Book a 12 week +

Languages for Life course

with CESA Languages Abroad
Starting in 2012, but after
03 September 2012 and save money!

Save: £75.00 / €88.00 / $ 115.00

So whether you want to spend 12 weeks in Seville improving your Spanish, 16 weeks in Berlin working on your German or 23 weeks in Montpellier perfecting your French  – that’s another £75.00 in your pocket towards text books, beer or new shoes (depending on your mood)!

Please quote: LL.Offer
Deadline : 30 May 2012

Dates : Sept/Dec 2012 (12 weeks)

The Scholarship has been a huge success over the last few years and we expect competition to be hotter than ever, so please get your applications into the CESA office as early as you can.

Application deadline for 2012 : 30 April 2012

> Scholarship offer details

> Cannes College details

Remember – if you aren’t lucky enough to be selected for the Scholarship, you are welcome to enrol at the French college for 2/24 weeks at anytime throughout the year.  There are plenty of start dates on offer and the French language school in Cannes caters for all language abilities.

If you’d like to know more please contact us on 01209 211800, we’d be happy to help!

Heidi Langlois

As I had never been to Europe before, I really wasn’t too sure what to expect from the whole adventure. I was very excited to experience a European city, meet new and different people as well as get to learn a new language – Portuguese – which has always been a dream of mine.  Linguistically, I was hoping at the end of the course to be able to grasp the basics of Portuguese and have the ability to participate in an every day conversation.

My expectations were exceeded. I met a host of wonderful, different people, had a very enriching experience in all areas and I am now able to converse in Portuguese.

The language lessons at the Portuguese language school in Lisbon, were definitely a challenge, which was a definite positive. You feel like you are learning! I loved the fact that the teachers only spoke Portuguese during the lessons as this gets you thinking in Portuguese constantly. My teacher for the 8 weeks was absolutely brilliant – very patient, great sense of humour and didn’t only teach us the language but taught us about Portugal in general. He was also very reassuring in his teaching methods, always encouraging and getting you to improve.   I found that the 3 hours in the morning was sufficient – you came out of the lessons feeling like you had used your brain!  I think more than this in the morning would have been too much – for the more serious students the afternoon lessons available are perfect.

All the teachers in general at the school were friendly and took the time to interact with you whether you were in their class or not.  They were very convivial and created a great atmosphere for fun learning and always made you feel very welcome. The staff at the school really did their best to assist with any queries students had and make sure we had the right information to learn fully as well as get the most out of Lisbon.

The location of the Portuguese language school was perfect – from my experience it was very central and I found you could get anywhere from the school, whether you were walking or taking public transport.  Social activities were well organised, very interesting, and a really good way to ease yourself into finding your way around Lisbon.

Most certainly all the facilities are available for students to use Portuguese in every aspect of daily life – from buying your bus ticket, to ordering coffee and a pastel de nata from the pasteleria, to asking for directions, buying phone credit, so on and so forth. Lisbon is such a diverse city that you will constantly have something to do. From sight seeing, shopping, lying on the beach during the day to dining in a Fado restaurant, going to the movies, partying away in Bairro Alto till the early hours of the morning. One of my absolute favourite things to do was get ice cream from any number of cafes or the more specialist ice cream parlors – really, really good!! There is a great place near Chiado which is generally open till midnight – be warned that you may have to queue if it’s a busy night.

Travelling is a great confidence builder as well, as long as you are prepared to take a leap of faith and put yourself into situations where you can converse with people. The one great thing about Lisbon was that I found people to be very patient and happy to help you along, so don’t be afraid / shy / nervous to open your mouth. You will benefit from making an effort to interact with the community.

I was delighted with my accommodation in Lisbon and hosts. They were incredibly welcoming, friendly and helpful. Breakfast was great – cheese, bread, coffee, tea, chocolate spread and always ready at 8am. I was even lucky enough to be spoilt with unexpected surprises of ‘just made’ desserts and special cookies every now and then – remember how you treat your host is most likely how they will treat you!

I would advise future students: do your research and make sure if you are arranging your accommodation through someone else that they are aware of your expectations. Thus you will then be informed of what to expect before you arrive.  Living with a host family is living in someone’s house, not in a hotel.  Also remember that not only are you living in a different culture to your own, you are not in your own personal home so don’t expect everything to be as you would have it in your home.

As James Michener says: “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” You are living an experience, enjoy it as such and learn from it – go into the experience with an optimistic view and open mind.  

And finally…

I was very pleased with the attention, service and very helpful assistance that CESA provided. My million and one questions and requests were dealt with patiently, informatively and within a respectable time frame.

Libby Adam –

The lessons worked well as a good morning activity and it was great how they were set on ability. The teachers spoke little English so we all really improved out Spanish though games, trips out and debates.
The Student to teacher interaction was great.

The staff were very welcoming, funny, had huge enthusiam and were completely intone with how teenagers work. The location of the school was great it was a 3 minute walk from the beach and 1 minute from the centre of Tarifa. Perfect.

I felt very comfortable. The school was a clean, useable space with plenty of places to have quiet time as well as multiple computers all with internet access and a games room. The best part of my trip was the other campers and staff.

Having to leave and say good bye to everyone was the worst part. I was not expecting the range of nationalities, this was a great thing. It was absolutely incredible, I highly recommend this and I have made some terrific friends.
I used my language skills in and out of the classroom.

The social life was fantastic as there was plenty to do, everyone was lovely and I always felt safe.I was delighted with my accommodation. As it was in the school it was easy to socialise and meet up with everyone.

I found CESA very honest, knowledgeable and they had excellent communication with me throughout. I would strongly recommend them.

CESA was receommended to me by the Spanish Department at Marlborough College in Wiltshire. They asked for feedback next term which we will gladly give as being a 100% posititve experience. The school in Tarifa were outstanding in their care and programme for teeangers.

I would absolutely recommend others to go on a course like this, the best and most memorable experience of the course was making a music video with everyone for the evening activity.

Megan
24 weeks in Montpellier
Gap Year Course
(with great photos!)

Going to Montpellier to study French was easily one of the best experiences of my life.

I had always wanted to improve my language skills and going to Montpellier allowed me to finally do it!

In just six weeks I went from very basic conversational skills to being able to converse freely, express my opinion, use different tenses and make jokes and laugh with my friends! Just being in France makes the world of difference as you constantly have the opportunity to put into practice the things you learn in class. The teachers at the school were great, they taught at a steady rate meaning that you are constantly learning but never going too fast.

The French language school organises a lot of trips and there’s so much to do in Montpellier that you can never get bored.

The best thing about going to France was the friends I made – I now have friends for life in countries around the world – and we all speak French to each other!

Regards – Meg

Eliza Cornwell

Before I had arrived, I hoped that during my 3 weeks in Salamanca I would learn a lot more and improve my Spanish.
My experience was amazing and the course definitely matched up to my expectations. I learned a lot of Spanish as well as making many friends from all over the world.
The lessons at the Spanish language school in Salamanca were in general very good. I loved how the classes were in the afternoon, allowing us to do activities in the morning. The teachers were very good and I got to know them well. To improve the lessons in the future we could work less out of the textbook as this got a little bit boring sometimes.
The school was in a perfect location, and I felt very comfortable at the school.
The best and unexpected aspect of my course was the city itself. I loved it.
The worst aspect was the rules and curfews which sometimes seemed unnecessarily strict.
I loved it. Everything ran smoothly and seemed extremely organised. The excursions were on the really good and I learned a lot. I think that the balance between free time and lessons were perfect.
Salamanca was perfect, I was able to talk a lot in Spanish and always felt safe in the day and at night.
My host family were welcoming and extremely chatty. Their apartment was 5 minutes from the school which was great walking distance.
I would definitely recommend this CESA course to other students.
I would definitely go again as well as recommend it to others.
I loved how many friends I made and how much Spanish I learned.

I absolutely loved Cannes, from the French lessons, to the friends I made, to the city itself. The Campus was a friendly environment. The rooms were clean and the food was good most days, but if I did not like the main dish I always knew I could go and eat a delicious Panini and chocolate waffle at the college café situated in the courtyard. I was quiet nervous when I first arrived, but I instantly made friends on the coach there from Nice, and continued to make good friendships throughout my stay. I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences of my life.
The lessons were great, the teachers were lovely and I feel I have gained a lot of confidence in regards to speaking French.
The French language school in Cannes was a beautiful and friendly environment. It felt like a second home by my second week there. I loved the trip into St. Tropez and I wish I could have visited Monaco, but I didn’t have time. The students in my class became the people I was friends with outside of the class room.
I loved the location it was 2 minutes from the beach, 5 minutes from town by bus and 15 minutes from town walking, but the walk was always pleasant. I felt safe at all times, there was 24/7 security. The social life was great I went out every night and went to sleep very late. I would recommend everyone who goes to Cannes to just go out and experiences the night life as much as you can. It is beautiful.
The accommodation was basic, but always clean and I was out all the time so it was fine. I loved the campus life and so I would definitely recommend people to stay in the college instead of a host family.
I think that CESA were very efficient and helpful while I was choosing my destination.
The only thing that was disappointing about my experience is that it went too fast.
I would love to go back and would recommend it to anyone interested in having a new experience. My best moments was probably sitting on the beach watching Cannes famous firework displays or being in town on the weekend eating out and exploring.