Fluent City

I completed my first Fluent City course, Spanish 6, with Andrés. It was a fantastic experience and he was an excellent instructor who cared that I was making the best use of my time and I had a great time interacting with him and the material. He was willing to engage all forms of discussion on grammar and culture and brought in materials specifically to match our interest from week to week.

I took the twice-​weekly French 1 and French 3 classes and had an awesome time. The teacher (Sam) was excellent; the vibe is casual but pushes you to take the lessons seriously; maybe best of all, the students come from all walks of life and make a very interesting room of people to talk to! Learning a new language here (or brushing up on an old one) is a great use of your time.

If you are even considering taking classes at Fluent City, this is my reply, «YES! DO IT!» I had an incredible experience taking French Level 1. It’s very scary to me to take a foreign language and Sam Maher and Fluent City made it such a comfortable experience. My teach Sam Maher, was absolutely incredible. He made the class setting inviting, comfortable, relaxed, fun, and most of all had a ton of patience and enthusiasm for teaching the language. Also, he has a lot of experience in France so he was completely up to date with modern day word choices, changes, etc. I am able to speak French at a nice, basic level and can understand pretty decently. The amount that I learned in the short period of time amazes me. This location is so easy to get to. Right off the Graham ave L train stop in Williamsburg. I will definitely go back to Fluent City and I hope to have Sam as my teacher again. Although, judging from the vibes of the place, smiles on people’s faces I bet everyone who teaches there is fantastic. But… get Sam for French if you can ;)

I just finished French Level 2 and am happily continuing on to Level 3 with the encouragement of Sam, my teacher. So many good things to say about his style, but the best thing that he does is he allows the students to wander down their own path of trying to figure out what to say — even if they don’t have the vocabulary. Sam creates an environment where there is no fear of making mistakes — he is a gentle guide and makes learning entertaining and painless.
Textbooks are used as a supplement and English is rarely used. He stresses the importance of knowing verbs/​vocabulary that one will actually use vs random words that show up in textbooks.
I’ve previously taken two levels of Spanish and the method of teaching was very similar — allowing students to discover rather than forcing them through rote exercise.
Now on to Portuguese…

I studied Spanish 1 with Dylan. He was an excellent teacher, even with a group of students with varied abilities. I am now studying Spanish 2 with Victor. He is the best! He is fun and energetic. He always has great exercises to do. The class is challenging enough to keep me on my toes, but I am having too much fun to be intimidated. I recommend this program highly. It beats using language tapes hands down. You get to have real conversations with real people. What could be better?

I’ve taken German 1 and Portuguese 2 here, and both were really enjoyable. Both of my teachers (forget who taught my German as it was a year ago, Gabriel for Portuguese) made the class a lot of fun.
The classes are pretty low stress and usually meet once a week, though I think they have some weekend intensives now. I typically had about 30 mins of homework per week.
If you have some spare cash, I’d recommend this as a pretty worthwhile way to spend it!

This place is amazing! My wife and I started taking Italian classes at Fluent City when we were still just fiancées planning a honeymoon in Italy together. Fluent City sells itself as though taking their classes is like hanging out with a cool new friend who happens to be really good at teaching. That’s been our exact experience. We’re well past our honeymoon now, but we’ve continued taking Italian here. We’ve learned so much, and we can’t wait to go back to Italy and try out some of our newest tricks.
Fluent City also has great customer service, resolving problems attentively. One drawback is that the classroom space in the Williamsburg location is a bit spartan, and at times slightly uncomfortable. But we’re going to learn a language and have fun doing it, and this place totally delivers.

We’re having *THE BEST TIME* learning Italian at Fluent City. Cornelius and Luca are both super duper awesome teachers that have made it so much fun. It really is the highlight of my week.
My fiancé and I started taking Italian classes before our honeymoon. We thought it would be a much more personal and enriching experience if we could speak some Italian while we toured the country. That turned out to be entirely true; it was magical. Everywhere we tried to speak with the locals, they were astounded that we were learning their language and could communicate fairly well with them. We were always met with pleasantly surprised gasps (I guess most Americans don’t really make the effort). But anyway, I digress…
We had so much fun learning Italian before the honeymoon that we stuck with it and have continued ever since. The honeymoon happened during Italian Level 2; we’re now in Italian Level 4, where two hours go by without a word of English spoken. I’m really amazed at how much I’m able to say at this point.
Fluent City’s whole brand is about learning a language with fellow adults after work in a really chill, laid back, fun environment where it feels like the teacher is one of your buddies. Some days the class would share ‘vino’, or tomato & mozzarella on italian bread as we conversed with each other. Other days, the teacher brings in his guitar and plays an Italian pop song for us. Or we watch an Italian comedy video. Every class includes playing games with our classmates. It’s always very interactive and never gets boring.
The only reason I’m not giving Fluent City 5 stars is because the Williamsburg building is kinda crappy. Some classrooms have loud vents that are annoying and distracting. Sometimes the AC doesn’t work. the chairs are flimsy and uncomfortable. (I’ve heard the midtown-​Manhattan location is fancier). In any case, we’re having such a blast and we adore our teacher. I’m so glad we’ve been able to continue classes at Fluent City. Mi piace molto!

I just finished up Japanese Level 1 and Sarah, the instructor is fantastic. Very knowledgeable, patient, enthusiastic, and just an all around great instructor.
I’m a big fan of Fluent City in general. Signing up was easy, the prices are well worth the value you get, and they are very responsive to all emails.
Although I do not intend to take Japanese Level 2, I’m planning on starting Spanish with Fluent City later this year.
Highly recommended school!

After wandering around lost in a museum while on vacation in France, I asked a security guard to please tell me how to get out. He responded (in perfect English), «I’m sorry, but I don’t speak English. I speak French and Spanish, but the exit is probably around there.» (Show-​off!) This solidified my decision to eventually learn French.
My quest for a reasonably priced class led me to Fluent City. The price is right for $ 325 for a 20-​hour semester at the Williamsburg location, which is very close to the L and G trains.
This is a small place with small class sizes; there are only four students in my French I class. The instructor distributed a 27-​page pamphlet, which serves as the textbook, but students can buy a supplemental verb-​conjugation book. I get the feeling that I will need to study a bit outside of class if I want to get the most out of the experience.
I was pleasantly surprised that time passed pretty quickly in the two-​hour, once-​a-​week class and I’m going to try and review class materials on the train ride home.
Foux du Fafa. See, I just started but I’m already learning!
So far so good. My only negative is that they very strongly suggest «donations» for the Keurig coffee. I’ll be all too happy if that’s my only gripe.

So I’m running on my second class on Fluent City so… I might be a little biased. I had (and have!) a great Arabic class — definitely its as much about what you put into it but I find the in class instruction extremely useful. I’m not just learning, I’m retaining– which is kind of incredible.
Yes, not everyone who starts off in the class stays but thats just New York City attrition rates. You should go for it!

I have partecipated to Level 3 spanish and I enjoyed it a lot.
The teacher Valeria was great, I learned a lot and didn’t miss a class!
I look forward to Level 4
This is a kind of course which helps you feel comfortable with the language, it’s not based on tests and exams like a school, it’s a more casual way of learning
Very close to L line Graham subway station, but also to G line Metropolitan Ave which makes you walk just a few minutes more.

I love Fluent City! I first heard of their workshops from How About We. My husband and I signed up for the Dirty French workshop. There were no other students, so the instructor, Ben, really catered to us. Recently, we’ve signed our family up for French lessons. Camille is our instructor and I love how she presents the material to everyone’s level, since our family’s knowledge of French varies. Our kids are ages 10, 14, 16, and 21 and they all enjoy the class.
After our first class, we were able to start formulating sentences. If you’re on the fence about taking a class, then definitely try a workshop.

I couldn’t be any happier with my experience at Fluent City. I began at level one and have continued, with a few stops and starts, through level four. The instructors are attentive, patient and very enthusiastic. The class sizes are small and the atmosphere in the classroom is great. I feel like I’m making excellent progress and they’re always adding new classes. Oh, and the price is right too. Bonus points for being less than 10 minutes away from my apartment.
If you’re thinking about learning french or just looking for a way to sharpen up your mind, I’d definitely recommend looking into taking a class here!

One of my friends enrolled and we all got jealous of her, and now a bunch of us are learning a million languages we love FC so much. I’ve just been in class 4 weeks (Spanish 1) myself and I’m already impressing my spanish speaking coworkers and also just random people! Fluent City makes you brave! The teachers are great — like ‘cool teacher in high school who also prepared you for college’ level great. My teacher is super fun, super helpful and just the right amount of goofy to put everyone at ease. Also, Fluent City seems to have nailed down the essentials to really get you off on the right language foot. It’s practical. You’re not doing drills and forced into group exercises where you’re talking about nonsense vocab that you’ll never use. Uh uh. This stuff is USEFUL!
I also like that they have cool extra classes (slang! wine tasting! catch ups if you want to skip a level), and they really run it like a great community, not a cold, boring school. It just feels like human beings run it. It doesn’t have that institutional, post-​office vibe that some community college classes do.
Also, I’m seeing some folks knock FC for not being t“he proper way to learn a language”…um. I know some really great speakers who learned language from soap operas. So what! I’ve taken language classes in all sorts of formats — from immersion with a family, to every single day for a semester, to once a week, to teach-​yourself-​from-​a-​cd, to teaching other people languages — and because of that experience I feel really familiar with what is a GOOD way to get your money’s worth — and based on that experience, Fluent City IS the BEST way to get your money’s worth for the time you spend in class. I like to be in a class where it seems like you get what you give, and that’s definitely what FluentCity is.
Why are you still here? Go take a class!
UPDATE: with my fluent city skills I went to spain over the summer, was whisked off my be-​sandaled feet by a tall Andalusian, and we had a lil’ bit of a whirlwind romance for a few days — ALL IN SPANISH! (He spoke ZERO english). So, yeah, that never would’ve happened w/​o Fluent City. Good job, guys!

As a language major, I love hearing French in one class, Spanish in another and Italian in yet another room. Enjoying my Russian class…

I found Fluent City through the deals they regularly post on Living Social, if you’re listening Fluent City, make some of these available for current students PLEASE! I’ve found them to be the most affordable option for language lessons in the city, with one of the better class formats and instructors. I take Mandarin here, which is harder to find than say Spanish, so of the few places that offer this language I can definitely say that Fluent City is the best.
Classes are fairly small, but I’m sure this depends on the language you take. I think they max out around 20 – 25, so even if you’re taking a popular class you won’t get lost in the room. The instructors are mostly younger, and not only knowledgeable but have a good rapport with their students. My one huge gripe about this place is that they don’t provide any practice materials. The claim is that by not using their instructors’ time on things like grading or checking over practice materials/​homework, they can keep their prices lower. In my opinion, its really difficult to find the drive to practice when you’re given no direction, let alone held accountable. They do have «study halls», but like everything, there is a fee to attend. They also don’t seem to ever have any for the less popular languages, like Mandarin.

I took French 3 at Williamsburg Fluent City in January /​February 2012.
I’d initially signed up for Level 2, but a phone placement call prior to class put me in Level 3. I was apprehensive, but it was a good move.
The class was organized, yet casual. Very small class (only seven students) allowed for a lot of attention.
Could say many positives about the school and the teacher (Ross), but I think the fact that I just enrolled in their Level 4 class pretty much says it all.

I took Portuguese classes at Fluent City Williamsburg a few years ago, when they first opened. I tried out the Portuguese 1 Class, thanks to a livingsocial deal, which made the experience a really cost effective way to check out this language school. I doubt they even make money on this deal, but it encouraged me to try a new language and I even booked another class afterwards at full price.
The facility is really cute, although the classrooms were a little sparse when I attended. I’m sure by now they’ve added décor and other homey touches to make it as welcoming as their staff and language teachers. During my time there, the classes were held in another room as they rotated between the different class rooms marked by various languages. Each room had its own personality. Overall, the facility is clean and offers everything you need to learn in a nurturing environment with like-​minded people.
My teacher, Erica, was absolutely fantastic! She, like me, learned Portuguese as an adult, so she understood the challenges and the best ways to overcome learning a new language, especially one as difficult as Portuguese. And yes, Portuguese is a very difficult language to learn. The class size was perfect, with no more than 8 during the time I took the classes. After a few sessions, this dropped down to 6 and on any given time depending on peoples schedules there might only be 3 people in a class. This is practically one-​on-​one tutoring! All the students in my classes were on the young side (under 30) and enthusiastic about learning the language. It was a diverse group of people, but everyone was welcoming and fun to speak with.
Overall, Fluent City is a great place to learn a language. I keep abreast of their new offerings through their newsletters, which offer discounts as well as outside classroom experiences such as happy hours and film night.
If you’re looking to learn a new language, I highly recommend this language school.

We started out taking a «bridge» class with Deborah and loved it. She was clear and creative in her explanations; also super friendly with a great energy and sense of humor.
Then we signed up for small group (3 people) semi-​private lessons. Very flexible in the planning– both the teacher and fluent city really made it work for us.
Definitely recommend fluent city!