ee) Language holidays ‘A Skiing plus city VIENNA Combine the horsectrawn carsages, rich chocolate cake and Hapsburg elegance of Vienna with the slopes at Kitebuhel, Cactus Languages (01273 687697; wonwcactuslanguage com) offers wo ‘weeks’ German tuition inthe Austrian ‘capital: 25 lessons per week for £289 and fortnight's B&B with 3 host family for £300. Then take train ride into the Tyrolean mountains for skiing and snowboarding. Return rail ticket, transfers, seven night’ B&B threestar guesthouse accommodation and six-day lift pass is £299, 8 Myths MOUNT oLYMeUS Pipers Language Centre (0030 42 023 3874: ‘wwe xplperis gr) aters one, two-and three-week language courses by the ea {in central Greece atthe foot of Mount ‘Olympus from May to September: Modern Greek, Ancient Greek history and Greek mythology are all on offer. You can stay inahotel ora caravan. The course includes Shoursa week Greek tutoring traditional dances, evenings with Greek food and wine, musical events, optional excursions to historical and archeological sits of central ‘Greece, and accommodation, from '$700-8900 per week. © Wine tasting TUSCANY ‘his course allows the budding talian speaker fo practise other skillsin the cultural centre of Tuscany, and all within the family home. Practical cookery, wine tasting, art design and/or painting are all on offer. Cactus Languages offers stays witha family who will aso be ‘your tutors. One week's standard, full-board, transfers, excursions and 20 formal lessons cats £729, tuition tiu'yfn_ lessons fortnight ‘font two weeks (literally “fourten nights’) BBB bed and breakfast (normally ina home or family hotel) host family a family youstay with ‘when you are on holiday or on a course D Culture Vultures ST PETERSBURG ‘While brushing up your Russian, enjoy the world’s greatest shrine to selFimprovement. Catherine the Great's Hermitage, which she filled with the ‘nest works of art available, Cactus Languages offers a week's course in the former capital cy of Rusia, including 20 hours of tution, excursions and Activities, for €168.4 week's halboard accommodation with a host family staying in the city’s histori centre costs £180, E Salsa HAVANA earn to communicate verbally and ‘through dance inthe salsacrazy Cuban capita. Cac Languages offers atwo:week course, including four morning Spanish Jessons and two afternoon salss lessons per day, arranged seminars, ours and evenings out for £427. Two weeks' halEboard with 4 host family costs €336, F Riviera Affair ST RAPHAEL With its abundance of sporting and cultural activities, the Riviera isa great place to practise your French in the morning and relaxin the afternoon. This course includes a busy leisure programme - watersports, golfing, checking out art, eating barbecues to fil time after lessons at the France langue and Culture school in St Raphael. Tanguage Holidays (00 46 8 350608 ‘wwvrfrenchlanguageholidays.com) offers seven levels of tuition, from kids ‘to language teachers and from three tO ight hours a day. Prices start at €480 {or two weeks’ morning tuition course fees, or €800 fora forznights tution and half-board witha host family, transfers transport from the aport or station fo your accommodation and back ‘catavan mobile home pulled by a car and used for camping. full-board accommodation including ‘three meals a day (breakfast inch, dinner) PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS G Turtle conservation COSTA RICA This long-stay course (two months ‘minimum) combines learning Spanish, \with the conservation of endangered sea Turtles in Costa Rica: joining coast patrls, Dbserving, investigating and reporting their ‘behaviour. The trip starts with a month's Spanish course in coastal Paya Flamingo or Monteverde jin the cloud forest) to prepare you for between one and five months" ‘conservation work a either Gandoca or Manzanillo beach. Cactus Fanguages offers a four week language course followed by ‘ fourweek placement, eight weeks’ fk board accommodation with ahost family and social programme for £1,329, H Scuba diving TENERIFE Plunge deep into the Atlantic acean on this course combining seuba diving with Spanish, offthe Tenerife coast. In two ‘weeks, you get four hours Spanish teaching per day, two swimming-pool jmmersions and three ocean immersions before the finalday test in the Atlantic Don Quijote UK (020.8786 808i: ‘wurw.donquijete co.uk) ofer this course, including insurance and equipment, for €649. Two weeks half board with a host family costs an extra €372. haltboord accommodation including breakfast and dinner but not lunch fees the money you pay for lessons ora course placement & period of temporary work ‘experience (also called an internship)1,1 reading 1 activating a Tick v the ways you have tried to learn English or another language. acioxound knoiecde staying in a formal classroom envisonment (at school, university. in a language school, ei.) studying by yourself (with books, cassettes, multi-media packs, etc) hhaving individual lessons with a teacher going on a course in a country where the language is spoken oooo spending time in an envionment (country, social group, workplace) where the language is spoken and just trying to ‘pick it up” (1 doing a crash course in one month. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the ways you have tried? b Agree on a combination of ways that would provide an excellent environment for learning a language. 2 understanding Sometimes we read for very specific information and ignore much of the rest of the specific information text. We usually have an idea ofthe specific words we are looking forsa i's a good idea to keep these in mind and nat be cistracted by the rest ofthe text. This kind of reading is often called scanning. a Read the short descriptions of language holidays. How many different languages can you study? b Are these statements about the language holidays TRUE (T) 0: FALSE(F)? Holiday ‘A These are three-week holidays. B Trips are not included in the price. C Teachers come to the house where you are staying. Qa D This holiday includes lessons on art oO E This holiday has a varied socal programme oO F These courses are only for advanced students o G You study Spanish for two months on this course. Oo H_ You go diving every day on this holiday. o 3. reading for details 4 Read the adverts and suggest a suitable holiday for the people below. Sometimes more than one answer is possible, 1 Peter is 52 years old and enjoys city sightseeing. He only hasa week's holiday. 2 Phil and Sabrina are both 34. They would lke a hotiday that offers a mixture of language, culture and fun, They do not want to stay with a host family 3 Dawnis 26. She would like to get to know plenty of other people and have fun and keep fit on her language holiday. 4 Zafreen is 22 and is training to be a chef, He'd like to develop his language and professional skills on his holiday. 5. Emma wants to take a year off between school anid university to learn a language, travel around and ideally learn some new skills 6 Dick and Jennifer are a couple in their 40s with two children aged 10 and 14. ‘They are hoping to have a family holiday in the summer where they can all have fun as well as improve their language skills, b Now recommend a holiday for the people below. Give reasons for your choices. + your parents + your teacher + your bestfriend + yourself 6 PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS = eCpeels) The best way to learn a language is to eat, sleep, live and breathe it 4 Istill have bad dreams about my school French exchange. ‘And when I decided in later life that it might actualy be ite nice to master another language, opted for a clean breake Spanish. © Three years of half-finished evening classes later, I could orderin restaurant and ask directions, but my conversational sills were limited to asking everybody how many brothers and sisters they had. ‘The only true way to master a language isto live and 10 breathe it for aperiod of time, but one little word always stopped me: homestay. Then I saw that tour operator Journey Latin America had started offering Spanish «courses in Peru. The opportunity to realise two long-held ambitions in one holiday to improve my Spanish and to 15 see Machu Picchu — proved irresistible. My misgivings evaporate the moment I am met by my ‘surrogate’ family the Rojas, at Cusco airport. They greet sme warmly, like an old friend. Carlos is an optician and. Carmucha owns restaurant, and they live ina 2 comfortable house right in the centre of town. They have four children, ranging in age from 18 to nine years old. ‘Onarrival at the house I'm given coca tea to counteract the effects of Cusco’ high altitude and shown to my bedroom. Garmucha gives me a set of keys and the 2% youngest child, Robert, solemnly ends me his Mickey Monse keyring to use forthe week. Tam whisked off to family friend’s birthday party, where I understand no one and nothing apart from the bit ‘where they sing Happy Biethday. By the end of the 38 evening my face aches from holding an expression of polite, but uncomprehending interest for six hours, and 1 fall into bed wondering what ve let myself infor. The following morning, [am woken by Carmuchs, who snnounces that she is going to take me to schocl. Not only 3 does she walk meto school, but she also insists on waiting ‘outside the classroom as sit my placement test. feel 13 years old again, ‘While waiting to be assigned a teacher, I get to know ‘my new school chums, We are from England, America, 4 New Zealand, Holland, and Sweden. We are aged between 19 and 48, and spending an average of two weeks 10a Immerses involves deeply surrounds tally Irresistible something you can't refuse misgivings mis grnz doubts feelings of uncertainty «Joanne O'Connor immerses herself in the language in Cusco Surrogate ‘saragat something that is used in place of something else ‘month studying Spanish here before spending some time travelling around, The director ofthe Academia Latinosmericana de Espaftol gives us an introductory briefing. From flights ‘0 Inca Teal tours, to extra blankets at aight, it seems there isnothing the school cannot fx fr us. ‘We ate assigned a teacher forthe week and, asit is not yet high season, we ae all impressed / alarmed to learn that tuition wil be one-to-one, though even in high season the maximum class size swells to only four pupils. As the week unfolds, Islip into a routine, Four hours ‘of classes in the morning (broken up by pop songs, video clips, a coffee break, and lots of conversational practice), 55 back home fora huge lunch with the family, and afternoons free for sightseeing or to oia in on the excellent extracurricular activities laid on by the school. ‘As the week wears on, a strange thing stats to happen: the dinner-table chatter, whic at frst was 60 so much ‘white noise starts to have some meaning and, miraculously, I can follow the thread of the conversation. may not be able to make a profound and interesting contribution, but at lest [know when to laugh now. © Theend of the week comes too quickly and Thave not seen all ofthe sights I wanted to see but [have started to dream in Spanish, Carlos tells me Iwill have to come back next year, and we will ll walk the Inca Trail together. I don't know if e is serious or not, but it's 2» anice thought ‘whisked off taken immediately Fy opted fora clean break decided to do something completely diferent assigned given ‘chums an old-fashioned word for fiends unfolds/wears on passes or develops thread of the conversation main message ofthe conversation PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSSPEC} 1 activating background knowledge 2 reading for Read this anecdote told by someone who had a bad experience on a language exchange holiday. What is your reaction to it? You've never really experienced true misery unless you ve had to empty your bath water with the lid ofa shampoo bole and throw it down the sink Because you can't work out how to get she bath plug out and you are 13 and staying with a French family and are too scared to ask Read the article and complete this ‘fact file’ about Joanne’s trip. specific information GENERAL senor STUDENT POPULATION Traveler's ame o_ Jone Onna Name 7 Counties ofergin 12 Tour operator 1 locaton 5 Alt Young eae 18 Language 2 lassie 9 Reasons ir sting 16 = County 3 Hours auton 10 Accommadation “Homestay Hoe / ther cyan Subs Ful-board Habeas ar activites 1 3. inferring the writer’s meaning Writers often suggest ideas na text without actually stating them directly. Itis the | reader's job to ‘read between the lines’ on these occasions and try to guess what the ‘writer means from the words he/she uses What does Joanne really mean when she says the following? 1 amy conversational skills were limited to asking everybody how many brothers and sisters they had. (lines 6-8) a She didn’t like talking about families in Spanish, She could only ask one question in Spanish. © She was frustrated because she couldn't have a teal conversation in Spanish 2 ...one litle word always stopped me: homestay. (lines 10-11) a She didn't want to repeat a bad experience. b She couldn't afford to stay with a family. She didn't like the sound of the two words 3. feel 13 years old again. (lines 36-37) a She feels angry because Carmucha is treating her like a child, b She appreciates Carmucha’s kindness and support. ¢ She doesn’t want to be left alone. 4... Tslip into a routine, (line 52) a The days become rather boring, b Things become comfortable and familiar. © There is not much variety on the course. 5. Imay not be able to make a profeund and interesting contribution, but at least I know when to laugh now: (lines 62-64) a. She realises she has made some progress. b Sheis sill dissatisfied with her Spanish. She feels happier now. 6 ...but I have started to dream in Spanish. (lines 66-67) a She has bad dreams about Spanish, bb She feels tis time to leave because she has achieved her aim, © Shes pleased because Spanish has become more natural for her. PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 9