Malta language study travel
From June 18th to July 2nd, I was in Malta for a language trip with CLC. As my goal was to improve my English, I had English lessons at the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School in Naxxar. This school is not only specialized in English classes for language study travels, but it also provides other language classes such as French, German, Arabic, Maltese and Spanish. The school also offers scientific and humanistic subjects, arts as well as technologies. It is possible to make a training during two years and to choose the lessons to have during this time. Every year, the school prepares hundreds of students for their studies or for a career.
This is a part of the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School.
As I only had English, my classes took place between 9 a.m. and 12.30 a.m. The first day, we had to pass an English test. The teachers evaluated our level and divided the group in different classes. We could preparate ourselves to this exam before the beginning of the trip, because an online test was sent to every participant. Each class was formed by a teacher and around fifteen students. When the classes were formed, we directly began with the program of the two weeks. Every day, the teacher did some grammar and conjugation lessons, while we were learning some new vocabulary. We were especially focused on the speaking, but we also listened to a lot of songs to guess the lyrics.
During my stage at this school, I noticed some differences between this school and our school, the LFA.
Firstly, we did more lessons than in the same time at our school. This is due to the fact that the lessons in Malta were revisions and almost every subject was already mastered by the students. We spent more time on the subjects that weren't known by everyone.
The organisation of the lessons is the second difference. In Malta, most of the exercises were done oraly. The exercises we did in our notebook were accompanied by some music. This is not recurring in our school. Unlike what we could think, the music helped us to be more concentrated. In general, the class was calm during these two weeks and the teacher hadn't to ask for silence. This may be related to the number of students in one class and to the fact that everyone was there voluntarily and had an interest to learn.
The last and biggest difference I noticed is the miss of secularism. In Malta, the secularism doesn't exist. A catholic education is proposed in every public school and the students are free to take part of this education or not. During our stage, we didn't talk about religion because we were only there to learn English, but we could see the crucifix hanging in every classroom. This would not happen in France in public school, as the state is secular. In my hostfamily, there was also a crucifix and we could see that religion has another function than in France.
This is an example of a classroom at the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary school with a crucifix on the wall.
The English lessons were only one of the reasons why I went to Malta. The second reason is the visiting of the island. Every afternoon, we had a different program, also in English. We went to several beaches, but we also visited the towns and learned about the history of Malta. As I mentionned before, we lived in hostfamilies. I was in a hostfamily with Johanna Choultz and two other girls from antoher organisation. Our family was kind, but as it was written in a prospectus we got before the beginning of the trip, we weren't really integrated in the family. However, our guest mother told us where we could go to do some shopping and we were free to go out during the evenings. That is why we visited more than with the organisation, as we used the public busses to travel through the island.
The Blue Lagoon in Comino (an island next to Malta)
To conclude, the two weeks in Malta were rewarding. I could improve my English and visit a new country I never had been before. It was also an experience to talk to someone who only understands English and to practice the language in a family. In addition to this, we were independent and had to organise ourselves to go to places we wanted to go. I would recommend to everyone to do this experience and to travel to a place where you've never been. It's important to be open-minded for new things and a new culture. In my case, the meals in the family were the only problems I had, but I still ate almost everything they gave us, even if I didn't always like it. I think it is a part of the trip to be able to adapt to a different lifestyle.
However, I'm keeping really good memories from the trip and I would maybe travel back to Malta for one or two weeks to enjoy the sun, the beautiful beaches and the Maltese culture.