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

@Bizjustgotreal There's quite a few! The pinyin sounds r, h, c, j, q, x, zh, v/ü and z don't occur in most varieties of English , and t, k, g etc. are plosive sounds in standard Chinese, which they aren't usually in English.

Hey @toothpicklover I started doing this from age 12 and was fluent by 16. I loved it. The first one was scary but from then on it was fine. I flew unaccompanied but there was someone to meet me on the other side. My parents arranged a private exchange where I was in the house of a girl my age and then she came to mine. I also went to a couple of language schools in France and they were good too but I learned more slowly than in the total immersion family environment.

I went on the school trips and they were awful for language acquisition although good fun. The English kids stuck together speaking english and the French kids did the same!

I taught English in UK camps and kids come from age 8 onwards so it’s odd to read people thinking 12 is too young!

They were easy enough vfor this Yorkshire anglophone to pick up at 14. I don't think they are that difficult - but I'll admit to the curse of knowledge here

I’d wait a bit and see if the government offers COVID vaccines for under 16s. After 30th august children over 12 need to show proof of vaccination to enter any french indoor spaces (restaurants, theatres, tourist attractions etc).
They can go on Eurostar from the age of 12.

I did a French exchange with a family from age 13, benefitted hugely from 2-3 weeks at a time, if your son likes languages he will learn so much and his french will take giant leaps and bounds at that age. Mine was in the 80s, so no useful tips on how to organise it, but I was shy and the absolutely blossomed, and staying with a family and not hearing English was a perfect immersion experience

Good to hear the positive stories @PersephoneJames and @Shirtyllama, glad you found them helpful. Once he gets to about 14 I will have him do the homestays but I cannot do exchanges due to long working hours.

@MrsSkylerWhite my SIL used to have students she had one age 6 and one age 8 for about 6 weeks from China, they'd previously been at a different families house but were very distressed by it and didn't like the family so the company moved them to my SIL. SIL said they cried every night, they also had 2 older sisters but they had to split them up and in total I think they were in the UK for just over 2 months.

Today 18:50 toothpicklover

@MrsSkylerWhite my SIL used to have students she had one age 6 and one age 8 for about 6 weeks from China, they'd previously been at a different families house but were very distressed by it and didn't like the family so the company moved them to my SIL. SIL said they cried every night, they also had 2 older sisters but they had to split them up and in total I think they were in the UK for just over 2 months.“

We took German Sixth Firm students in for 4 years. They needed considerable pastoral care even at that age, practical and emotional. I just can’t comprehend anyone sending their 6 year old away to a strange family/environment.

I attended many of these types of courses as a child and later taught at similar ones in the UK. When I was younger I went to summer camps- they are perfect for younger children as they are total immersion with all the usual summer camp activities. When I was older, I went to language schools staying with local host families. I think that's better for 16 plus as there is really not so much interaction with the families and you need to be able to move about the city independently. I loved every minute of my time in these places and it's solely responsible for the progress I made with the languages.

@Bizjustgotreal

Also - and sorry to bang the drum here too much, but Mandarin is a fair bit easier than French.

There are no tenses, no genders, no plural. It's very context based. The difficulty comes from the phonology and the Chinese characters, which are easy enough when you get used to it. Pinyin is fixed in its pronunciation so 'ci' will always be pronounced the same at all times - same can't be said for French or English.

I flew there unaccompanied aged 17 I believe.

Oh come on, there is no way that Mandarin is easier to learn than French! The lack of similar grammar imo makes it much harder to learn because you can't work things out logically when you're a beginner or see any similarities with English.

And the character system is impossible! I spent a year in Japan and could read fairly well at the time, but there are 2 "alphabets", they use much simpler characters and far fewer of them- I think in Chinese you need to know around 10000 to read reasonably fluently. A lot of non native speakers struggle with the tonal speech system too.

Hello! I highly recommend the French Summer camp FIL www.fil-ado.com/en/ in the Pyrenees. Very good concept that combines holidays, adventure and learning French. My daughter attended a session this year; she had a fantastic time. Despite the difficult circumstances this year (covid), the team at FIL could not do enough to help throughout the planning & the duration of her stay with them. They were there to meet her in Paris & took her the rest of the way, after which we rarely heard from her the entire 10 days as she was too busy learning French (but in a fun way) & having a great time with her new friends. I spent a lot of time researching French Immersion summer camps and I definitely made the right decision choosing FIL.