Holiday child care - who doesn't need it?
Language holidays - who wouldn't benefit? We combine them. |
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Famillage partnerships are much more than a useful combination of holiday child care and language holidays. They let kids discover places and lifestyles, other ways of thinking, working and socializing. Famillages give young people access to other climates and habitats. They are eye-openers.
Wonderful places to practice English skills:
Many Europeans currently prefer to stay on their continent for their summer holidays.
The possibilities within Europe are tremendous, and there's hardly a language that cannot be learned and practised
here (more!). However, "English rulz", so Brexit has been another hot topic ever since the referendum in June 2016.
What would the options be for European families seeking to give their kids access to English-speaking peers?
The possibilities within Europe are tremendous, and there's hardly a language that cannot be learned and practised
here (more!). However, "English rulz", so Brexit has been another hot topic ever since the referendum in June 2016.
What would the options be for European families seeking to give their kids access to English-speaking peers?
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Whilst the UK today is still a very attractive place for exchange, many other attractive destinations are now on the radar too - amongst them is Malta! Malta is not just a beautiful island for a summer holiday, it has thousands of open-minded families, very happy to establish partnerships with others from all over Europe and beyond. Jakob from Eindhoven first went to Malta with his parents when he was 14. A year later, he spent the entire summer there, became an excellent swimmer and his English improved tremendously. |
His partner family's parents, the Calleyas, couldn't get any time off work throughout the summer months, so Jakob spent most of his time with their son Jack and the grandparents. At sixteen, Jack and Jakob traded places in school for one year and now, as both are about to finish their schools successfully, Jack is already planning on studying at Eindhoven University of Technology. He won't have to worry about accommodation there!
Bilingual and keen for more:
The Försters have two sons, they're 12 and 16. The Latimers have one son, he is almost 15.
The two families have known each other since May 2015. Ever since, they've coordinated their Easter and their summer holidays, taking turns in hosting the three boys together on both sides of the channel. In July, one week on the Isle of Wight for both families, usually followed by two weeks in Winchester for the lads. In August, the boys spend one week with grandma in the Black Forest, another with aunt Betty in Berlin and a third at the Förster's place in Karlsruhe.
Both families have seen a lot more of each other's countries than they would have ever had the chance to as mere tourists. Today, their children are bilingual.
Right now, they are expanding their cooperation to include the De Villiers family in the French Alps.
The two families have known each other since May 2015. Ever since, they've coordinated their Easter and their summer holidays, taking turns in hosting the three boys together on both sides of the channel. In July, one week on the Isle of Wight for both families, usually followed by two weeks in Winchester for the lads. In August, the boys spend one week with grandma in the Black Forest, another with aunt Betty in Berlin and a third at the Förster's place in Karlsruhe.
Both families have seen a lot more of each other's countries than they would have ever had the chance to as mere tourists. Today, their children are bilingual.
Right now, they are expanding their cooperation to include the De Villiers family in the French Alps.
The Norway-California connection:
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Both the Nordlunds and the Bentons have a 12-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son. They first established contact in June 2016 and met two months later in San Diego for a two-week holiday. Together, they travelled 500 miles up the West Coast to San Francisco.
Their language scenario is somewhat different as the Bentons speak English and Spanish (and, not surprisingly, no Norwegian). The Nord-lunds all speak fluent English and are keen to improve their Spanish.
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Both couples are marketing professionals
and have a range of mutual interests. In the summer, each family hosts the kids for three weeks. This way, there is some holiday entitlement left to spend Xmas in Norway. |
A case of three lads and three languages
Please click to see this in the case stories (which are highly recommended anyway!)
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A crucial point: Here's how we get the chemistry right!
After two years of pandemic standstill, interest in famillage holidays is now higher than ever before.
Why? Important criteria - beyond language and location - are reliability, compatible mindsets, even vaccinations.
At the same time, kids and parents long for new ideas and new challenges!
And what are the criteria that make a family partnership a much loved part of family life,
what turns a holiday spent together into a family tradition everyone is looking forward to?
How do you get the chemistry right?
A survey amongst 17,500 families, conducted in February 2022, says: It's humour.
A shared sense of humour matters even more than shared preferences in music, literature, food and drink,
sports and leisure activities, and even in political opinion. It is the strongest bond of all: A shared laugh.
And it's a sign of truly having arrived in a language: "I get it" means it's now yours.
The "wavelength-o-meter", introduced in April 2019, is a powerful tool for individual profiles:
It helps to establish if there's strong common ground for a good partnership.
See how young Global Natives learn languages!
... and why the sandbox is a wonderful place to start turning a foreign language into a familiar one.
Click to visit!
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