Language trips – Worth the effort
by Gerhild
For many years now, our school has offered language trips. But does your child benefit from it? Or is it just a journey to England to have fun? Students can have fun in Austria too, can’t they? No – language trips are worth it!
During our trip to Bournemouth we stayed with host families, who do not understand a word of German. That means, students already learn pretty much just staying with the British families. Moreover, they have lessons with native English speakers. Students take a test before they start their trip. According to these results they were put in three language level groups.
The kids also make trips to London, Salisbury, Stonehenge and many more. At every trip you have a guide who knows nearly everything about the place you visit, so you also learn something about the culture and the landscape.
Now you probably guess, why students cannot learn this in Austria? We have pretty good English teachers in school, but you can’t learn a language better than by using it. So, if they talk to native people they learn much more than if they talk English with their classmates. Another plus is, that your child is going to learn much about other cultures.
I enjoyed the trip to Bournemouth, starting with the lessons to the tours to our free time. The thing I liked the most was our trip to Salisbury and Stonehenge. We saw interesting cultural things and we were granted some free time.
Iif you still have any questions, just ask. I hope you will consider my arguments and allow your child to go on this amazing trip with their class. I am sure you will not regret it!
The unforgettable time, England 2018, Sunday, September 30th
By Valentina
Hey Guys,
This blog is filled with my thoughts and experiences, beautiful places, and many interesting things from my amazing trip to England. Firstly, I would like to say that you can always collect great experiences on a language trip. For instance, we went to London where we didn’t see the usual well-known sights, but rather other places you don’t normally see when you visit London for the first time, like Trafalgar Square or Buckingham Palace. When you think about London you usually have Tower Bridge or Big Ben in mind, don’t you? However, there are many more beautiful places which our tour guide took us to. In every city we went to, every tour guide showed us the best places.
An important thing to remember is that you can always benefit from a language trip. It doesn’t make any difference what English skills you have. You can always gain experience when you are in another country. Talking to native speakers is completely different to talking to your teacher. The idioms and emphasis are different, which you can only train with a native speaker.
Now I would like to tell you what I liked the most about my trip. Well that’s not so easy, because the whole week was just perfect. I will never forget the beautiful places or the life-style in England. But that one day, when we visited the town center and Bournemouth Beach was the best day ever. We visited the most diverse buildings and saw the lifestyles of people who are very different than those in Austria. After our shopping tour we continued with a beach walk. The scenery was unbelievable, the weather was perfect the sun was shining, and the sound of the waves was mesmerizing.
Another beautiful and interesting place is Stonehenge. Many people told me that it’s a waste of time, though I am definitely of another opinion. I arrived there with no expectations at all and it was stunning. Besides the interesting history we also had a lot of fun there.
If you have any further questions you can always contact me. I hope to hear a lot about your experiences from a language school.
There and Back Again: An Unexpected Journey to the Far Lands of England
Saturday, 20 October 2018 at 18:22 by BG Seekirchen
By Simon
In our school, there is a big discussion about the topic, if a language trip is worth the money. My class and I were on a language trip a few weeks ago, due to that I want to tell you a lot of reasons why a language trip improves your language and why every student should be part of one in his or her life.
A language trip is a great way to learn something new and I think it is the best way to learn a language when you study it in the country, where you are surrounded by people who speak the language. Our language trip offered us a way to learn English in an enjoyable, but also an interesting way. Cavendish School offered us learning material and a friendly teacher, who showed us a lot of easy ways to learn something in English or to make improving your English more interesting.
The benefit of a language trip is the practice of that language during your daily routines. When you are in England you must speak English, because people wouldn’t understand you otherwise. Another advantage is the understanding of different ways of living.
What I enjoyed most on our trip, was the sightseeing and the activities we did, like karaoke evening and laser quest. The sightseeing had something relaxant and the sights we visited were interesting and beautiful. The karaoke evening and the laser quest were nice alternatives and we had a lot of fun.
A language trip is definitely worth the money, because it’s a new way to learn a language. You learn the language in an interesting and enjoyable way, and you can expand your vocabulary quite easily without too much effort. You also see a lot of beautiful and interesting sights. So, if you ask me, if I wanted to do a language trip again, I would say yes. I am sure that there is no better way to learn a language than going to the country to speak it.
Language trips – high cost for a next to nothing progress in language learning
October 19th, 22:18
By Anna
Have you ever thought of what it would be like to take part in a language trip? Or have you even participated in one? As I spent two months in the USA and already went on a few language holidays, I would say that I do really know what I am talking about when it comes to language trips.
Talking about my language trip to the USA, I have to say that it might be the best experience I have ever made. As I spent two months in NYC, more precisely on the Upper East Side, I learned a lot of new things, adopted a lot of new habits and got a bit more sophisticated.
A language trip to NYC offers you a bunch of things. First and foremost, you will have a great opportunity to improve your English skills. I feel like I have to say that it is on you whether or not your language level improves. If you are motivated, you will definitely make progress!
Furthermore, NYC is a city, in which you can find museums and exhibitions all over the place! If you are under-age you might even get in for free. Based on my experiences I feel like art is important to the people from NYC. In a city, in which everything is overpriced and costly, art is the thing that isn’t. I think that if you want the whole “New York Experience”, you should definitely go and get to see some Picassos.
Have Fun Learning English in Bournemouth
Saturday, 20 October 2018 at 18:22
by Sarah
Language trips. Do they work? Can you really improve your English skills with them? I think that many parents but also students ask themselves these questions. Anyway, I’ve already done two language trips and one of them was to Bournemouth. Bournemouth was my first language study trip from the school and I would like to tell you something about it.
On the whole, the language trip was a lot of fun. Every single student enjoyed it most of the time. I would say if your child flies to Bournemouth, they will come back with a lot of new and beautiful memories.
The language school we attended was Cavendish School. The teachers there were all very friendly and lessons were a lot of fun most of the time. As long as everyone is on the right „level“, everyone who wants to learn something at school will also learn something. Of course, you also get to know new words or phrases from the host families. For example, this is a phrase our host mom often said to her children: „You are driving me bananas“.
As I mentioned earlier, I think every single student can come back home with new English skills as long as they want to. If you don’t pay attention during school, you will not get much of it – obviously.
Of course, I liked activities like the speedboat ride, the trip to London or excursions like Stonehenge the most, but we also improved our English there. Since most people speak English, you also have to speak English with them. For example, if you want to buy something you have to use your language skills. The same applies to the information sheets we regularly received – all of them were in English.
In my opinion, such a language trip is very funny but also helpful. Not only will you improve your language skills, you will also have fun with your friends all the time. Many became more organized by this trip as well, as there is no mom who tells you exactly when you need to be at the bus stop or at the meeting points.
Making memories in England
by Leonie
I still remember how excited I was, when I got onto the plane to England.
Not only was I looking forward to experiencing the culture and spending time with my friends and classmates, I was also eager to talk in English all the time.
Our destination in England was Bournemouth. A beautiful city right by the sea. When we got to tour it by ourselves on the fourth day of our trip, everybody was excited, and everybody obviously wanted to see the beach. Eventually, we all ended up just walking along the beach and spending time with each other.
But a language trip to Bournemouth offers so much more than just enjoying the time with friends and learning the English language. I really enjoyed our karaoke-evening and I really felt the cohesion of our class that night. Another highlight to remember was the speedboat ride on the day of our departure. I won’t ever forget the fun my friends and I had.
I definitely gained a lot of confidence during our trip. Not only from talking to our host parents, who were lovely by the way, but also from sometimes having to ask people for the way to the beach, for example.
And not only the big excursions in England were exciting, sometimes everything was about the little things. You won’t even believe how excited I was about my first time paying in the foreign currency pounds; or about seeing everyone driving on the other side of the road.
Now, in hindsight, naming a thing that I enjoyed most is actually really difficult. There were so many great things, I wouldn’t ever want to forget.
I really enjoyed our day trips to London, Lulworth coast, Portland and Winchester. We got to see so many different sides of England. We had time to explore cities and towns (London), nature and history (Stonehenge, Lulworth coast) and culture (China Town). However, the best thing was definitely all the time that I could spend with my friends and all the memories we made.
In retrospect, I’m really happy that I got the chance to experience a new, different culture on our class trip to Bournemouth.
Our trip to England
by Ingrid
“With languages, you are at home anywhere”, this quote of Edmund de Waal does a pretty good job in describing how I personally felt during our trip to Bournemouth. If you know the language, the culture and the everyday life to at least a certain extent, it isn’t as different from home as one might think.
Staying with an English family definitely helped me understand those things better. During the stay I got to see the different habits and while there are many similarities to ours, there are also a whole lot of differences. The food is different too, and some of the dishes are definitely something you would have to get used to, baked beans on toast for example. Mostly they aren’t too bad but toast with vinegar, seriously!
Since our stay in England was planned by Cavendish School, a language school, we also got to do a lot of different trips, London for example. Though that one would have been a bit nicer if the bus hadn’t been running late. We also visited Salisbury, Weymouth, Winchester, Portland along with Chesil Beach, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, so as you probably noticed dear reader, we got to see a bit of the country. Cavendish school also offers some other neat program. Laser quest for example, which was a lot of fun, or a speed boat ride, my personal favourite.
We did have a lot of program and all of it was nice, but there are always some things that stand out. Now these things are different from person to person and some might argue that other things where much more fun, but I can only state my own opinion. I myself loved the walk from Durdle Door to Lulworth Cove because there we actually got to see the coast and what it looks like for the major part of it. Not some boring sand beach, you can find those everywhere but the cliffs and the beautiful ocean stretching to the horizon behind them. I also think that laser quest and the speed boat ride deserve to be mentioned. Especially the speed boat ride because while we were out on the sea, it was pretty wavy, so we definitely had our fun during that.
All in all, the trip was great, and I think everyone learned a thing or two. If I had the opportunity to repeat it, I would probably take it and I can only recommend everyone to do that if they have a chance to make a trip like that, they should do so.
All roads lead to Rome, but the best leads to England
by Isabella
Is it even possible to speak fluently and without any grammatical mistakes in English after just one week in England? To answer this question with just one word: No. But a trip to England is a good start to get there. The only requirement is willingness to learn the language. You could compare it with sports: You have to train regularly to get the desired result.
The first possibility is, to learn English in school. Cavendish School made it its task to teach children the English language in the best way possible: With fun and games. The teachers there are experienced in dealing with children and know exactly that fun is the most efficient way, when it comes to leaning a language. In Cavendish School the students were put in three groups, based on their English level. Everybody will be challenged but nobody will be overwhelmed.
Another way to improve the language is to talk to natives. They obviously know how to speak, and you can learn a lot. In host families it’s not only talking to strangers, because you are learning something about their habits and peculiarities. The teachers also made sure, that the students talk English most of the time. Also, in their free time. That’s why our task was to do a survey. That way we were forced to talk to strangers and to be open-minded.
But a trip to England does not only mean to learn the language, it also involves experiencing a new culture. With trips to London, Salisbury or Stonehenge, you can learn a lot about European history.
If that sounds too boring, fun activities like Karaoke, Laser quest or a speedboat trip should not be missing.
I took numberless impressions and experiences back home and I collected a lot of beautiful memories. In my opinion, London was the best city we visited, and I heard, that the following school classes will stay one extra night there. That makes it even better!
The beauty of England
By Lena
I’ve recently visited England for a language trip with my class and I have to admit that England is a lovely country that you should definitely visit.
Our little journey to Bournemouth started on September 22nd at 5 a.m. We organised a bus to Munich Airport, where our flight took off at 10:30 in the morning. The plane arrived at London Gatwick at about 11 a.m. local time and then we drove to Bournemouth.
My class and I went to different sights in whole England, including Salisbury, Stonehenge, Winchester, Portland, London and considerably more. We saw a lot and made different tours every day. I liked every single part of England we visited and fell in love with this country. Whether the weather was good or not, it was really nice spending the day with your friends and classmates in various parts of England.
We also had 18 lessons in the Cavendish language school. The students were divided in different groups depending on their English skills. Each group had different subjects which were adjusted to the English level of the group. We learned new vocabulary and improved our existing knowledge. Our tutor even taught us new grammar we can work with nicely.
All in all, I definitely recommend you visit England and visit a language school there. It is also worth the money if you take the improvement of your English and all the nice trips we took into consideration. If you ask me, the trips and tours we made were the best things we did. On the one hand we learned much about England’s beauty and nature, on the other hand we received a good education regarding famous sight of England.
Our trip to Bournemouth
by Eva
Hey guys – Thanks a lot for your comments on my last post. Today I want to tell you about my last trip to Bournemouth. It was a language trip with my class. We flew to England to improve our language skills.
Departure was on Saturday 4 am. We had to get up early because we took a bus to Munich Airport. From there we flew to London and again took a bus to Bournemouth. It was an exhausting journey. We met our host family, the Nixons, at 7 pm. They were so caring, they have two little boys, of whom one is 2 and the other is 4 years old.
Over the days we saw a high number of different things. The second day we went to London again. But I have to say I am disappointed because of the day. In the morning our bus had a delay of one and a half hour. That’s the reason why we only had half a day in London. So you can certainly imagine that we didn’t get to spend a lot of time there.
The following days we always attended lessons at Cavendish school. That’s a school for German and Austrian school classes, where they can learn with a local teacher. I think the school isn´t bad for beginners but for advanced people they should push their levels. But the teachers were really polite.
After school we always visited some famous sights. My favourite place was Stonehenge. Even if they are only stones, they are so beautiful and interesting. I think everybody should have seen them at least once in their lifetime. I also liked the speedboat tour on Friday. Furthermore, we also saw the Cathedral of Salisbury, Winchester, Weymouth, Durdle Door, the Olympic Rings in Portland and Chesil Beach.
In the evening we mostly didn´t have any free time because the trips of the school took longer than expected. On Wednesday we had karaoke. At first, I thought it would be boring, but eventually it was really a lot of fun. And the funniest evening was on Thursday because we played Laser Quest.
All in all, I really enjoyed the trip to England. Now I’m eager to hear your thoughts about language trips to England – have you ever gone and if so, what were your favourite sights?
Language trips: Just another way to pour money down the drain or actually helpful?
by Dilara
Recently, my classmates and I spent a week in Bournemouth, England. Now you’re probably thinking: What’s even the point in spending a load of money for some week-long school trip? Is it really going to do any good to my language skills? Keep reading to get the answers to all your questions.
Speaking a foreign language is always an advantage in our modern society and comes with countless benefits. But what if you never really liked sitting alone in your room practicing vocabulary? A very effective and fun way to learn languages are language trips. At school, a lot of students tend to see classes more as a burden than fun, they might sometimes struggle to learn a new language. A language trip on the other hand offers a great atmosphere for learning, because it combines lessons with holidays. Having fun makes learning always easier.
Travelling abroad will inevitably make you discover not only a new language but another culture as well. Your respect and tolerance will improve through a better understanding for another people’s lifestyle. But it’s true, trying to communicate in a foreign language will be challenging, but it will also be a good training for you to step up your game and become more and more confident.
All the above points and more I experienced on my school trip in Bournemouth first-hand. It’s not like London or New York. You can walk along the beach and casually go up to people, everyone will be kind and friendly. Travelling to Bournemouth and communicating with locals means that you’ll meet all sorts of new people and concurrently make new friends, maybe even for life.
What I liked best on this whole trip was to ‘live the language’. Everything you do and everything you say is suddenly in another language. And it may sound frightening for some people at first; What if I don’t know how to say something or what if no one understands me? But seriously: Don’t stress yourself out about those things. You’ll see, once you’re there it’s so much fun to speak another language. At least that’s my experience but you should definitely find out for yourself.
Our trip to Bournemouth
by Hannah
The classes 6a and 6m went to Bournemouth from 22th to 28th September. Our aim was to benefit as much as possible and improve our English skills.
We went three times to school. Two days we went in the morning to school and one day we had a trip first and then we had school after it.
Every group had one very friendly teacher. The first day I was in a B1 group, and I thought it was a little bit too easy for us students. I told our teachers from Austria that we would learn more if we were in a B2 group. It wasn’t a problem and on the following day, we were in a B2 group. But it is not sure that you learn something if you have the wrong attitude. If you want to learn and benefit from the trip you would learn a lot.
An England trip like that, can give you a good overview about England as a country, the culture and many other things. In England we stayed in host families, so we also improved our English while experiencing life there. In total you learn very much during such a trip.
Another positive thing is that you see a lot of great places like nature, landscape and beaches. We did many day-trips to different places and villages. We visited London, Portland, Weymouth, Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bournemouth.
At these different places we had such beautiful views over the city and the sea. We also saw Winchester and we made a speed boat ride on our last day.
However, that was not all about the trip! In the evenings we also had some activities such as Laser Quest and karaoke. These were also some of the highlights of the language trip.
My favourite places were Portland, karaoke and Laser Quest. Furthermore, I also loved the beach and the sea which is so beautiful in England.
In retrospect, everyone liked the week a lot and learned a lot. It was one of the best trips I took during my school time!
Bournemouth might be not as boring as you think
by Sarah
Have you ever done a language trip to Bournemouth? If not, you definitely should. Bournemouth is a large town on the south coast of England. You might think right now ‘Why on earth would I go to Bournemouth?’. But believe me or not, Bournemouth is an ideal place for a language trip with the 11 kilometres of sandy beach, numerous gardens and parks, theatres and an oceanarium. At the beach you can hire deckchairs and sun loungers, as well as everything you need to play beach sports.
Students can learn a lot during a language trip. Whether they take lessons during their trip or just be able to experience the opportunity for them to practice their language skills, especially the skills of speaking and listening. Students can also get the chance to meet new people on a school trip. Maybe they get friends with a host family’s child. Another thing they can learn during a trip is something about England’s culture. It makes it much easier for us students to experience the culture and it is much more enjoyable.
So, as we can see, a language trip is a great opportunity to benefit your language skills, make new friends and to have fun.
My trip to Bournemouth was amazing. I enjoyed almost everything we did during this week but there is one thing I liked better than the others. And of course, that was London. This language trip is a great opportunity to see new places and learn plenty of new things.
Why you should not miss this England trip
by Caroline
BRG Seekirchen use to do a trip to England for the students of 6th grades. That is why 6am went to Bournemouth from 22th to 28th September. Our aim: to benefit from this week and improve our language skills.
We had school lessons two times in the morning and one time in the afternoon at the Language School. There were three groups with great teachers who helped us with the pronunciation or writing for example. But it is not for sure that you learn something! When you are inattentive and absent-minded, you will not benefit from the lessons. But, of course, these lessons are not like in our school in Austria! First and foremost, it is to have fun and learn in a relaxed and nice way!
Such an England trip is also a great chance to get to know the English people and culture. We stayed in host families and so we had to speak English with the family members. In addition, no one of the teachers spoke German and also to our professors we talked (most of the time) in English.
Well, what a school trip to Bournemouth or in general England also offers, is to see so many great places! We got to see London, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bournemouth and Portland. There we had such a beautiful and awesome view over the city and the sea. Furthermore, we went to great beaches, saw Winchester and Weymouth and made a speed boat tour.
And that was not all! In the evenings we had activities like karaoke and Laser Quest, which were probably highlights for everyone!
I think my favourite actions were Portland and the Laser Quest. But I also loved the towns and villages we have visited and the huge beaches.
To sum up our journey, everyone loved the week and was in high spirits. You see great places, meet nice people and can benefit a lot!