Centro de Estudios de Español Pop Wuj

Traveller reviews for Centro de Estudios de Español Pop Wuj (1)

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  NOT for female travellers (especially not travelling alone!)

  vegetarianjelly -1 1 -1 does not recommend this, February 28, 2012

  Not a school for lone female travellers, and if you're a guy, you ought to think twice about supporting a school which employs sexual predators as teachers.

  Essentially, Pop-Wuj has a long-standing problem with one of the directors (the school has 5), who also teaches, sexually assaulting female students. When I was at the school, it was some kind of open secret which I discovered after two weeks there. All the girls would be treading on egg shells around this guy, and after a few too many inappropriate comments and leg squeezes, I decided to change teacher before anything more serious happened. At the time, I had a friend at the school who was deeply distraught after a sexual assault, who had been too embarrassed to say anything because she had been told 'she led him on'.

  This is a serious problem, as female travellers are already vulnerable and when you enrol in a language school, you're expecting to set up a safe base with a host family, friends and people at the school to look out for you. However, this specific teacher relies on the vulnerability of female travellers and their reluctance to want to cause any problems for their host family/ disrupt their friendships. In addition to this, the fact that people travelling constantly move on. I'm writing this review to warn people in advance, so hopefully nobody finds themselves in this position at that school.

  When I was first warned about this problem by another student who had previously had this teacher and told me that 'I was expressing behaviour which could lead him on', I knew something was wrong. I started talking to everyone and to my disgust, a guy who had been volunteering with the school's social projects for the past 4 months knew about the problem and hadn't said anything despite having had a female friend who had been assaulted; he was there on scholarship and didn't want to risk this opportunity. I was determined to break the weird silence around this issue before I left, to try and stop this happening again after I left.

  Before I left, a group of friends and I complained to the main director and this teacher was given two months' leave. It was argued that the 'indemnity costs were too high' and unless there was 'medical evidence' of a sexual assault (i.e. rape) then he would keep his job. This was a disgraceful response, and I still haven't been able to confirm the validity of this statement (not so hot on guatemalan employment law..) we agreed on a compromise that, after his leave, he would no longer be in contact with female students, and would no longer be in charge of allocating students to teachers (allowing him to partner himself with female students). I am sad to say that, three months later, someone in the area who I am still in touch with has informed me that nothing has changed.

  Pop-Wuj is a good school which runs great social projects and has a load of good teachers and activities going on. However, these aren't exclusive to this school, and can be found in other Spanish schools in Xela. When I first arrived there, I thought the school was great, but I soon became very disillusioned and uncomfortable. To me, the fact that this man continues to exploit his position and harm female students who are paying the school completely outweighs the benefits of the language tuition, and sadly the benefits to the local community. There are other community projects in Xela which do not take gringas' money and sexually assault them in return.

  I would suggest that students go elsewhere, Xela is a fantastic city, and there are other great Spanish schools. It's laughable that the school appears caring, with in-depth safety briefings and advice on where to go and not go to in the area, and on the whole it is. However, they fail to warn students that one of their greatest threats is within the school itself.

  If you do decide to go to Pop-Wuj, and you do encounter this same problem, please just don't be afraid to make noise and leave the school. It seems that a lot of people have been too passive about this, leaving others in danger.

  Good for: sexual harassment

  Not good for: Own safety and wellbeing

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