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In 1965, a mathematics teacher was looking for an organization that could take charge of his hearing-impaired daughter so that she could go and learn English in England, with a host family. Finding no organization offering this type of service, he took his daughter on a language trip himself. Upon his return, he created the SILC association (Séjours Internationaux Linguistiques et Culturels) with a single mission: ” To enable young people to better understand the world around them and foreign languages through immersion in a foreign country.”
SILC language stays
SILCIn over 50 years, SILC’s offering has regularly evolved to adapt to the changing world and the new behaviors of today’s young travelers. A real business expertise that translates into a broad and personalized offer: stays are offered in around fifteen countries in order to provide “recipes that work” for learning a language, but also personal development and openness to the world.
So, whether it is for a packaged or tailor-made language stay , a short, medium or long-term education abroad , or even for the organization of a school trip , you will benefit from valuable advice to prepare your project with complete peace of mind.
Please note: SILC sent more than 15,000 young people last year. Among the participants in the language stays, more than 94% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their SILC adventure. Behind the scenes, a team of 40 permanent employees, based in France, create and coordinate the stays with the local teams, and provide a 24/7 presence. So you can leave with peace of mind and confidence!
Anecdote: this is now the third generation of travellers to leave with SILC: the young people who leave on a trip may have a parent or grandparent who has themselves taken a trip with this organisation.
SILC today: strong values
SILC is a family business located in Angoulême, Charente. A team of employees, linked together by history, work to offer young people language stays and schooling abroad and teachers school trips, with the aim of learning or improving in a foreign language, while enjoying a cultural discovery. Whether it is to learn English , Spanish , German , Finnish or Chinese , SILC has a range of stays adapted to everyone.
Over time, SILC has forged an identity around strong values that have allowed it to remain at the forefront of innovation to offer ever more interesting and attractive stays for young people.
Security
adventure campFully aware that it is not always easy for a father or mother to let their child go abroad, sometimes to the other side of the world, SILC makes it a point of honour to guarantee the safety of young people who go on a stay during or outside the holidays. To do this, this organiser has set up a large network of trusted local correspondents , whose role is to visit host families, ensure that students are welcomed in schools, ensure that the stays run smoothly, and who act as a link with the supervisors of the stays.
In addition, the partners on site are reliable and responsive. They respect a code of conduct based on competence and integrity, guaranteeing young people secure places to stay, collective accommodation that complies with current standards and host families that meet the criteria of the AFNOR standard (SILC is one of the rare organizations certified NF Services 295) and the OFFICE quality charter .
Pedagogy
As much a science of education as a teaching method, pedagogy is, according to etymology, the art of leading young people. Thus, SILC designs stays that adapt to the needs of each individual and implements tips to facilitate language learning. For example, with the “Live in” stay range, students do not go to a classroom, but benefit from lessons outdoors, directly on the ground. What could be better than being in front of London’s Tower Bridge to evoke its history?
The aim of SILC language stays is to extend and complete the teaching provided in France by placing particular emphasis on the practice of the language orally . The young person can then enrich their vocabulary and acquire linguistic ease, a skill that is highly appreciated when taking exams, in professional life or even to be independent when traveling abroad.
The meeting and the discovery
Going abroad for an immersion allows you to get in touch with the reality of a language and the people who speak it. Even if this idea is widespread today, only ten years ago, young people who dared to go abroad alone were considered pioneers.
During a stay abroad, the adventure materializes at every moment : during travel when young people have to familiarize themselves with the local public transport network; during free time, to ask for directions, the price of a product, answer a quiz, etc. Thus, during the stays, everything is done to encourage young people to reach out to others, speak a language with which they are not very comfortable and come back grown up, confident, and after some time of this immersion, bilingual!
Personal development
Rubbing shoulders with another culture, locals, a cuisine and customs different from one’s habits requires “getting out of one’s comfort zone” to open up to the world. This interlude encourages self-responsibility, autonomy and boosts self-confidence. Thus, stays play a predominant role in the development of young people.
In addition, during SILC stays, there are times when the young person must demonstrate autonomy and resourcefulness , always within a controlled framework: they contribute to socializing the young person , making them responsible and making them an actor in their stay. For example, taking public transport to get to the course location from the host family’s home; during a traveling stay, doing the shopping for the group and preparing meals; during free time or shopping time, respecting timetable instructions, organizing one’s time, knowing how to manage one’s budget, etc.