Boise language school to offer classes from Basque to Mandarin for children, adults
Boiseans who dream of strolling around Paris speaking perfect French or heading to Epi’s Restaurant to order in Basque may soon be in luck.
Two young locals are preparing to open a language academy for children and adults.
Justin Snyder and Borja Aguilera Obaldia hope to open Suntree Language Academy at 1423 S. Tyrell Lane in Boise by late spring or early summer. The building is off Parkcenter Boulevard, behind Sage International School.
Snyder said knowing multiple languages can create work opportunities and enrich travel experiences. He also hopes people will want to learn language just to communicate with those in their own community.
“As more and more people move to Boise, we’re seeing a lot more languages and cultures represented than ever before,” Snyder said. “So even if you’re just hoping to stay at home and learn something new, it can be a really enriching sort of experience.”
Snyder and Obaldia are hoping to enroll 60 to 80 students and employ 12 to 18 teachers.
Suntree Language Academy’s largest number of classes will be in Spanish, French and Basque. They are hoping to add English as a second language, American sign language, Mandarin, Arabic and German.
Snyder, 32, is the founder and director of Le Soleil Daycare and Preschool. Le Soleil has French child care programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
The program is so popular that it has a lottery system for those looking to enroll. Snyder said many Le Soleil parents wished for way for to continue their children’s French education after kindergarten.
Obaldia, 28, grew up in Bilbao, Spain speaking Basque. With a master’s degree in education, he wanted to offer Boise children the same opportunity he had to learn multiple languages at a young age.
The pair, who met while working at Boise State University, decided to combine their interests to open a language academy.
“He was teaching French and I was working on behalf of the Basque government to create teaching materials in the Basque language,” Obaldia said.
They will have kindergarten through sixth grade after-school programs. Part child care, part language learning, the program will transport children to Suntree Language Academy, where they will participate in immersion learning from 3 to 6 p.m. There will be half-day programs for kindergarten through second grade, and summer camps for students from third to 12th grades.
“Becoming proficiently bilingual gives young children especially a lot of cognitive benefits that you don’t necessarily associate right off the bat with language,” Snyder said. “Things like higher-level functioning of your brain for testing better in math and science and all across the board. (They) can actually outperform their counterparts that only speak one language in a lot of different areas.”
In the evenings, language classes will be available for all ages, from middle and high school students wanting to go beyond their regular classes to adults looking to pick up a new skill.
Tuition will range from $60 to $130 per week for after-school programs. All-ages tuition will be between $150 to $275 per month, depending on how frequently students want to attend classes.
