Language schools abroad for 12 year old

[toothpicklover]

I tried to do a search but nothing really came up.

I would like to send my 12 year old to France to help him learn the language and am looking at summer next year for 2-3 weeks. Has anyone done this? How easy was it to get unaccompanied flights?

I never had this opportunity when growing up and I do not know of anyone that has done this either.

Any other information about pros/cons and useful info will be gratefully received.

I started learning as a teenager living in China at the time, which may be why I think it's easier than French. Saying that though, I still stand by it as it is nowhere near as inflected as European languages. The only advantage in the European languages for beginners are cognates. The vocabulary needed for simple conversations can be learnt very quickly.

Well it's not inflected at all now. It's not just about cognates though - French and German and Spanish are 'easy' for English speakers to pronounce. We have most of the sounds available to us. Chinese has a number of sounds that don't exist in English, although in the UK we are luckier as a few more are available to us than are to Americans.

Of course though if you're 12 then this is one of the best and easiest times to learn how to pronounce those sounds properly!

@busy77 that looks beautiful. Thank you.

You'll find that there are German children and so on who are learning French as as THIRD language. Most children learn English as their second language. Many of them will already speak English quite well and they may well use it with your DC.

Have a look at OISE. We host students for them and have hosted a few 12 years olds, although they are usually a bit older.
They have a great 2 week programme of lessons and social activities and the kids live with vetted families.

[quote toothpicklover]@Hoppinggreen he has really enjoyed learning Spanish at his primary school and has wanted to learn Chinese for the past 3-4 years but there are no classes in my area that I can get him to. His senior school only teaches French and German and although language schools might not be perfect, I feel they will help him with the language and will also be a great way to spend a few weeks of the summer holidays rather than being stuck on a screen while I'm out working. He wants to learn other languages.

To answer some of the other questions, exchanges are not really possible for me. I work full-time with long days and work extra early shifts at weekends sometimes. I simply do not have the time to have an exchange student.

I don't think him learning French is a waste of time when it will be one of his GCSE's. I don't think learning any language is a waste of time tbh and I wish I'd had the opportunity to do this. If language schools were a waste of money there would have all gone bankrupt years ago.

I have just looked at the CFI but it seems geared towards older students. There is not one near where I live anyway unfortunately.[/quote]
I am passionate about other languages. We are a multi lingual house and I have done some language teaching so please don’t think my reservations are about him learning another language
I just don’t think this is the best way to boost his learning , he might have a great time though.
The budget airlines won’t take him under 16 I don’t think though

@ClaudiaWankleman

I started learning as a teenager living in China at the time, which may be why I think it's easier than French. Saying that though, I still stand by it as it is nowhere near as inflected as European languages. The only advantage in the European languages for beginners are cognates. The vocabulary needed for simple conversations can be learnt very quickly.

Well it's not inflected at all now. It's not just about cognates though - French and German and Spanish are 'easy' for English speakers to pronounce. We have most of the sounds available to us. Chinese has a number of sounds that don't exist in English, although in the UK we are luckier as a few more are available to us than are to Americans.

Of course though if you're 12 then this is one of the best and easiest times to learn how to pronounce those sounds properly!

I might have used inflected incorrectly (usually a term used for languages with case systems, which German still does? Russian and Slavic languages certainly do).

I mean the different tenses, numerous verb forms etc. Which are plentiful indeed in French and Spanish.

Again, the lad can coast in French at school and will if he isn't interested in it, regardless whether he has extra tuition in the subject or not.

3-4 years is 25% of his life that he has shown a desire to learn Mandarin. I would think he'd enjoy the opportunity to learn this - italki has hourly lessons, no contract for around the £15 mark at a time to suit you.

The first language can make it so much easier to learn another, whether it's related or not. But it can be very easy to turn someone off language learning by forcing them to learn one they have no interest in.

@ClaudiaWankleman

I started learning as a teenager living in China at the time, which may be why I think it's easier than French. Saying that though, I still stand by it as it is nowhere near as inflected as European languages. The only advantage in the European languages for beginners are cognates. The vocabulary needed for simple conversations can be learnt very quickly.

Well it's not inflected at all now. It's not just about cognates though - French and German and Spanish are 'easy' for English speakers to pronounce. We have most of the sounds available to us. Chinese has a number of sounds that don't exist in English, although in the UK we are luckier as a few more are available to us than are to Americans.

Of course though if you're 12 then this is one of the best and easiest times to learn how to pronounce those sounds properly!

I think there's only 'ci' (like 'ts' in 'tsar) that we don't have. And maybe 'oo' like the German ü.

These are very quickly learnt, regardless of age.

I'm fanatic about language learning!

Just looked at the italki. It looks good and is very cheap!! I've signed him up for Spanish lessons as he wants to continue to learn Spanish but his new school doesn't teach it. They are way more expensive than italki.

If I wasn't studying for a MSc I'd be trying to learn via those too. Thank you.

@toothpicklover

Just looked at the italki. It looks good and is very cheap!! I've signed him up for Spanish lessons as he wants to continue to learn Spanish but his new school doesn't teach it. They are way more expensive than italki.

If I wasn't studying for a MSc I'd be trying to learn via those too. Thank you.

Italki is cheap because there are no overheads and the teachers don't need to have any qualifications. Make sure you find a teacher who actually does!

Spanish is the second most spoken EU Language I think. In fact it might even be the 2nd most spoken overall.
Good choice, he can build on his learning and it might actually help with his French

Some people on YT for inspiration:

Tim Doner aka polyglotpal
Xiaomanyc
Alex Rawling

Plenty more 'polyglots' - but those 3 have content online from when they were your son's age or a little older.

I found them to be incredibly inspirational as a 16 year old at the time.

¡Suerte!

Italki is cheap because there are no overheads and the teachers don't need to have any qualifications. Make sure you find a teacher who actually does!

True! But that means you can try different teachers at different price points. There are some fantastic teachers that aren't qualified to the same level as a British tutor/teacher would be.

There's no damage caused by learning from a teacher that does this as a passion project.

Spoken practice with a patient speaker is incredibly valuable, regardless of qualifications.

I work for a summer school in the UK to teach English to overseas students, and we take them from 10 upwards, so you should be able to find an equivalent abroad for a 12 year old. Most of our students are Chinese or Russian, so a lot further from home than UK to France!

DSis lives in France. DM lives in the UK.
My nephews could not fly unaccompanied on EasyJet until they were 16, and BA until they were 14.

Sounds brilliant to me, I wish I could afford it for my 13 and 15 year old. Immersion in the country is truly valuable in learning the language. Unaccompanied minors can fly, the stewardesses look after them. I flew to Switzerland unaccompanied when I was 12 to stay with a friend who had moved there.

I’ve sent DD1 to Germany each year for a week in a local summer camp since she was 6. it does wonders for her German.

It costs very little to send your child on a language exchange with a French child, to stay with their family, @bonbonours

@nothapppy, yes theoretically, if you can find someone to do the exchange with. I'm currently trying to organise the same with an old friend who lives in France. Our school exchange got cancelled (was due to be end of March 2020). Not sure it's that easy to find a private exchange with a random family?

It's extremely easy to organise a language exchange holiday. There's a shortage of English speaking families wanting to do exchanges, so you'll get plenty of offers. See the website Lingoo. My 2 DCs have done about 10 exchange stays between them, including some repeat stays.

I would really doubt 2-3 weeks per year would make a significant difference. My dc had a (native) French Skype tutor for two 30 minute classes a week and it made such a difference. Their accent became so good that their French teacher assumed they had a French parent.

I’m unable to do exchange holidays as I work long hours. I realise they would get better but it’s not something I can do.

Be not get!

A 3 week full immersion holiday makes a real difference. Obviously, you need to invite the French child when you yourselves are on holiday, or maybe, by agreement, when you can send the child to a nice Kids club with your own child.
Online lessons with a native French speaker are great too - why not do both?

Kids can do this at 6? 😳

6? But there are companies organising 6 month exchanges for primary age children. I think they recommend doing it when the child is 8 or 9. I wish my DC had done that, but it wasn't possible for us at the time.