Hello. We are a hoping to travel to Europe soon, possibly as soon as March 2016, for about 15 -20 days. We are a family of 4 with 2 children, ages 12 and almost 14 years old, which is middle school range. Since our children have learned to speak Spanish at home, we would like them to have an experience that includes attending school for about a week. Currently, we are considering trying this in Barcelona, but would be interested to know if there are smaller towns that offer something as well. Also, we would like to know if the experience was at an international school or just a local school.
Thank you in advance.
Posted by
Bainbridge Island
3095 posts
You might want to choose someplace other than Barcelona and nearby towns, because they speak Catalan there.
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
2939 posts
@Sasha: It's not that they prefer to speak Catalan, it's that our language is Catalan, and has been for the last 1100 years. For your information. Gosh!
@Traveling Woodnicks: are your referring to attend 'regular' school?, if so, as far as I know that's not possible, whether international or local, you can't attend a regular school for three weeks while on a tourist trip. You need to be living here (as a resident). Some info. Also notice that the language of instruction in schools in Catalonia is (obviously) Catalan, so while there are a few subjects taught in Spanish and in English (sometimes in French too), most of the curriculum is done in Catalan. Yet, as shown in the 'selectivitat' (our equivalent to your ACT), pupils schooled in Catalan schools have a similar command of Spanish than those pupils in other monolingual school systems in Spain.
Language schools are a different matter -although I'm pretty sure this is not what you are aiming for, is it?
Posted by
WA, USA
330 posts
Hello,
My daughter took classes in Salamanca. It's a lovely town. She was there as a college freshman, Bu I believe they have classes for high school students too.
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5371 posts
I can't imagine a public school would allow this kind of arrangement. It would be very disruptive. I say this as a parent of children enrolled in public school in Europe. It would violate many regulations.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23240 posts
This is the type of question that I say, Flip it !! Think about ! How would your children's classroom teachers respond to having a couple of Spanish students sitting in their classroom for a week? Don't you think it would be a major distraction? How is the teacher to know what the children know and how do they integrate these visitors into the classroom for a week? The curriculum for a 7th grade class in Spain maybe/could be/would be very different from a 7th grade class in the US. Remember locals are not there to entertain the tourists or baby sit their children. This is one of those ideas that on the surface sounds good but in practice is not so good.