✺ Jobs and pay
Why does English pay?
It is the skill that most quickly separates two people in the same job. The data on who visits the country, how much English there is in Samaná and what learning it is worth.
Who is on the other side of the counter
Start with the customers. Of the international visitors the Dominican Republic received in 2024, 39% came from the United States and 14% from Canada. More than half, from two countries where English is spoken.
A receptionist, a waiter or a guide in Las Terrenas talks to them every day. Whoever can do it in their language sells more, solves more and gets promoted sooner. Whoever cannot depends on a colleague who can.
Source: WTTC, Economic Impact Research — Dominican Republic, 2025.
How much English there is in Samaná
Little, and less than in the capital. The 2025 EF English Proficiency Index places the Dominican Republic 63rd of 123 countries, at a "moderate" level. But the national average hides a huge regional gap.
525 points: Ozama
- Santo Domingo and its surroundings. The region with the most English in the country.
511 points: Cibao Norte
- Santiago and its surroundings.
470 points: Cibao Nordeste
- The region of Samaná and Las Terrenas. 55 points below the capital, and below the world average of 488.
415 points: El Valle
- The region with the least English in the country.
Translated to Las Terrenas: hotels welcome English-speaking guests in one of the regions with the least English in the country. That distance between what the customer speaks and what the staff speak is exactly the gap a bilingual young person from the town can fill.
Source: EF Education First, EF English Proficiency Index 2025.
What learning it is worth
The international evidence is consistent. In Mexico, someone who speaks English earns on average 28% more than someone who does not. In India, men who speak it fluently earn 34% more per hour, a return as large as finishing secondary school.
And there is a Dominican figure. The Ministry of Higher Education's English Immersion programme trains young people for 830 hours. An evaluation of its graduates between 2017 and 2022, awarded a prize in the Central Bank's economics competition, found that they obtain salary increases of up to 15% compared with people of a similar profile, that the labour market absorbs 67% of them, and that those who work in the private sector do so mostly in call centres and hotels.
Source: Inter-American Dialogue, English Language Learning in Latin America, 2017; Cardoza Espinoza, impact evaluation of the English Immersion Programme, 2024.
Eight hundred and thirty hours is more than fits in twelve weeks. That is why we do not promise fluency. We promise something else.
What we teach, and what we do not
We do not teach general English. We teach the English of your trade, from the first week, in all three specialisations.
Food and beverage
- Culinary English: technical kitchen and bar vocabulary, communicating with the tourist at the table. In the work-study phase, advanced English for tourism.
Hospitality
- Hotel English: standard front-desk and housekeeping phrases, technical vocabulary. Later, advanced English for hospitality.
Local tourism
- Specialised tourism English: narrating a route, explaining the wildlife, selling a product. Later, advanced English for tourism.
The difference from a language course is where it is practised. From week five you spend three days a week in a company with real customers, and at Sienna there are international guests in the eco-lodge and in the restaurant. The English you learn on Tuesday you use on Thursday.
What those who have been through it say
I work at the front desk of Casa Colonial. Every day I practise English with guests from Europe and the United States.
Luis, 22, class of 2024. That English is his, and it goes with him to whatever job comes next.
Where to start
We do not ask for English to get in. None. We ask that you are between 18 and 22, live in Las Terrenas and commit to twelve weeks. English is part of what you take away, not what you bring.