<p>My son would very much like to go to a foreign country and teach English or another subject while he is there. He would like to do this over summer break. He applied for one program that went to China but he did not get a position with them. He has been trying to find some other programs but has been unsuccessful. </p>
<p>I know it is getting late in the year for this, so there is some urgency on his part. </p>
<p>Has anyone had a child do something like this? And what programs did they go through? I want something reputable with a good history of taking care of the kids in the program.
Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>If your son hopes for a paid job, I have no lead, but there are lots of organizations that will get him a volunteer placement (you have to pay them); most require a minimum commitment of only a month, and basically will take anybody. My daughter spent 6 months in Africa (Senegal and Ghana) through Projects Abroad before she went to college. They prefer 3 months notice to organize a placement but can do with less, and they have placements in about 20 countries, I think. There are other similar outfits - try researching “gap years” even though that isn’t your specific need.</p>
<p>Forgot to add that we were mostly happy with Projects Abroad and they were reliable for the really important things. Daughter had mostly wonderful and life-influencing experience. If you want more details, esp. about the things that worry parents, send me a message. Good luck.</p>
<p>You were “mostly” happy w/ the program and D ahd “mostly” a wonderful exp – what about the program and your D’s exp caused you to qualify/modify with “mostly?”</p>
<p>The big organization (based in Britain, also has at least one US office) was great as far as keeping on top of things, sending out info in advance, answering e-mails promptly, making sure they knew what flights to meet, etc. In Senegal, the teaching placement was in a girls’ high school, and the schools kept closing at short or no notice (exams for 2 weeks, some big government summit 4 hours away, Easter, even though almost the whole population is Muslim…). D had inquired about school schedules months before leaving home, to avoid those situations. The local staff seemed to have no clue in advance. She lost lots of teaching time (fortunately, the social life and general fascination with her surroundings, also French lessons, kept her occupied). I had a lengthy e-mail correspondence with a guy at the main office in England and eventually, after much polite arm-twisting, they gave us some money back. There was also a bit of a screw-up re the scheduling of the French lessons which wound up further interfering with the English teaching. However, the same local staff were fantastic when D lost her passport, phone, wallet…within minutes of arriving in Senegal in the middle of the night. In Ghana, she found the teaching itself a big struggle at first (tiny rural school, sort of a compound where she also lived, no electricity or plumbing), pretty much thrown in by herself with a mob of rambunctious 5 yr olds, but by the end she had really made some progress and wished she could stay longer. She also found her initial orientation in Ghana (conducted at lightning speed by one of the local staff, beginning at 7AM when she had just flown in the night before and was too dazed to take in a thing) to be more confusing than helpful, but she found her way anyway. The local offices there were incredibly helpful on 2 occasions when we sent things to her via a long chain of couriers starting with my Ghanaian co-workers - packages delivered right to her door in the tiny village. I’ve heard anecdotally, from people she met who went on to different countries, that the helpfulness and volunteer networking efforts of the local staffs can be variable.</p>