Every pack includes one bonus hour on top of the hours you buy, and the more hours you take, the lower the hourly rate — from $11 an hour on the Starter Pack down to $9.25 on Fluency Master. Enroll in our online course and you get eleven classes for the price of ten.

How our online classes work

Each class is live and one-to-one. There are no recordings to watch alone, no app gamifying your progress and no group where you wait your turn to speak: it is you and a teacher, talking, for the whole session.

The method is the one we have refined over more than ten years of teaching in person — grammar and conversation working together rather than in separate compartments — adapted to the screen. Your teacher adjusts to your professional needs and your learning style, which is exactly what a generic course cannot do.

Who learns with us online

Digital nomads who move too often to commit to a school. Expats already living in Mexico who need Spanish for daily life and not for an exam. Travelers warming up before a trip to Chiapas, and former students who came to San Cristóbal, went home, and did not want to lose what they had built.

What they have in common is that they want to speak, not to collect grammar rules. Our scheduling is designed for that kind of life: fast-moving, and rarely the same two weeks running.

The same school, through a screen

We are not an online platform that hired teachers. We are a school in the highlands of Chiapas, with a physical classroom five minutes from the centre of San Cristóbal de las Casas, teaching the same students who walk through our door every morning. When you take a class online, you get that school: the same teachers, the same warmth, the same insistence that you speak from day one.

And if you ever make it to Chiapas, the door is open. Many of our online students end up booking an in-person week with the teacher they already know.

Which platform, and at what time

We teach mainly on Zoom. We also work on Google Meet, and if you need a different platform we can usually adapt to it.

Our regular hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Mexico time, but online schedules are flexible. We already teach students across Europe and the United States, so we arrange the time around your time zone rather than ours — tell us when you can, and we will find a slot.

Online classes are booked by the hour, with roughly 50 to 55 minutes of actual class time.

Levels and ages

We cover every level of the Common European Framework, from A1 to C2. Whether you have never studied Spanish or you want to work on something as specific as literature, the programme is built around your goal.

Our students have ranged from children of eight to adults of ninety-nine. There is no profile you need to fit.

Booking and payment

A $100 USD deposit reserves your place. We accept several payment methods, including cards; card payments carry a processing fee.

We do not issue official certifications, but if you need proof of your studies we can provide an institutional letter of attendance from SanCris Spanish Language School.

Who is teaching you

SanCris Spanish Language School opened on 12 September 2016, and our director, Niko Pale, has been teaching Spanish since around 2009. The team is six permanent teachers plus associate teachers depending on demand — all native speakers, all trained in teaching Spanish as a foreign language, and all of them teaching in our classrooms in San Cristóbal as well as online.

Frequently asked questions