A language stay is a trip abroad to learn or improve your knowledge of a language in the country where it is spoken. This helps you progress in the real environment of the language and learn through practice. That’s why accommodation is often with a host family.

The program includes:

• language courses;
• excursions;
• cultural visits;
• fun and sports activities.

On average, a language stay lasts from one to four weeks, with most taking place during Easter and summer holidays.

Language stays are organized by private agencies, so prices can vary. It’s best to go with an accredited agency, which means an agency that has received official recognition from a public authority.

For more information on language stays, visit jugendinfo.lu.

To improve your language skills online, participate in a language tandem for free, a kind of online language exchange program. The concept is simple: if you are fluent in French and want to improve your Greek, you need to find a Greek-speaking partner who wants to learn French. You meet online and share speaking time.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of :

• Babbel
• Busuu
• Conversation Exchange
• My Language Exchange
• Open Language Exchange
• Tandem

Some platforms offer paid options with tutors.

Participants in an Erasmus+ mobility project can benefit from online language support. You can evaluate your skills in the foreign languages you use to study, work, or volunteer abroad. After taking a level test, you have the opportunity to get free language courses.

If you have already been selected to go abroad with Erasmus+ or the European Solidarity Corps, you’ll get access to OLS (Online Language Support).

For more details, contact your sending institution, coordinating organization or your national agency. 

Before going abroad, it can be useful to determine your level in foreign languages.

The sites below offer online language tests. They are free, but for most, you need to sign up before you can take the test. The results cannot be used for certification purposes. It’s only an approximate evaluation of your language skills, which gives you an idea of your ability to handle daily life in the destination country.

• ADomLingua
• Berlitz
• Cactus
• Centre d’échanges internationaux
• ESL
• Inlingua
• Institut national des langues
• Sprachcaffe
• Victoria’s English
• WEP

If you want to share your culture and language while deepening your knowledge of another culture, become a language assistant abroad!  It is a native speaker who supports the main language teacher, thus helping . the students to benefit from contact with a native speaker of the language being taught.

Erasmus in School is a platform that connects language assistants with schools or companies for free.

UA part of the Erasmus+ program encourages meetings and exchanges of practices among people working in the youth sector and non-formal education. This includes youth workers, social workers, trainers, project promoters and others. The supported activities include:

• seminars;
• training courses;
• meetings;
• study visits;
• job shadowing abroad.

Depending on the type of activity, they can last between 5 and 21 days and accommodate up to 50 participants aged 13 to 30.

Contact the National Agency for the Erasmus+ program for more information.

SALTO stands for Support and Advanced Learning & Training Opportunities. In cooperation with the national agencies of the Erasmus+ program, SALTO resource centers organize:

• training courses;
• seminars;
• conferences;
• study visits.

These activities are aimed at professionals working with young people and mainly focus on Erasmus+ actions. The calendar of training sessions in the youth field, funded by Erasmus+, is available on salto-youth.net.

European Space Camp is an organization that hosts an annual summer camp at the Andøya Space Center in Norway.

Conditions

• Be between 17 and 20 years old;
• Have a passion for science and space;
• Be skilled in mathematics and physics;
• Have excellent proficiency in English;
• Accommodation and meals during the week at Andøya, as well as transport between Andenes airport and the launch site, are covered by the organization.

More information: European Space Camp.

A MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is an online course open to everyone. Most are short video courses combined with other resources like for example a quiz to test what you’ve learned. Here are some examples of MOOCs:

• Canvas ;
• Coursera ;
• Edx ;
• Future Learn ;
• My Mooc.

Attention, not all MOOCs issue certificates to participants who successfully complete the course! If your goal is to obtain a diploma, check out these sites instead:

• Open university ;
• Centre national d’enseignement à distance.

Note: Most of the time MOOCs which deliver a certificate are not free.

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