Typical Schedule

The typical day during the home Stay is divided into three parts—classes, which run from 9am to 12:30pm; afternoon activities which differ among the programs; and nights (6pm to the next morning) which are spent with your family. Weekends, from Friday after class until Monday morning, are almost always spent with your family.

"The experiences Alex enjoyed this summer were over the top fantastic! He is still high on France, everyone from Rassias, and the other kids in the program, and most importantly he loves showing his command of the language. We couldn’t have asked for more—life experiences and another language all wrapped up in one incredible package! The only question we have: how do you
do it?"

- Harry and Ellen Levitt, parents of Alex and Teddy, France

Weekdays for all programs start with language instruction. Each program group is divided by proficiency into two or sometimes three sections based on the assessment testing we perform during program orientation. Each section has at least one Master Class and two Drill Classes per weekday, each lasting about 50 minutes.

Master Class is used to teach grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary with the assistance of over 40 different techniques developed by Professor Rassias, while Drill Class reinforces what was taught. Common classes are also held on certain days to discuss upcoming excursions, family stay questions, cultural peculiarities, or any topic of group interest.

On the French programs, most weekday afternoons are spent on excursions (visits to châteaux , wine caves, historic sites, beaches, etc.). The French children in your families are invited along on these day trips. Picnic lunches start the afternoon and then our bus deposits us at our destination. We return home around 6p.m.

In Gijón, Spain, we all spend the early afternoons in the Sports Club. There we can enjoy tennis, swimming, basketball, squash, volleyball, and aerobics among many other sports. At about 2:30pm, we return to our families for the main meal (la comida) of the day and follow that with whatever the family has planned. The Segovia and Pontevedra family stays run much the same way, except sports activities are offered off-site from our classrooms and are interspersed with excursions such as those offered in France. As in Gijón, the afternoon meal is usually taken with our family.

In China, afternoons are either spent on community service work with the Nature Conservancy or on excursions and cultural events and seminars. Host family children usually accompany us in these endeavors.