Study Abroad English Language Holidays
Josef Essberger
A language holiday is a combination of "holiday" and study abroad to learn or improve a foreign language. English language holidays are taken in English-speaking countries like England, the USA or Australia. While there, you study in a language school with students from many different countries. You live with local people, often staying with a host family (homestay).
A language holiday can be of any length - from one week to one year - but most are two or three weeks.
What are the Benefits of a Language Holiday?
Language holidays have become a very popular method of learning English because they have many advantages:
- Total Immersion
Because you are in an English-speaking country, you are constantly exposed to English - from the time you wake up and have breakfast with your host family until late evening and your last drink in a local pub. You have little or no opportunity to escape the English language. This is how you learned your own language - constant exposure.
- Mixed Classes
When you study in your own country, all the other students in your class speak your language, so you are not obliged to use English. On a language holiday, students come from countries all over the world. It is possible that nobody in your class will speak your language, so you will just have to speak English!
- Freedom From Pressure
On a language holiday you are away from home and can forget the everyday pressures of school or business. Your mind is more relaxed and you can learn more easily.
- Cultural Understanding
Learning a language is not only about learning words. Different nations have different cultures. People think and behave differently. Their language is closely associated with their culture. By visiting and living in a foreign country, you learn to understand the culture and the people - and so better understand the language.
You'll find schools offering language holidays at EnglishClub ESL World.
© 2010 Josef Essberger