Hi
@Fresh Bread !
I did a year in France when I was a teenager with EF
www.ef.co.uk They are a pretty big company and I felt they gave me/my parents loads of support. I highly recommend them.
Key things are:
-small town. This helps you with
a) pick up only the one accent and sticking to that pronunciation. Sounds silly but I never quite got a british accent because everyone speaks different in London while my French accent is pretty standard.
b) the culture. People will be more interested and have more time in showing you their culture. You will feel you had the full experience. Plus you'll be able to say you had an true "this and that region" immersion rather than being lost in a big city.
c) not coming in contact with english. Smaller towns tend to have less people who are fluent in another language. Trust me, you want to learn english,
your brain doesn't. Your brain already speaks english and it will kick you back to english everytime. Also, when people see you struggling they tend to switch back to english - mostly for their own benefit, nobody wants to have a slow conversation so they become impatient and do what is easiest. You'll benefit more if everyone you come in contact can't change to another language.
-immersion. Try and think/communicate in the local language as much as possible.
-other students. Again, I cannot say this enough times. Our brain will resist learning and thinking in another language. Portuguese and Spanish speakers will clump together and speak a mix of the two languages badly rather than force themselves to speak English. Entire classes of Russian teenagers come to the UK in the summer, there is a strong chance they'll just speak to each other, because it's easier and it's more fun. They'll end up learning more book English but not getting the benefit of the immersion. It's fine to be in a class with other foreigners, but it's best if they're not all americans/australians/british.
- host family. My host family in France was so lovely and they can be very helpful in explaining you the culture or funny language expressions. It also helps to make you feel part of the community. Also, that's the likely accommodation you will get in smaller towns. My parents did an immersion course as adults and stayed in a host family as a grown up couple. All went fine.
Bon courage!
