Are Immersive homestays worth it?

You may wonder if immersive homestays will really give you back your investment.

What are the true benefits? Can you see tangible and intangible results at the end?

To sum it up: is it worth it?

The best way to answer your questions is to listen to French learners who have experienced it themselves.

Let me introduce you to Catherine and Matthew who want to tell you about their Immersive Homestay.

Why are you learning French?

This is the most important and legitimate question you should ask yourself. If you don’t know your why, you won’t find the motivation to fuel your learning and you won’t have any direction because you don’t know your goals.

Let’s explain what Simon Sinek means with his Golden Circle.

First, find your “why” because it’s the core of everything. Then, choose the “how” and finally, work on “what”.

When I asked Catherine and Matthew why they learn French, their “why” was to be involved in the French village where they live now

What about you? Why are you studying this language? Here are some ideas to help you find your why:

• to get a better position at work
• to study in a French-speaking country  
• to move to a French-speaking country  
• to watch French movies
• to travel around a French-speaking country  
• to do business with French speakers
• to marry a French person
• to have happy holidays in French-speaking countries

Concerning the “how”, you need to take into account different factors: the skills, the tools, the environment…

How are you going to learn and improve your French? Let me share some examples:

• watch movies with subtitles
• write down some paragraphs in French
• read aloud and record your voice
• listen to French and use it as a dictation
• learn form a book of French classes (or both)
• talk on the phone with native speakers….

Catherine and Matthew decided to opt for an immersive homestay and explain to you their reasons.

What do you need to take action? What are you going to study? What are your needs? In other words, what do you need to learn and improve?

French learners have more or less the same needs but they are unique to you.

Here are some areas where you could work on:

• dictations
• learning new words
• pronunciation
• writing emails
• fluidity
• conjugation
• passé composé
• linking words
• listening skill…

In the case of Catherine and Matthew, they knew exactly what they wanted to develop: their conversation skills.

Why would you do an immersive homestay?

Now, even if you are aware of your why, how and what, why would you even think about an immersive homestay?

For Catherine and Matthew, the answer was easy. A homestay experience fitted exactly to their needs. Indeed, in order to improve their conversation skills, they wanted to avoid a place where people would speak English…

In other words, they were looking for a place where they would hear and speak French all the time.

After all, when you do an immersive homestay, you are in 24 hours a day lessons. Here are some benefits you get during your stay:

• instant feedback from me about the pronunciation, idioms, conjugation…
• live lessons directly in the context
• interactions with the local people
• culture and stories about France and the French
• French food, resources like books, film, songs…

What are the tangible and intangible results of an immersive homestay?

According to Catherine and Matthew, they saw some concrete results right away. For instance, Catherine realised that she could read a lot more French than she had thought when she was in a museum!

In addition, she learnt how to avoid translation and use other tools in order to understand the context.

It was similar for Matthew. Thanks to the homestay, he can now join in conversations without understanding all the words. He doesn’t mind if he can’t express himself like a native. He’s happy to be able to have fluent conversations.

Before their homestay, they couldn’t understand what French natives were saying to them. After their experience with us, they noticed a big improvement concerning their listening skill. Being immersed like this surely impacts your listening and understanding.

If you are like Catherine and Matthew and feel you are plateauing, read these tips.

Why choose Simply French Homestay?

Curious to know why Catherine and Matthew chose Simple French Homestay?

First, they recommend it for the tangible results they got from it. However, there are other reasons that may convince you.

For instance, they enjoyed the place. It’s a big rustic home where you would feel cozy. I feel a bit shy but they said my husband Mark and I were good hosts. We certainly did our best to offer them an unforgettable homestay.

Another point Catherine, Matthew, and many other hosts have mentioned: the food!

Indeed, our hosts can enjoy homemade food made of fresh products from the garden. They can discover French meals too.

In a nutshell, when you decide to do a Simply French immersive, you embrace 3 goals: to learn French, speak it and live it fully.

Maybe you still have questions about the immersive homestay like how to prepare it, how to choose one etc. In this article, I gathered all the questions I get about this topic and did my best to answer them with details. Don’t leave it too late: Book in at this year’s prices before they go up.

More questions? Simply contact me!