excursions in Boquete
- Hiking & trekking the famous Quetzals Trail Path, the Baru Volcano Midnight Camp or secret trails without guides.
- Zip Line Canopy Tour in Palo Alto's cloud rainforest.
- White Water River Rafting in Chiriqui's first class rivers.
- Rock Climbing & Rappelling at Los Ladrillos in Bajo Mono.
- Coffee Tours in Alto Quiel, Jaramillo and Palmira's coffee plantations and processing mills.
- Horseback Riding in the valleys of Caldera.
- Indigenous Villages Tour.
- Caldera Hotsprings & Petroglyphs.
- ATV 4 Wheeling Tours & Mountain Biking.
- Scuba Diving, Snorkeling and Surfing Trips at the beaches in Panama's Pacific and Caribbean coast near Boquete (Las Lajas, Boca Chica, La Barqueta, San Lorenzo, Punta Burica, Santa Catalina in the Golf of Chiriqui or the islands of Bocas del Toro)
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Our students get discounts for many ecotourism and adventure activities in Boquete and Chiriqui. Boquete is Panama's Ecotourism capital: you will be studying Spanish in paradise and there will always be a new adventure waiting for you.
Movie Nights every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
Watching movies is an incredible way to practice Spanish. Try it out! You do not have anything to loose and at least you will enjoy yourself because we only select movies that are pure art and that by themselves are extremely entertaining. Depending on the student's Spanish level we sometimes we watch movies in Spanish with English subtitles and sometimes we watch movies in Spanish with Spanish subtitles.
Watching a movie will help you gain more vocabulary. By listening to other accents you will become more familiar with them and your listening abilities will also improve. Listening to slangs within a movie will help you understand them as they will be placed in a specific context. Some of the movies that we watch are: Amores Perros, Habana Blues, El Mariachi, Romero, Bajo La Misma Luna, Pretendiendo, Volver, Maria llena eres de Gracia, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Como Agua para Chocolate and many others.
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Every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. we invite all our students to watch a movie within our TV & Chill out area. If you are a cinema fan, you will also enjoy the discussion after the movie. You will be able to practice your speaking abilities and how to use the language to defend a point of view, although if you do not have that much of a domain over the language, you will be allowed to express yourself in you own language (and hopefully we will be able to understand you).
Charity Quizzes & Theme Parties at Zanzibar
Every Thursday at 8 p.m. we meet at Zanzibar, Boquete's hottest bar, to participate in our weekly Charity Quiz. The concept is quite simple but its lots of fun: every participant gives a minimum donation of $1 (but there is no limit), and plays for a team of 5 or 6 people. The questions for each weekly Charity Quiz are created by the volunteers from the different projects of Boquete and they do a great job of making them immensely entertaining and interesting. Plenty of topics are covered such as music, films, history, geography, science, general knowldege, etc. These nights are always very competitive and fun, and the best part is that the collected donations go to one of the local Charities in Boquete: the winning team decides which organization receives the donations, and also gets free drinks!
After the charity quiz, we celebrate all together and dance to different types of music each week... and party hard! To make it even more entertaining, Zanzibar organizes different theme parties every week after the charity quiz and people get into character! Some of the most memorable theme parties in recent history have been the black and white party, the R&B party, the sexy hat party, a house music party and the funky tie party... just to mention a few. Students' and volunteers' ideas for music and themes are taken into account so don't hesitate to share your thoughts and suggestions with us!
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Thursday nights are a blast, not only because you get to socialize with fellow students, volunteers and staff members from Habla Ya, but also because you actually learn something, have a great time and more importantly you support a local cause! It's a great way to make the difference, even if you don't have the time to volunteer in Boquete!
Get-Togethers: parties, meals out, sporting events and more
What do we do each weekend? Simple: we GET-TOGETHER! If you were studying abroad, what would you like to do during your weekends?
- Enjoy the nightlife: go out to Boquete's restaurants and bars
- Go on a hike or any type of excursion together (Boquete is Panama's ecotourism capital)
- Party at somebody's house or go to a festival on an open field
- Play poker
- Drink some wine
- Play some soccer or ultimate frisbee, and than have a couple of beers
- Watch a soccer game
- Go swimming to the river
- Go out dancing
- Hit the beach: we are only one hour from beaches in the Pacific and three from the Caribbean
- Give some of my time to help others and volunteer
How do we know what you would like to do? Simple: we are just like you! We love to enjoy life because we only have one life to live!
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The average age of our Spanish staff is 31 and the most senior member of our staff is only 36 years (the youngest is 22). At Habla Ya Language Center you will be sure to find a place full of young but experienced professionals who know how to enjoy themselves and have fun.
Latin Dance classes - Salsa & Merengue Lessons
The idea is to show you the basic steps involved in dancing Salsa and Merengue. Once you get your feet moving as they should, we help you out with your hips and the rest of your body. At the beginning it can be a bit difficult but it is nice to share a few laughs and get our bodies moving.
It is a really fun way to get to know your teachers and classmates in a different way and if you plan to go clubbing during the weekend you should definitively consider learning some moves if you are the average foreigner who has never danced to the Latin rhythm before.
One of our first Academic Directors, Irma Changmarín, had a Salsa & Merengue Dancing School and that is how the tradition of Latin Dancing lessons began at Habla Ya. Classes are held every week on Saturdays at 9:00 a.m.
We cannot guaranteethat you will be able to move your body as smoothly as Erica or Janeth (two of our Spanish teachers that really know how to move it!) but we will make sure that you are not mistaken for a typical gringo that does not have an idea about how to dance latin music.
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The dancing lessons on Saturdays are free of charge for our language students. If you would like to have additional Salsa or Merengue lessons they can also be arranged at an extra cost. Additional dancing lessons for groups of up to 10 students cost $3 per person per hour. If you would prefer to have private lessons (3 persons or less), then the cost is $10 per hour. Classes given at a different location from our school but within Boquete cost $5 per hour for group lessons (4 persons or more) and $15 per hour for private lessons (1 to 3 persons). For non students the prices are $5, $15, $7.50 and $20 per hour respectively.
Conversational Sessions at Habla Ya Language Center
Our teachers will tell you to practice, practice and practice, and that is exactly what you will be able to do in our conversational sessions. Each Saturday at 11:00 a.m. we invite all our students to get together and simply talk. We make small groups of 4 to 6 people with a local speaker in each one of them and start talking about our Spanish lessons, sharing learning tips, telling each other what we have done in Boquete and what we plan to do for the rest of our vacation or we just talk about anything that we feel like talking about.
Even if there is no reason to be shy when speaking the language that we are just starting to learn, the truth is that many people are shy and we have to help our students loose that shyness as soon as possible because it does make a huge difference if you feel confident and comfortable when speaking Spanish. Sometimes we are shy when it comes to talking, we are afraid of making mistakes, so the best way to beat that feeling without getting uncomfortable is to get together with people who feel the same, and that also want to practice, and that will probably be making the same mistakes.
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Learning Spanish is an incredible fulfilling experience because it opens doors to so many new worlds. We believe that the most wonderful world it opens doors to is the world inside each Spanish speaker and this is why we place so much emphasize in the speaking ability in most of our Spanish courses.
Panama Road Trips: lets discover and explore our fascinating country!
There are so many different amazing places in Panama... so to help our students travel around our fascinating country we organize group trips once or twice a month to different parts of our country.
Some of the places that we have recently visited are:
- Isla San José & Isla Palenque in the Chiriqui Gulf
- Santa Fé de Veraguas
- Pedasí and the Azuero Península
- Isla Paridita in the Chiriqui Gulf
- Las Lajas Beach
- Bocas del Toro
Come and join us: we love touring Panama as much as you do!
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If there is a place that you would particularly like to visit during your trip to Panama feel free to ask us about it: we have probably been to it several times!
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