I retired recently after a long and enjoyable career as a professor of education. For the next phase of my life, I decided to focus on a new area for me – immigrant legal advocacy. Social justice has always been a part of my work, and law is something that has always interested me, so I was excited to embark on my new venture.

Spanish language proficiency is obviously extremely useful for anyone working in the immigrant advocacy in the United States, so when my husband suggested doing a Spanish language immersion program somewhere in the world, I jumped on it.

After a fair amount of online research, Maximo Nivel in Cusco came out the clear winner for us. So we hopped on a plane one Saturday evening in late September 2024 and landed in Cusco the next morning. The Maximo Nivel international office is open all weekend, so we took our placement test and settled into our apartment the Sunday we arrived, and began classes the next day.

My previous Spanish training had consisted of about a year of Duolingo, while my husband had audited a semester of college Spanish. Conveniently, we placed at the same level, Pre-Intermediate 1. We had 4 hours of class every weekday afternoon, leaving the mornings for studying and exploring the city.

The classes were great, for several reasons. First, they were very small, ranging in size from 2-4 students total. Second, the length of the classes meant that there was a lot of opportunity to practice each skill, and the teachers were very creative in finding different ways for us to apply and demonstrate what we were learning. Third, we loved the teachers. Our teacher during the first week was very kind, encouraging, and skilled, and we were disappointed when we found out that she was going on vacation. However, we were thrilled to discover that our next teacher was just as amazing!

In addition to enjoying our classes, we loved exploring Cusco and the surroundings. For meals we mostly shopped at local grocery stores and markets and prepared food in our apartment, but we also ate at a variety of fabulous restaurants. We appreciated that the apartment we rented through Maximo Nivel was not in the touristy part of Cusco and that we could walk to and from the school each day. On weekends we took tours to visit the amazing museums and ruins in and around Cusco. Our teachers also took us on some fabulous class field trips, including a long interesting walk to a café in a part of town that was completely new for us; on that trip we also visited a small art museum devoted to a local artist as well as a comic book library.

Upon returning to the U.S. opportunities for me to use my Spanish skills occurred frequently in the volunteer work that was doing with immigrants. However, I still had a long way to go, so I immediately began taking private Spanish lessons through Maximo Nivel’s online Spanish program. Every weekday morning for a year I had a very enjoyable lesson with a fabulous instructor. We spent the first 30 minutes in conversation, and the last 30 minutes working on grammar. If I had not had a change of schedule, I would still be doing Maximo Nivel online, and I hope to start online lessons again in the near future.

I am currently working on gaining practical experience in immigrant advocacy by sitting in on legal meetings with clients. Thanks to my Maximo Nivel training, I understand much of what is said even when meetings are conducted entirely in Spanish. I am also able to have to have basic informal conversations with Spanish-speaking clients.

I do have a couple of recommendations for other language learners. First, while it was lovely going to Cusco as a couple, living with an English-speaking partner did hinder our Spanish learning. If I do another immersion program, I will go alone and make sure that most or all of my days involve immersion in a Spanish speaking environment. Second, I have spent the past couple of years studying both French and Spanish. I have good reasons for working on both languages at the same time, but obviously I would have made twice as much progress in Spanish if I had been focusing only on that.

In closing, I love speaking Spanish. It enables me to connect with people in the U.S. who I otherwise would not be able to talk to, and from whom I learn so much. I am very grateful to Maximo Nivel because they have been an enjoyable, affordable, and effective means of attaining my language goals.

By Laurel Puchner
“After retiring from a long career as a professor of education, I set out to combine my lifelong interest in social justice with a new passion—immigrant legal advocacy. That journey led me to learn Spanish in Cusco, Peru, through Maximo Nivel’s immersion program.”