Marsha H.
Total waste of money
I signed up and paid in advance for one year of this program as a high-intermediate student--partially based on the Trust Pilot reviews. I deeply regret that and feel like I was snookered by a high pressure, one-hour sales call. The class material has many, many errors and teaches concepts that are very unorthodox and even incorrect. I have attended many programs--Instituto Cervantes, Pimsleur, and Spanish language schools in Argentina and Costa Rica. After one month of this program I was shocked at how poorly the training material--mainly Quizlet flash cards--convey important concepts--many times erroneously. The other schools I attended all had some form of accreditation and I felt confident that what I was being taught would lead me to speak, read, and write Spanish as an educated person. FCS teaches so many things that cannot be considered correct--34 verb tenses, beginning first person singular sentences always with "Yo", capitalizing names of the months and days of the week, etc. I have totally lost confidence that I can learn anything from this program and so am out the $2750 I paid for a one year program. There was no policy for refunds and when I twice requested this in writing, I was simply encouraged to try other classes. This has been a total waste of time and money for me, not to mention the disappointment of making a serious commitment to learning Spanish when this program is not for serious students.
Response from Fast Conversational SpanishMay 10, 2024
This is unfortunate that Marsha feels this way, but her statements are completely untrue, misleading, & misrepresentative of our our team & our program. Our program is built & edited by 7 native-speaking Spanish teachers with masters degrees in Spanish teaching from respected universities...even from the Cervantes Institute. We know Spanish. Marsha's 10+ years in these "better" schools did not get her real-world results. We do, with an unmatched 1 year guarantee. Our coaches have all tried to reach out to her many times before & after her post, with no response. Since she refuses to communicate & discuss her issues with us, I'm obliged to respond here. 1. We do not do "high pressure" sales. That's 100% untrue. We took time to answer all her questions, we showed her our program & she decided to join, knowing exactly what we do. This is recorded on video. There is never "pressure" to join. 2. Marsha is nowhere near a "high intermediate" student. She lacks self-awareness. Her 10+ years in these "better schools" did not work. Before starting our FCS program, she didnt know basic pronunciation, had poor listening ability, very few verbs & verb tenses, & poor grammar. She joined FCS because we showed her exactly what she needed, that other schools either hadn't taught her at all, or well enough. This is all documented. 3. Marsha didn't do the work, or follow instructions. She only came to 6 classes in 3 months. And not the right classes. We have daily conversation classes with native teachers. She should have gone at least 1x week. She didnt. She didn't put in an honest effort, didn't do what we asked, & didn't respond to our coaches who tried to help her. This is all documented. We can't help someone who doesn't follow instructions or communicate. 5. She chose to pay upfront to get a discount, without a refund. The contract is recorded on video. She demanded a refund without doing the work she agreed to do. I compromised, by asking her to do the work for 1 month, then we'd discuss her progress & potential refunds. She never responded. 6. Our program does not have errors, nor "incorrect concepts", other than rare typos. Her so-called "errors" include the following: - "Yo quiero tacos", vs. "Quiero tacos". She thinks "Yo" is not correct. She's wrong. Both are correct. -The capitalization of words like "Marzo", were simple typos, which we immediately fixed. We have 100,000 flashcards & 100s of worksheet. A few typos will occur. Our teachers know their own language. Regardless, these typos have no consequence on her speaking Spanish, unless she plans on writing a book. -The 34 verb tenses (and moods) are correct. Her complaint is we didn't call certain tenses, "moods". We explain the difference between "moods" & "tenses" in our fluent course. For beginners, such "academic" grammar concepts are confusing and often not helpful for students in the real world. We keep things practical on purpose for our conversational students. SUMMARY In our perspective, Marsha hasn't acted with integrity in regards to our coaches or our program, & her words disrespect the work & effort our coaches have put in to helping her achieve her goal. We've tried to be as supportive & helpful to her as possible, & go the extra mile, but she refuses to listen or communicate. Her 10+ years trying with other schools without success shows she is probably doing the wrong things. It's unfortunate because we know Marsha would succeed this year, if she followed our instructions. We've helped students who started with much less Spanish than her, achieve what she is trying to achieve. Our coaches are dedicated to helping all of our students, everyday, with 24/7 support, unlimited classes, personal accountability coaches, & a results guarantee or 1 year free. No one gives more effort than we do, & we are committed 100% to their success. My invitation to Marsha remains open, if she wants to discuss this together, or try again.