language education advice
 

Want to send my son (18 y/o) to Canada to improve English next year. Want him to take a language course and stay near a family.

Need advice pls.

Thanks

generally, just being in a country and hearing the language all the time will suffice without needing any extra training, especially at that age, their brains are like a sponge (mines more like a sieve now!)

Does he already have some level of English?

Yes, he has basic... but a bit lazy as usual nowadays within youth.... He is more interested in games, computer and internet...

They have computer games and the internet in Canada too.
Sounds like he actually needs to improve his social skills rather than learn another language. Have you considered finding a group that needs volunteers which will ensure he has to interact with others which in turn will improve his confidence in chatting to others in English.
There's plenty of suggestions. Working with disadvantaged kids or an orphanage or in an animal sanctuary are just a few ideas :)

If only it were that easy to drag a teenager away from their technology! And then you actually have to motivate them to do something!

Hello
Moggy, your are right about the being surrounded 24/7 by the language, but although english is a relatively easy language to learn that won't be enough.
Grammer,vocabulary and all that boring stuff doesn't find its way into the brain in the right order without a teacher, even english natives should go to school...
Samy, I've done this several times myself and I found the key to learn a language is to try to think in it, but that only works if you try not use your native language at that time. The worst you can do is pay a lot of money for the school and he spends all his time with classmates of your homecountry.
But, the most important thing of all, he must want to learn.
sushi

Yes he wants to learn for sure and he is a social boy. Sure he likes games and computers but not spending all of his time with them.
I want him to be in a "everybody speaks English" surround rather than he can find somebody who can speak his native language.

I think best will be search in gogle and give a try.

Hello Samy
I was at this school in 1996
Welcome to the UBC English Language Institute - ESL in Vancouver, Canada
It's like a regular school but within the university with access to social programms of the university and much more that a school in downtown can't provide.
sushi

Motivation is everything with languages. My son was taught German at school and hated it, had no interest and we had to pay for a private tutor to get him a "c" grade at gcse. He now speaks fluent Mandarin and Swedish. The difference? - girlfriends! He lives in Amsterdam but has only basic Dutch because everyone speaks English.

We've tried total immersion in French with my (teenage) daughter as she did it at school, my wife and I speak it reasonably well and we have a flat in the French Alps. We'd go down there with her and only speak French for a week or two (practice for us as well) but she'd refuse to take part and only spoke English.

I suspect your son will learn English easily enough but only if he wants to. A Canadian girlfriend would probably help! :thumbup1:

he can help himself for this :thumbup1:

I can't be able to help :thumbdown:

I will let him know about this advice ;)