Language Travel: The Living Classroom

Stop for a moment and picture this: The sun is just starting to touch the ocean-filled horizon, it gently warms your face as wave after wave lazily roll up onto the beach. Your mind is awash with the vivid memories of your day’s adventure. The Parthenon looked particularly spectacular today but now you sit, your shoeless feet dug firmly into the white sand of this Mediterranean paradise. Most importantly you feel both happy and proud of the fact that you helped to provide not just a language education to your students - who by the way, also have their feet dug into the sand right by yours - but a total life experience.

‘Wait, hold on’, you say, ‘students...students, how did my students manage to slip into this rather pleasant daydream?’

Well I’m glad you ask. The answer is quite simple. You are what is commonly referred to as a “tour manager.” Sounds complicated: “I’d have to organize flights, what about accommodation, transfers, insurance?” are the immediate questions that leap into your mind. Legitimate concerns, yes, but completely unnecessary thanks solely to education travel tour operators.

And there are many tour operators in the field of educational travel. Some are huge, like EF, sending thousands of students all around the world each year. Others are smaller, concentrating on tailor-made packages for school groups. One of the bigger operators is CHA (Cultural Heritage Alliance). CHA, founded by a high school foreign language teacher in 1969, has sent over one million students on tours that they describe as a “living classroom.” In common with many other operators, CHA offer the services of local representatives as guides, remaining with your group throughout the trip. Another major operator is ACIS (American Council of International Studies) who send many thousands of high-schoolers to Europe and Mexico accompanied by their teachers.

“And the catch is?” I’m glad you asked. There really is no catch except it is up to you to rally your students - and their parents - around the idea of receiving part of their education, at a price, well outside the bounds of their classroom. To fuel your enthusiasm to become a tour manager most operators offer free travel and cash incentives to teachers, based on the number of students you recruit for your group.

Tour operators such as ACIS and CHA, tell potential tour managers that with only six full-paying passengers you travel for free (Right now, I’m hearing that lovable fatherly role model, Homer J Simpson, saying “woohoo”). ACIS and CHA also sweeten the deal, teachers traveling for the first time only need five paying students in their group to go for free.
So the dilemma really lies in the choice of destination and the tour operator you choose to sign up with. Each offers something different, ACIS, for example, has representatives who will help you prepare for school board approval or come to meet the parents of your students interested in making the trip.

“So, how much really then?’ I’m glad you asked. Most of the operators work on nine to 14 day tours, ranging between approximately $1000 to $3000 for each student. Casterbridge Tours, for example, offer a 9-day tour of Great Britain for $1465 or the 14-day ‘soccer in England’ package for around $2,200. Any soccer fans in your foreign language class would jump at the chance to watch professional soccer in England. CHA will also take you to China for 13 days for $2349. Taking in the view from atop the Great Wall of China as your students think about what they are going to order for dinner in their newly acquired Chinese vocabulary is not a bad way to spend the day.

Each operator offers a variety of packages and will even tailor tours to suit you and your students needs. Travel Systems Abroad will take you to Australia; SpanCom will guide you through Mexico’s ancient ruins; CHA will have you gazing over the blue waters of the Costa Del Sol, in Spain, or Culture Quest will whisk you off to Northern Europe. Basic payment structures outlined by each operator are based on expenses such as travel, accommodation, insurance, transfers and food allowances. It is very important that you read the fine print of the “tour manager” documentation, whether it be promotional brochures or official forms, as some operators require a registration fee and other seldom-thought of, but legitimate expenses, before you even get on an airplane.

“Enough of the technical stuff!” Okay, tour managers, one and all, concur that once the tour has begun, the planning and organizing of your students to make the journey, is very rewarding and worthwhile. Teresa Reichert, a teacher from California, said of her CHA-lead adventure: “Touring the world with young people is the way to understanding different cultures and is one of the most enriching experiences a student could have.”

We all know, teaching our youth can be one of the most rewarding experiences life can provide. But most of that education is offered from within the confines of your classroom. The prospect of a full sensory education, for both your students and yourself, is a lure within itself. It provides you with the opportunity to further connect with your students and the possibility of enhancing their learning potential.

Ohio teacher Pat Bradesca-Schook, on her “Golden Age of Spain” Casterbridge Tour agrees: “The students were fascinated by the history and architecture of Spain.

“They also appreciated being able to actually use the Spanish they had previously studied and were proud to discover they could communicate in a foreign language.”

If a tour manager is not quite what you had in mind for an out-of-country experience, your Spanish learners might consider a homestay education in Tepoztlán, Mexico, with SpanCom. For as little as $120 registration and $150 a week you and your students can attend daily workshops whilst living with Mexican host families. The option to stay at a motel, for a little extra money, is also available. SpanCom also offers more intense one-on-one sessions. John Key, who works with a Christian children’s home and school in Mexico, said the live-in environment was highly beneficial. “Studying with SpanCom has been a rewarding experience. I feel that I have gone from no Spanish to being able to communicate with my Spanish-speaking friends. I would highly recommend SpanCom and I plan to take more advanced courses from them myself. There is just no comparison with the course I took back in Tennessee. I learned so, so much more,” Key said.

Wherever you teach or study, it is important to remember the classroom is sometimes larger than the four walls around you. Whatever way you choose to experience a foreign land and its language - as a tour manager, or even a student yourself it is sure to be a rewarding experience.

Chaz Penedes is a staffwriter for American Language Review