The campus is conveniently located in a quiet residential suburb just off a main bus route and within easy walking distance from bustling downtown San José. The University of Costa Rica is just half a mile away and there are restaurants, stores, theaters, and malls in the surrounding area. With a dynamic approach to teaching Spanish through constant conversation practice is made possible by the high level of its teaching staff. Teachers have university degrees and are selected on the basis of their teaching experience and alert, active personalities.

Over the past 25 years, students have come from all over the world to study the NRCSA Center in San Jose, principally from North America and Europe. They are college students, teachers, business people, missionaries, military personnel, and diplomats among others. The participants arrive with different language backgrounds and expectations: some have no experience with Spanish at all; others have studied formally but have limited conversational skills while still others are fluent but want to improve their interaction with native speakers. Students may receive and send faxes from the school, with incoming faxes being free of charge, and e-mail accounts are available.

San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, is home to several excellent museums and many of the country's best hotels, restaurants, and nightlife options. The city's other great assets are its location and mild climate as San José enjoys pleasant weather year round and stands in a broad fertile bowl ringed by jagged mountains, some of which are active volcanoes. Downtown, the grid-plan streets are lined with an pastiche of mirrored high-rises and elegant bungalows; in the affluent suburbs at the eastern and western ends of the city, middle-class Ticos (as Costa Ricans call themselves) tend their tidy gardens, while sprawling barrios stretch to the north and south.