<p>I would like to send my 16 year old son to Spain this summer for a month or so to study Spanish. I did read the thread about summer programs and got some good leads there but I would like to hear from parents in more detail about what these programs were like. </p>
<p>How does one gauge the reputation of the sponsoring organization? Our HS doesn't have a list of trusted programs so I don't know how to judge. I read the testimonials on their websites but I feel like I need to take them with a grain of salt -- if they weren't great, the orgainzations wouldn't publish them.</p>
<p>Any tips from you parents that have sent kids to Spain would be appreciated!</p>
<p>You also can use a search engine and find some programs that are based in Spain and seem to cater to high school students from Great Britain who are studying for whatever exams they must take to get their high school diplomas.</p>
<p>My daughter studied at the teen program at CLIC in Seville last summer for one month. She was 16 at the time, but had finished her junior year of high school. She went through NRCSA (see post directly above), but NRCSA and other such groups are really just agents that book the program for the students. The CLIC program was appropriate for my daughter, but you should be aware that the students are given considerable freedom and are not supervised at some times. They live with host families who may be located quite a long walk from the school. At the house where my daughter stayed, there were other CLIC students and they walked together. They are permitted to go out in the evening unsupervised and I am not sure how strictly the curfew was enforced. I don't know how familiar you are with Spain, but it is much more common for people to be out and about at night than it is here, and it is considered safe for young people to walk around at night.<br>
As far as the program itself, it was very appropriate and worthwhile for teens. Each morning, the students have language classes for about three or four hours and each afternoon or evening there was a structured activity, tour within the city, or trip outside the city. Sometimes the students were given choices of activities and the teachers gave really good tours of the museums and sites at the level understandable by my daughter. My daughter had completed four years of Spanish before going to Spain (but the Spanish curriculum at our school is not very advanced - this may be more like 2 1/2 or 3 years in a better program) and now she is fluent enough to communicate and converse somewhat. She said that she was hesitant to speak at first (I understand this is common among people who are immersed in a different language environment), but by the end of trip, she was really starting to talk a lot and if she had a few more weeks there, she feels she would have been much more fluent. Another benefit of the program was that many of the students were from Europe (Switzerland, France, Germany, England) and she found out a lot about what their countries are like. She still emails with some of them. On the other hand, the ones from France, Germany, and Switzerland are learning Spanish as a third or fourth language, and love to practice their English with an American, so this meant less Spanish was spoken.
My daughter is now tutoring an elementary school student who has recently arrived from Mexico once a week and is able to talk to him fine. (Our district is woefully week in ESL or other help for this poor kid!) His grandfather and mother have come to the school while she was there to talk to the teacher and get information they need (for example, they didn't even know how to fill out the emergency form) and my daughter is able to translate between the teacher and the Spanish-speaking family members, and to explain things to them, such as how to sign up their son for our local recreational soccer league . So even though she feels her Spanish is not that great, to me, that she is able to do this now indicates that she has mastered the language enough to use it in practical situations.
I would be glad to tell you more about this, so if you are interested, send me a private message.</p>
<p>I'm mamochka's daughter. I would definitely recommend the CHI program. They're associated with Escuela Internacional in Salamanca, which has branches in Malaga (I think) also. It would be cheaper to arrange it directly with Escuela, and most people did that (CHI is their partner program in the US). However, CHI offers additional benefits like insurance, etc., so it's up to you; but in either case, I really improved my Spanish and can't wait to study abroad in Spain my junior year in college.</p>
<p>Thanks, Tufta. It's good to hear it from the horse's mouth, so to speak!</p>
<p>And Alita, he would like to do both. We have friends in Vigo that he could live with but I'm having trouble finding a good language school in that city.</p>
<p>I did the Choate program in Santander, it was amazing. We stayed with families, went to class from 9-12 am every weekday, and had the afternoons and evenings to explore the town, spend time with our families, and do homework. The last week we spent touring different parts of Spain, and ended in Madrid. The entire program was about 40 people, though we were split into two groups - one to Santander, the other to La Coruna.</p>
<p>Cubed - is the Choate program open to anyone or only Choate students? I saw the website but it wasn't really clear -- it looked like it was just for Choate kids.</p>
<p>Just wanted to give another positive review of NRCSA and the teen Salamanca program through Estudio Internacional Sampere. NRCSA was helpful as a middleman and I don't think using them as a broker increased the cost of the program by much - maybe $100 when I priced it out without using their service. My d did this program when she was 14 and had a fantastic time. It is a program for self-regulating kids as alcohol is freely available in this university city (drinking age 17? I think?) and you have the choice to allow for a more liberal or conservative curfew. I was able to receive e-mails daily, had phone contact when needed and she had a great immersion experience as a new Spanish learner. She loved the freedom to live in the city within the constraint of being at "home" for three meals, at class, and in by curfew. She loved sight seeing without a big group and getting to know the flea markets, etc. This is a kid who lives in a small town. It was not the homestay as we had imagined, more of a boarding experience but my daughter loved it and met some very nice high school and college students from around the world - Germany, Norway, etc. My other recommendation is to look at programs in Central / South America. I have fallen in love with Guatemala and will send my daughter there this summer to Antigua through La Union. We love AFS (my older daughter did the Paraguay program) but the cost is high and the schedule is not flexible.</p>
<p>If you'd like another option:
Youth for Understanding does a summer program in Spain, along with other spanish speaking countries (and a whole slew of other countries in general). YfU gets students from all over the world, which could be interesting in and of itself.</p>