Info

Experience a true cultural immersion by living with and teaching English to a host family in Portugal

* Overview:
Live and work in Portugal teaching English to a host family with the Language Assistant Portugal programme. The Language Assistant Portugal programme is designed for young native English speakers who would like to experience life living in a full of history Mediterranean country like Portugal while learning Portuguese and perfecting their Portuguese language skills in the beautiful, historical and full of bright light city of Lisbon.

This is a fantastic chance to immerse yourself in the Portuguese culture by living in a Portuguese home teaching English to your host family. You will be contracted to teach English to a Portuguese family for 15 hours a week giving you plenty of free time to learn and study Portuguese and explore Lisbon fascinating and colourful cityscape.


* Programme details:
Language Assistant Portugal is a cultural exchange programme, where you live with a host family and in exchange for your own room and three meals a day; you help the family, usually the kids, with their English studies for around 15 hours during the week. In general, the families are quite affluent; you're looked after very well in lovely family homes.

When you send us your application form and supporting documents our partners in Portugal will match you with suitable host families and encourage them to invite you as their language assistant. When we find a successful match, a family invitation will be emailed for your approval. After you've accepted, we then arrange for you to speak with the family over the telephone - this allows everybody to get to know each other in advance and organise your start date and airport pickup.

Your teaching responsibilities:
When a host family offers you an invitation, and you've accepted, it's then time to discuss what form they anticipate the lessons taking. It is also important to agree a schedule so everybody is clear about when you will be teaching and when its your 'time off'.

As the teaching is likely to be tutoring the kids for school, the chances are that you will follow their course books. We'll supply you with a starter pack with some great ideas of activities, but we also recommend you buy a good learner's dictionary and grammar book to refer to. DVDs, books, magazines and newspapers in English help you plan fun and interesting lessons. There are many free web resources available with useful teaching tips and printable worksheets etc.

Please note that your responsibilities are as a Language Assistant and you will not be requested to perform duties akin to a domestic help or an au pair - namely cooking / cleaning or child-minding. However, you will be expected to take a reasonable role with day to day household chores, such as helping to prepare meals, washing up, general tidying etc.

Developing your Portuguese language skills:
This is a great opportunity to develop your Portuguese. Although you will be providing 15 hours of English lessons to the family, there is still plenty of opportunity to speak Portuguese. Discuss your aspirations with your host family and agree when English / Portuguese is spoken. Depending on the situation, it may also be possible to find a part-time paid job to enhance your Portuguese experience. Furthermore you could also enrol on a Portuguese course along side your teaching to improve your language skills.

Duration

From 3 weeks to 6 months

Start Dates

Any time throughout the year

Requirements

* Minimum age 18 yrs
* Your first language must be English
* Formal teaching qualifications are not necessary, but any experience will strengthen your application
* We also welcome applications from non European Union citizens