Callum from England. I love it at the school and everyone is so welcoming. The host family are spot on too!

Callum

British

Vic

I’ve really clicked with my host family, they’ve made me feel very welcome and look after me like one of their own. We’ve been out together as a family every weekend, we’ve been to Montserrat, skiing in Vall de Núria, Girona and I’ve met their extended family and friends a few times, all of whom have been so welcoming. I’ve learned so much about Catalan culture, all their local traditions and how their way of life is different to mine in the UK. I’ve tried all the local foods, including a couple of Calçotada’s (which is a must for any future participants!). I’ve built a great relationship with my host family and we’re planning to meet up in London soon.

Excellent experience for anyone starting out, or thinking of starting, a teaching career. You’re given the reins to do things your own way and do your own lessons with the students, but there is always someone available to ask if you need
help. One thing I really like is planning my own lessons and working solo with the kids, it’s great watching them take part in the activities and seeing them improve week on week. The fact I’m trusted to be alone without a teacher is excellent and something I’m really grateful for as it’s allowed me to put my TEFL to use whilst gaining experience in the classroom.

I’ve become more confident as a teacher and have gained a ton of experience that I’ll use in my future career. I’ve learned an awful lot about Catalonia and how it’s not just a ‘region of Spain’ as I once thought.

Vic is a nice city with plenty going on and loads to do, it’s not a tourist city like Barcelona so my advice would be to get stuck in and immerse yourself in the culture, the three months will fly by! There’s plenty of coffee shops, bars and
restaurants, they have a big market twice a week and there’s lots of historical buildings and culture to soak up. The library offer free Catalan lessons every Monday which I’ve been going to and would recommend to others. I’ve also joined a gym, there’s plenty to chose from in Vic so if that’s your thing I’d recommend doing that. Vic has plenty of
shopping too, but bear in mind all the shops close in the afternoon between half 1 and half 4 so if you’re planning on grabbing a few bits on your long lunch break then you’re out of luck (also nothing is open on a Sunday!) Not many people speak English here so if you don’t speak Catalan when you arrive, you’ll certainly have a chunk of it
under your belt by the time you leave. I’ve loved learning Catalan and I try to use it when I’m talking to the locals

Hit the ground running and make a great first impression with the students, they will love you! I do speaking exercisesand group activities as well as playing speaking  games and vocabulary games, I also did an English language themed
escape room which the students loved! I vary the difficulty depending on the level of the students, I also ask the students what they prefer doing and plan my lessons around their feedback. Spend time with the teachers too, go to lunch with them, work with them in the teachers room and have a coffee at coffee time, everyone is very friendly and some of them love it when you speak English with them. I also use it as an
opportunity to practice speaking Catalan. The school is very big but it’s easy enough to navigate.

Living with a Catalan family has been incredible, I’ve really clicked with them and have got friends for life. Family is very important here and I’ve met a lot of their extended family and friends, I’ve been to music concerts where the kids have been performing, a skating competition where one of the cousins was competing, choir practice with the grandparents and I even got invited to a Calçotada at a family friends house. My advice would be to do as much as you can with the family, enjoy the moments, take lots of photos and cherish the memories. It’s a very different culture here and I’ve loved embracing it. One thing to note, that took me a few days to get used to,
is the meal times, they’re so much later than they are back home, and dinner is a very light meal and not a full dinner.

The whole experience has been great. It’s always nice when the students stop you outside and say hello and tell you how much they love your lessons, there’s no better feeling when students don’t want to leave your lesson and are already looking forward to your next one. I often get stopped by students who I don’t teach too as they want to have a conversation in English. Spending time with the host family has been great, I’ve loved meeting their extended family and friendship groups and I really enjoy it when we go out on the weekends together. Skiing in Vall de Núria was definitely a highlight as I’ve never skied on snow before. Living and working in another country for so long has been excellent and it just becomes the norm, you forget you’re abroad at times and it’ll be a shame to go home. You’re not just here as a tourist on holiday, you get to experience hands on what it’s like to live as a local.

No regrets, best decision of my life to take part in this program, I’d recommend it to any aspiring teachers. You’ll learn this in the TEFL but the best advice I can give is to plan your lessons and make sure you have enough activities prepared incase the students complete your tasks quicker than you’d planned, this is especially true at the
start of the program when you don’t know them and their individual levels of English. As you get to know them this becomes easier, but I have a handful of lesson fillers ready incase we finish earlier than planned. Google and ChatGPT are your best friends, I get a ton of ideas from them and then create activities off the back of those suggestions.