Benefits of a Spanish Language residential course
Last week we hosted an information evening to talk about our next Spanish language residential course to Valencia in March 2024!
We spoke about our carefully planned itinerary and all the benefits you can experience by fully immersing yourself in the culture, language and Fallas festival that this historical city has to offer.
But when organising a new residential trip, we always anticipate the question – why would you pay to come on a residential trip with the VICI academy, when you could organise it as a holiday by yourself?
“I’m interested in going on an immersive Spanish language residential, but I’m not sure why it’s so much more beneficial compared to booking the holiday myself?”
It’s a great point! You could totally do that, but would you come away with the same feeling of challenging your brain and expanding your language horizons?
Read on to find out why immersing yourself in a Spanish language residential programme is unrivalled to booking your own holiday.
Education is the number one goal!
Sure, you could easily book your flights and hotel, sit in the same restaurants, and drink the same sangria as we will with VICI, but will your primary focus be on learning Spanish?
Think back to a previous holiday you’ve been on – we’ve all been there sitting in those sun-soaked terrace cafes immersing yourself in the local language and activities around you, sipping on a lovely cold beer (“dos cervezas por favor”)… sounds amazing!
But did your brain feel challenged?
Did you feel nervous and embarrassed you might get the phrase wrong and revert back to English?
Did you come home from your trip feeling like you had truly broadened your understanding of the language?
We know this feeling ourselves, it’s hard to motivate ourselves when we’re just starting out on our language learning journey, especially if we’re on holiday and we just don’t feel like it.
Learning is fun, and what a great opportunity to do so whilst soaking up the culture with a group of people who have the same intentions as you. Not only feeling relaxed, but you can challenge your brain with new-found confidence.
Benefits of language learning while attending a residential programme
Focusing first on improving language skills and challenging ourselves outside of our comfort zone is our number one goal for the trip.
The culture, historical and environment are just the cherry on top of the cake!
When attending a VICI Spanish language residential course, the key benefits of learning in an immersive environment are:
You’ll be accompanied by professional coach and native Spanish speaker Esther, who is trained in grammatical and linguistic Spanish language skills.
For example – you’re headed to Valencia Cathedral and want to know how you would describe your way to get there. We can help with that!
Immersive challenges – order the drinks round, navigate the public transport system and learn new phrases at every shop you stop at. You don’t need to worry about mistakes if you have our coach there to support you.
Not only helping you to not be nervous (which you might be on your own), there are so many benefits to learning with other people:
- Shared understanding and learning – help each other to navigate the Spanish language.
- Empathy and encouragement – take turns to try out your phrases.
- Memorable encounters and new friendships – need we say more?
- Improved confidence and self-esteem.
Our testimonials from previous trips only highlight this more.
Use your VICI notebook (it’s yours to keep) filled with phrases to help you through the day. You can also journal your experience and write your learnings and notes.
We organise the whole thing for you, so you can focus your attention on learning!
Hopefully that’s enough to prove how fantastic and beneficial our residential programmes are, but just in case here’s a testimonial from our previous trip:
“It was an excellent trip! The dedication, enthusiasm and planning of the team made it a totally unique learning experience… By the last day, I felt almost like a local, chatting to the shopkeeper, rather than just pointing and muttering “deux baguettes et cinq croissants, s.v.p.” as I would have done before the trip.
I would definitely recommend this immersion programme to others, it was totally what I had hoped for and it more than met my expectations.
Well done VICI.”
PENNY RAWLE
Who is the residential for?
We all know the benefits of language learning as you can read in our blog here, so we really do welcome everyone: any age, any type of learner and any level of Spanish language learning!
Our dates are booked to fit around school holidays so you can come as a family if you want to.
Can you identify your learner type below? Every type of learner is welcome!
- An immersion seeker: motivated to achieve fluency in an immersive environment.
- An experiential learner: best with hands-on experiences and practical application.
- A social learner: thrive with learning whilst interacting with others.
- A linguistic and cultural enthusiast: passionate about exploring different languages and cultures.
- A career-oriented learner: aspire to reach new language goals connected with your career.
How to book?
Head to our Spanish residential language course page to learn more about the itinerary and contact our team to book.
If you’re local to the VICI school in Newbury and wanting to learn Spanish in Berkshire, just pop by and we would be happy to chat more and offer you more information!