Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[stellara]

hello!

I'm not quite sure if this issue is set right here in "Opinions" but at least that's more visited than "Travel" or anything else.

Okay, I have heard of these student exchange programs called working-holiday (at least it's called like that in USA, New Zealand and Australia) or just practicals for the English-speaking countries. I now am considering to do such an exchange for some weeks/month and I want to hear some experiences from those of you who have done this already or can help me in any other way with my decision.

I don't wanna study English in the first way but I want to improve my speaking and my listening skills, hmm, better said, my english in general. so I thought an exchange is the best way, in combination with a practical because I'll be finished with school next year and in a practical I can learn much more about the actual life/culture and the work, too, than in school again I hope.
so, I considered either New Zealand/Auckland (because my friend has done an exchange to NZ for half a year and she found it awesome ) or else Australia/Perth or Sydney, or, on the other hand, Ireland.
what's speaking for Ireland is that the flight to NZ or Australia is much more expensive than to Ireland.. Living there is cheaper in the contrary, and likely nicer

so, please, if anyone has made any experience with working holiday programy or practicals abroad or just exchanges, can you tell me?
thank you!

greets
_________________
Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened!

MOKEY ROCKS!!!

[RedRose]

what do you mean about "exchange"? do you mean that two people, with different mother languages, teach each other his/her own language? for example, you teach me German and I teach you Chinese?

I have no experience of working-holiday, but I think it would be a neat an idea, if you don't consider money.

I suppose that this working-holiday would cost a lot of money. after all, you go to a strange country for learning a second langue, you have to hire an apartment, buy commodities, pay for schooling...everything requires money. therefore, I think it is an expensive and effective way to improve english listening and speaking.

[stellara]

no, you misunderstood me

there are organizations who offer the working-holiday program. you pay a certain amount of money, and they organize for you the appartement (mostly like an aupair, you can chose to live with a native family or with other exchange students together in an appartement), they offer you some job possibilities, in Australia or NZ that can be on a sheep farm or some usual jobs.
then you live there and have a job, each for some weeks, just as you like it. you just have to search a flight for yourself, in about every other detail the organziation will help you.

and the word exchange is maybe not so convenient it's used to describe the possibilities for young people to go abroad and improve their language skills, just by living in another country.
_________________
Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened!

MOKEY ROCKS!!!

[RedRose]

oh, that would be a great idea. anyway, living with a native family is the best way to improve oral English. I wish I had such a chance.

but if I go abraod, I might not survive from that country, because my English is awful and I am bad at farm work. however, if I have such a chance, I am still willing to take a try. because I love English so much, and I wanna learn oral English well so that I can teach my daughter English. In China, if a kid has good English, that partly means that she/he may have good future.

[element105]

don't ignore dialect from those countries on your list,IMO,north America maybe satisfy you

[stellara]

[Bob S.]

Unfortunately, the U.S. does not have a Working Holiday Visa program like Canada or Australia. Though if you look at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services web site, they have all kinds of temporary visitor visas for students, business, and temporary workers from foreign offices. What is what, I don't know. It is all so complicated.

I knew a couple of college girls from Japan who went overseas on working holidays. One got a job at a gift shop in Australia, another got a waitress job at a Japanese restaurant in Canada. The pay was enough to stay and take some English classes when not working, but you couldn't really save a lot of money at it (not that you'd want to since you'd want to spend all your extra money on sightseeing trips around the region!).

A brief list of countries with (some reciprocating) Working Holiday Visa programs include: United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Germany, Malta, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Australia, & New Zealand. check that country's consulate home page for info about how to apply. They usually require tha applicant to be between 18 and 30 years of age.

[stellara]