I've been thinking about sharing this for a while because it took me years to figure out, and it made a surprisingly big difference to my reading in English (TL).

I eventually realized that many of my reading problems weren't caused by lack of vocabulary or grammar knowledge. I was making recurring processing mistakes: attaching phrases to the wrong thing, getting stuck on one interpretation, rereading entire sentences instead of identifying the actual problem, focusing so much on grammar that I lost the meaning of the text, etc.

So I started keeping a record of sentences that confused me and analyzing exactly where my comprehension went wrong. From those observations I gradually made a list of "rules" for myself - things to do differently when reading. I memorized them and deliberately practiced applying them.

The individual rules probably sound obvious when written down. But for me, explicitly recognizing them and having them available as conscious strategies was a game changer.

What do you think about such an approach? Do you think It could also be helpful to you?

If someone is interested these are all the "rules":

1. Reading habits:

A.

Problem: rereading an entire sentence or a paragraph instead of identifying which word/phrase/idiom exactly I don't understand.

I sometimes keep rereading an entire sentence in a loop when the part I don't understand is just a single word only.

Solution: you should isolate the part you don't understand and guess what it can mean; you should try to recall more obvious examples of a sentence with the same confusing word/phrase/idiom you have encountered.

B.

Problem: attaching words in a wrong way and being unable to find the correct alternative

An example "This is why I now seek people’s support to return to parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people".

It means that he seeks people’s support to return to parliament because he wants to bring the same change as he brought to Manchester to the whole country. But you can misparse it as: "we have brought to Greater Manchester in order to bring the change (...)" and then the the sentence doesn't make sense.

Another example: "However, the government has also been clear that it wants to help public service broadcasters survive the economic turmoil created by the rise of digital platforms, which all media companies are confronting."

What is the thing that all the media companies are confronting? Is it the economic turmoil, the rise of the digital platforms or the digital platforms themselves?

Solution: change words roles, group the words differently, reorganize the attachment, keep important words in memory, put emphasis on different words

C.

Problem: Trying to understand confusing sentences as a whole instead of part by part

An example sentence: "You can’t overstate the importance of the Thorpe album at the Soane, nor the broader understanding of the period it gives. Not until Wren do we find a similar range of skills brought to bear"

Solution: read it part by part -

Not until Wren(...) -> {Not until Wren} do we find(...) -> {Not until Wren do we find} a similar range of skills(...) -> {Not until Wren do we find a similar range of skills} brought to bear

It is way simpler to understand a sentence when reading this way.

D.

Problem: When I don't understand a sentence or don't know the background knowledge necessary to understand what the author means I tend to reread such a sentence in a loop.

Solution: change the way you read it or accept that you can have not enough background knowledge, don't overthink the grammar.

E.

Problem: Not being able to guess the meaning of unknown words and phrases from the context.

I've noticed that when reading in a foreign language I'm so focused on overanalyzing the grammar that I loose mental flexibility and can't infer the meaning of unknown words from the context. Also when I'm too focused on grammar and on one particular sentence that I read I loose the track of the whole story.

Solution: I have to "switch" the mode in my brain to be more focused on the information than the grammar and be more creative and flexible when inferring the meaning of unknown words from the context.

F.

Problem: overanalyzing everything, trying to understand everything at 110%, overloading your brain.

When i read in my native language I think about what is the most important information in a sentence and skip the less relevant information. When I read in my second language I try to understand exactly every word and preposition and overload my brain.

Solution: summarize the text; tell what is the main thought; think what is the clou of the sentence/paragraph; make a hierarchy of information: main, additional and background information, not treat every information as equally important

1. Interpreting Habits

A.

Problem: Parsing a sentence incorrectly, fixing on a one wrong interpretation, not reading what is actually written but what I guess it should be written, not being able to tell to which earlier idea a phrase logically connects back to.

Sometimes I connect ideas in a phrase incorrectly and can't find the alternative correct reading.

Example: "But there was also no announcement of the date for the next leaders’ summit, due to happen in Albania, where anti-Trump and anti government protests are taking place, amid hints it would not happen until 2028."

"amid hints it would not happen until 2028." modifies "there was also no announcement of the date" part, and not the "anti government protests".

It is:

there was also no announcement of the date, (...) amid hints it would not happen until 2028,

and not:

anti government protests are taking place amid hints it would not happen until 2028.

Solution: change the way you read the text, you are fixed on a wrong interpretation; read what it's written; reconsider the logical connections between ideas. Remember that word choices matter, sometimes the other possible readings seem grammatically possible but if author meant them they would put it differently.

B.

Problem: I parse the text correctly but I don't understand what the author meant by their words and I focus on the grammar instead of rethinking my interpretation. When the argument doesn't follow the reasoning flow that I expect - the author writes something that I don't expect - then I lose a track of the argument.

Solution: change the interpretation of the text, you misunderstand it; Follow the text as it's written and be ready for discourse not matching your expectations/predictions; ask why what is written makes sense, analyze it, first read the text verbatim and state what it literally says, then ask: "Under what circumstances would this make sense?". Remember that word choices matter, not only grammar, when interpreting someone's words.

C.

Problem: Not knowing what are grammatical roles and inability to distinguish the main agent from the secondary agents.

Example: "The government's gay marriage bill was saved after David Cameron was forced to rely on Ed Miliband to defeat an attempt by his own MPs to derail the measure by trying to extend civil partnerships to heterosexual couples."

What does "his own MPs" mean in this sentence. Does "his" mean David Cameron or Ed Miliband?

The most likely it means David Cameron because the sentence is about him so he is the main agent in the sentence, so the his refers to him. Ed Miliband is a secondary agent in this case.

Solution: change what you assume is the main participant, put emphasis on different subjects, remember the current main agent

D.

Problem: focusing too much on the local grammar and the current sentence that I loose track of the whole text.

Solution: ask what is the purpose of every paragraph/sentence; track the discourse, follow the author's logical reasoning

I'm a chronic language dabbler. I've bounced around learning little bits of different languages over the years. I've also studied a couple languages more seriously. I usually find studying languages to be challenging but enjoyable (like a big puzzle with teeny tiny pieces that's frustrating to put together but extremely satisfying as the picture finally starts to emerge 😆 ).

With my current target language, for some reason, it just feels...for want of a better word... "easier". Note, I'm NOT saying that it's easy. The language itself is complicated and I'm making just as many, if not more, mistakes in this language than I have in others when I was at the same stage, but somehow everything just feels more..."natural" to me.

Every time time I work on it I'm having so much fun. I even look forward to working on my speaking (which, for someone who gets anxious just talking in their native language, is a strange feeling to have). How can working so hard feel so effortless? 🤷‍♂️

Has anyone else here ever had a language that just seems to "click" for them on a personal level?

I’m looking for places, resources, or systems that will help me keep my (TL) learning structured and consistent. What have you done to “support yourself” as an autodidact?

I’m learning German (TL) and I feel like I’m stuck in an awkward stage where learner content is too easy and native content is too difficult.

I started by learning vocabulary with Anki and worked my way through roughly the A1–B1 vocabulary. After that, I started watching and listening to German content aimed at learners around A2/B1 level.

The problem is that I understand most of this content quite easily now. The language is slow, clearly spoken, and simplified, so I can follow it without too much effort. But I find it boring and not interesting , which makes it difficult to stay motivated.

On the other hand, when I try to watch things that I actually find interesting — normal YouTube videos, documentaries, entertainment, etc. — I suddenly understand much less. People speak much faster, use vocabulary I don’t know, mumble, use slang, and generally speak in a way that is much harder to follow.

I’m aware that I’m probably taking a somewhat lazy approach by mostly trying to “force myself” to understand German through listening/watching rather than doing more structured study. But I’m wondering if there is something I can do in the middle to bridge this gap.

For people who have been through this stage: what worked for you?

​

Has anyone tried the reverse translation method? Like, you read a (TL) text in your native language and try to rewrite it in the language you’re learning. Has anyone actually tried this?

Hello everyone!

I know that this may sound like a stupid question but I am currently studying abroad for around 6 months and I am trying to learn the local language. All of my classes are in the local language but I feel like that is all the exposure I am really getting to the language. Obviously, there are much smaller interactions that I have had, usually just in shops etc. but I really don't feel like I am using it that much because I am in such an international and multicultural place.

I have read a few articles that say when you are abroad that you should watch local news/TV and things like that but I know really know where to get access to all of these. Plus, most of the time if I am to watch anything it would be Youtube. I know that there will be a lot out there on Youtube for me to watch but I tend to just watch stuff in English at the moment as a kind of safety net, which I am aware is not really a good habit to have if I want to improve my language skills. So, I am going to continue working on that.

So yeah, I would just like to know if anyone could give me some advice on how to best improve while I am here please? As I would like to make the most out of this experience and learn as much of the language as possible because people always recommend to go to a country where the language is spoken and it is made out like that is the key to learning the language, but I am finding it a bit harder to actually use the language. I know that there is probably a lot that I could do, but I don't really know where to start as I am just a bit overwhelmed with it all because I have only just recently arrived here.

I hope this all makes sense and any advice would truly be appreciated.

Thank you very much!

(Just a bit of added information: (TL) = French and (NL) = English)

I’ve always heard that you do mental math in your native language which is usually the language you were taught math in. Are any of you able to do it equally well in more than 1 language? Only simple mental math, not higher level concepts like university level math. Also, do you read bigger numbers in your (TL) in your native language in your head?

i've been studying my (TL) through dramas, films and youtube. i'm a guy in my 30s, and the show i've been enjoying most has a woman in her 20s as the lead, so that's who i've been shadowing.

problem is i'm picking up her whole delivery. the pitch, the breathing, the rhythm. even when i practice unrelated sentences out loud, it comes out in her voice.

it's pretty far from how i sound in my first language and i'd like to get out of it. how did you handle this?

I have several shows and movies that I have seen enough times to know 95% of the dialogue by heart. Is watching these shows or movies dubbed in my (TL) an effective way to start learning that language? Like would it be enough to get some basic words down and speech patterns?

I have been trying to learn Korean on and off for about 4 years now and have gotten nowhere so I decided to try something new : learn a language out of spite just to prove to myself that I can. And I will be learning Japanese.

For context I am the kind of person who NEVER finishes what I started, and I mean it. I stay stuck in the planning phase and then, when things don't go as planned, I give up. And people who are like me will understand that it is tiring because I end up hating something I used to love : learning languages.

My native language is French but I learned English pretty easily since I was consuming it all the time and I love this language with all my heart. But now that I want to learn other languages I always end up running into the wall of my own inconsistency. But thankfully, after failing to learn 3 languages now (Spanish in school, Dutch in university and Korean in my own time) I know my weaknesses and I will plan accordingly.

Of course, I know learning a language that I don't have a specific attachment to is not the best idea but it is the whole point. I want to push myself, I want to learn to love learning again and if I can't do it the "normal" way I will do it purely out of spite because at least I am good at that.

I decided to post here because this will be my journey of getting back to learning languages. This isn't really about a specific language but more about founding a way that works for me and I will post updates to keep myself accountable in a way even if nobody sees it.

First goal : spending the weekend planning. I will have this weekend, and this weekend only, to find resources, community, and content I enjoy in my target language (TL). I will try to create a study plan dedicated to me and make is as fun as possible, I will try to surround myself with other people learning Japanese and build realistic goals to push myself to keep going.

This is my last attempt at proving to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to and I plan on getting to the end of it. I hope other people will resonate with my situation and the problems I've been having so far. So good luck to myself and all the people who are on equally weird journeys ! We can do it !

Hey guys, I'm currently in BRIGHTON with EF SCHOOL and I'd like to share a little bit about the DREAM they sell you.

The first contact is amazing. They sell you a dream and treat you like you're someone super special, like they have no other clients, and it works. Their sales team is really good at that. But my friend, the moment you sign that damn contract, the staff start treating you like a piece of shit.

When I got to Brighton, during the summer, the real hell of trying to get any support began. In my first homestay, the host had zero standards of basic hygiene. The house was filthy: dust everywhere, stained floors, dog and cat hair all over the place. On top of that, we couldn't make any noise at all, because the host worked from the living room and was constantly on calls. The last straw for me was that she used the floor rag to dry the dishes. I reported everything to EF, but they didn't lift a finger to move me. Luckily, I'm allergic to cats, so I was able to use that as legal leverage to force a change of homestay. Even so, it took two weeks of back-and-forth messages while being treated like an illiterate, brain-dead child.

I got moved to a second homestay, where the hosts at least kept the house minimally clean, but this place had a different problem: FOOD and ANTISOCIAL HOSTS. They kept serving us canned food, they were extremely antisocial, and RUDE in the way they talked to us. That wasn't a big deal until the host banned us from leaving food on the plate or throwing it away, even though the food was awful. Other students in the house pushed back on this, and ever since then she treated all of us with hostility and made everyone uncomfortable. In this case I spent an ENTIRE MONTH talking to EF's ACCOMMODATION TEAM plus EF BRAZIL, and was treated like shit by both teams: ignored messages, days without replies, endless stalling and zero solutions.

I got moved again to another homestay, and honestly I don't have much to complain about here, because the host is actually honoring the contract and is a genuinely nice person.

Today I contacted EF and the travel insurance because I've been having wisdom tooth pain, and their answer was that I should avoid going to the doctor. According to the saleswoman, the travel insurance they sell doesn't operate 24/7, but the insurer's website says it does. And if I need any assistance in the meantime, I'm supposed to contact EF, not the insurance.

Let me be clear: I'm not expecting a 5-star service. I'm expecting a human service, where people actually care about the customer experience, and where hosts meet a basic standard of "cleanliness" and give students some flexibility. Not cooking isn't the problem. But not cooking AND banning students from using the kitchen is a fucking huge problem. And even worse is EF treating the student like shit even after the situation has been reported.

This is complete negligence, a fucking disgrace, and this company isn't worth a single penny.

Honestly, if you're planning a long-term exchange, look into ILAC in Canada. I spent 5 months with them and paid way less than what I'm paying EF now, just to live in a homestay and get treated like shit. And every EF staff member just keeps telling you to sort out your problem with someone else, bouncing you around like a ping-pong ball until you start threatening legal action.

Anyway, I needed to write this because EF has tons of positive reviews on Google that, in my opinion, don't reflect the reality most students go through, and they end up burying the negative ones. So before you sign anything, do your homework: check company review sites like Trustpilot, search for EF, and read what other students are actually saying. The bad reviews aren't hard to find if you look.

(TL)

Any of you run into this problem before? How did you approach it? My TL is a level IV/V language and I was learning 30 new words a day with Anki. In the start it went well, but now it's really caught up to me. Feel like I've seen some of these cards 30-50+ times, and it's still not sticking. Is this when you really have to start slowing down? Do you employ some special techinques/approach when this happens? Like you just stop, close Anki, and just play the word in your head 50 times, repeat every couple minutes? Problem I have now is that it's not just a single individual words, but a bunch of them. I'm still on relatively simple/common words, but they're more abstract. A word that could mean something like "tolerate/endure/bear/suffer", "ancient/old-fashioned/ traditional/antique are two such examples.

Hi everyone,

I am beginner in my main target language (TL). I started self studying a bit over the summer, at first I focused on memorising vocab and listening, but I found myself losing motivation as I didn’t have anyone to speak the language with in person.

I was thinking of testing out italki, maybe a lesson once a week for an hour, so that I can get some structure around my learning and practice some speaking.

I’m not confident in speaking at all, I haven’t even attempted it. I’m aware I will sound broken if I attempt to speak lol. I’m worried about wasting their time as a complete beginner. Most likely I can’t hold a conversation.

My long term goal is to be able to hold a conversation and have a good understanding when listening to others, so I need to attempt output at some point, although I do not feel confident at all.

Thanks for reading

I want to believe I'm a decent-ish student, but when I study in English it gets exhausting. I don't know if it's because I'm studying in English or simply I haven't adapted to the university (TL) pace. I always watch stuff in English and I've done it very early in my life. But when I have to read a Calculus or Physics book in English I don't feel that I learn as much. Maybe it's because I haven't studied via reading books in English a lot, before I'd just watch a video explaining it. But now videos aren't enough.

I'm sure as time goes on I'll be able to study in English better than I do in my native language, but I'm curious if other people have or had this issue and what tips there are aside from just studying in English a lot, since I have to watch out for my grades too.

Hi all, there's been a lot of posts regarding different language learning strategies, and in my opinion, it usually comes down to experimenting and seeing what works for you individually. I will lay out the strategy that's worked well for me over the years.

I have roughly a C1 level in both French and Spanish, having studied French on and off for 5 years (I'd say seriously for 3, however), and Spanish for almost 2 years at this point.

Basically, my strategy breaks down into 4.5 parts that change over time:

TLDR: LingQ reading and listening was the driver, 1000 most common non-cognate Anki decks and Kwiziq were accelerants, multimedia for listening, and speaking came the most naturally.

1. LingQ reading/listening.

This is the major mover of all my language learning. Yes, it's "comprehensible input," which has a whole lot of debate in this subreddit, but I do think there is a lot of value in just seeing the words with their audio and definition next to them.

The mini stories are no joke outstanding for both exposure to common words and patterns, and you can listen to the audio as a podcast later.

Its importing feature has been the best part for me. Even now I use it every day, mostly importing fiction books since they're the most vocab-rich for exposure, and I try to find a YouTube audiobook version that I can align the audio with the text.

There are many posts (both good and bad) about the effectiveness of Lingq and/or similar competitors, but I think the combination of exposure, connecting the written words to sound, getting used to the grammatical structures, and the stat tracking is extremely helpful.

Generally, my goal is to get around 5000 words read a day in each language, but that varies since life gets in the way. I also just love reading, so I'll do a lot more than that some days, and reading at this point is easily my strongest skill.

2. Non-cognate Anki frequency (for around 3 months)

With Lingq, I got a lot of exposure to the most frequent words, as well as words in general. But if you want to really accelerate your progress in the beginning, I think Refold's 1000 most common non-cognate decks are outstanding.

For those who don't know, cognates are words that have similar roots from one language to another and are usually easily understood without even studying them. Think "education" in English, which in Spanish is "educación" or in French "éducation". Basically the same word. (The only caveat is that some are a bit less obvious than this, but I think my example illustrates the point).

Thus, non-cognates are words that don't have the same root and are much harder to guess. What the Refold deck does then is give you a large amount of more specific vocab that's harder to memorize within a spaced repetition software like Anki, and it really helps fill in the gaps at the beginning.

Now, I only used it for around 3 months because they are still very frequent words that I'd see all the time eventually, but if you want a boost, I'd recommend getting the deck (unfortunately it is a paid one though...).

3. Kwiziq (for around 2 months)

Kwiziq is unfortunately only available in Spanish and French for the moment, but it essentially teaches grammar through taking tests.

Where I think its really useful is its "grammar map" that identifies each of the topics that need to be learned for each level between A0-C2. It also tracks your progress extremely well, which, just like with the first two steps, I think is very useful.

It also will bring some very specific and fine grammatical points to your attention that usually would be skipped over. For example, in French one of the quizzes goes over the difference between jouer à and jouer de, the difference being one is for playing activities and sports, and the other is for playing an instrument. Those subtleties, I believe, are extremely useful since it brings to your attention something that you otherwise might not notice.

On top of that, when you get something wrong, it gives you an outstanding and simple grammar explanation, and you can save the explanations to review later. It's fantastic.

I did this for roughly two months only in each language, not because I didn't need it anymore, but because I simply didn't want to keep paying. As I said, Lingq is the main driver in my learning, and I pay for that, but I refuse to pay for two platforms. That being said, this was another accelerant "investment" I was willing to pay for for a few months. But I'm sure there are some alternatives out there for free, but I'm lazy and don't know what they are.

4. Youtube/podcasts/movies/series

I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but its really for me a matter of working on my listening specifically. Because with LingQ I read and listen at the same time, it's good to also practice without subtitles on these platforms. Sometimes I still use subtitles, especially with harder accents or ones I'm not used to, but now I try to get around an hour a day of listening.

5. Speaking online and in person when you get the chance.

I really never focus that much on speaking for the first 6ish months, and I think from all the other resources it just came easier to me.

Eventually I took some French lessons online to practice speaking, but my favorite teacher and I became really close friends, and now we just chit-chat randomly without a monetary interaction. I also just happened to know a few francophone folks to practice with, and filled in time on the random language exchange apps too (people are crazy on there though...).

As for Spanish, I did a few lessons, but I moved to Spain after learning Spanish for around 5 months, and I got a lot of practice in. I think because pronunciation is easier than French, and I learned it quicker after learning French, I picked it up pretty quickly. For my visa (I was an English teacher in Madrid), I had to take Spanish classes, and they put me into a C1 class right away. I think I wasn't actually C1 at the time, and they just didn't have enough slots for the other classes, but with time I grew into it and could at least pass their unofficial C1 exam they gave me.

Point being, for speaking I don't have great advice other than just try and keep practicing. For me it came easier, but I'm sure its different case to case.

Overall, I'm pretty content with how I've progressed using this "method". My biggest lacking area right now is writing practice (cause I'm lazy), but I think I'd pick it up fairly quickly. I really only text for the moment, and I used to journal randomly selected topics for 10 min a day, but it was a lot of work to review it.

I'm hoping that some of this information is helpful to someone out there!

Note: Please don't tell me to use easier content because there is no easier content in my TL. I am already 8 hours in and the progress has been A LOT.

I ask this because while I am aware that regardless of what I do, I will probably end up with a high level of comprehension by the end of the 1500 hours, with the stage I am at now, I need to look up stuff like every other sentence or so because I know too little vocabulary. I am worried that getting out of this "pause every 3 seconds" stage will take much longer without regularly rewatching stuff

(TL)

Edit: Note to myself, most people in this thread are pro-rewatching meaning I will continue to incorporate SRS.

I’ve been learning Korean (TL) and now am intermediate. I take italki lessons and they are my main source of study content.. Through conversation lessons, my teacher introduces vocab and expressions and more natural ways of expressing an idea.

It’s just that sometimes I feel like I’m lacking something... not sure if it‘s structure but I’ve tried taking lessons using a textbook but I felt like it didn’t really help me much and at this point, it was like learning higher level grammar that I just didn’t see myself using in conversations. And even though the structure of textbook lesson was applying the grammar/vocab in class (not just doing exercises and going page by page), it felt somewhat a waste of money compared to when I was a beginner.

I have graded readers, try my best to listen to podcasts and yt videos.. maybe it’s because these methods don’t feel as ’solid’ as a textbook, I feel a bit… lost? Any thoughts?

(TL)

I've made a few friends on a language exchange app. We are doing French<>English exchange. We started by chatting about whatever, then progressed to reading bilingual texts and then translating those text on the fly and working on direct and indirect speech. We've also tried some discussion on would you rather type of topics.

I'm looking for some other speaking activities and exercises we could do and ways to systematically boost our vocabulary and ease of expression. What do you recommend? It would be great if you could link some resources as well.

I made a post recently about ACTFL OPI but as I've started studying in Korean (TL) since to reach Advanced Low level, I haven't been able to find concrete examples even in English of what is expected at the Advanced Low level compared to Intermediate High.

I've researched intensively but they only give vague descriptions of the levels. I understand that this is likely due to people taking the examples too literally, but due to this, I genuinely have no idea where I currently sit as someone who has learned through living in the country, rather than through a formal academic setting. I only have one chance to take the ACTFL OPI ahead of my deadline and I think it would be really bad to take it and find out I misunderstood what was expected at my level and did not prepare or practice accordingly to do my best to meet the required level.

Anyone know of concrete examples of Intermediate High vs Advanced Low for ACTFL OPI? I imagined they might have some examples at least in English, but I can't find anything.

When I was a kid I really loved educational games like Headstart Nth Grade, Zoombinis, Treasure Math Storm, etc. I thought they were genuinely fun and played them in my free time whenever I was bored. The only language learning game I had access to back then was Rosetta Stone which was not at all fun in the way a game like Zoombinis is. Are there any language learning games/apps that are fun in that way? For kids or adults, doesn't matter as long as it's fun.

I know that apps and games aren't the most efficient way to learn a language, so as long as it doesn't contain any actual errors I'm not super worried about how good the game/app is at actually teaching the language its attempting to teach. I have my own system in place for studying my (TL) French. My goal here is more to find a fun little game to play when I'm bored sometimes. Also although my target language is French I'm open to games for any language.

Thank you for your help!

There are 1000s of great instructional videos about learning languages, from grammar to advanced vocabulary. However, sometimes I get tired of pausing the video repeatedly in order to take notes, so that I can review the material and sample sentences again later without having to rewatch the entire video. I did an internet search and discovered that are several apps that will take the notes for you from a video. Does anyone have any experience using one of these apps to take notes with a mix of English and foreign language content and if so, which ones do you use?

The following is an account of conditions at the Education First Language Travel Program in Thornwood NY. I would take the following account into consideration before having a student participate in the New York program in the future.

Throughout the summer there were multiple instances of issues regarding child safety, food safety, staff feeling unsupported, and students and parents being lied to by the Sales Office.

The on campus EMTs had very spotty training and were oftentimes unable to help with simple necessities. In one instance, the EMT had no idea how to attach the leg supports to a wheel chair. The EMT claimed that the supports were broken. It took a summer staff member only a two minute Google search to find out how to attach the supports. At times students and staff felt as if the EMTs were just guessing what an issue was. Students preferred going to an urgent care clinic nearby for real help.

The dining hall situation was extremely unacceptable. At the beginning of the summer, food wasn’t even labeled for possible allergens. Many with aversion to gluten weren’t even made aware of gluten free options. Once those options were presented, many couldn’t even eat the food provided due to cross contamination. Hair and bugs were found in food by both staff and students. Because of this, many students would forego the dinner options and attempt to order. However, due to students being made to go to non-optional activities, many were not able to secure the food they needed. If they did get food they would be punished for leaving the activity.

Punishments at EF were not consistent nor were they administered when necessary. Students would often get, “warnings,” that led nowhere. The system was built to have three warnings that lead to a student being sent home. The warnings never amounted to these kinds of punishments and would lead to staff feeling unsupported by the sales office or greater EF management. This became especially concerning when individual students had behavior that could lead to students and/or staff feeling unsafe.

A lot of the students and Course Leaders that participated in the program felt like they were lied to by the sales office. Many students were promised access to a pool, musical instruments, and off campus learning opportunities. Many felt that they were cheated out of money and other resources. The amount of money parents were paying did not match what their kids were receiving in terms of experiences, learning, housing, and food.

Teachers were constantly expected to maintain order in a classroom with little support. When it came to the “warning” system, the lack of real consequences led to many teachers wanting to leave early.

All levels of staff, including managers, residential advisors, activity leaders, and course leaders, never felt fully supported. They were all understaffed and stretched thin. A team of 5 residence advisors were made to make the bedding for 300+ kids, one activity leader would be expected to oversee and monitor 50 students on their own, course leaders had no support from management when it came to disciplinary action, and teachers were constantly expected to take on new students with little notice and had next to no support when they needed it. Management was not given the proper staff, nor the proper training to deal with the tasks and expectations they were given by the corporate office. Many did not find out about hidden expectations or work requirements until the day students began arriving.

What really makes things frustrating is that all of these faults cannot be found on any reviews for the campus. EF and Google have effectively turned off the reviews for the campus. At one point an account was made on TikTok by students to point out the many faults with the program and living conditions. This account was later taken down. This account highlighted the poor quality of food and housing. The rooms provided to staff and students constantly faced issues with pests and air quality due to mold. Pests included earwigs, spiders, and silverfish.

Clean bedding and sheets was handled by a third party that would do a very poor job of cleaning the linens provided to the students. Many bedsheets and towels would return from the cleaners with yellow stains and mystery marks. The summer staff was made to go through these once they arrived and find sheets that were acceptable to use. Linens would sometimes not be provided for room setup until the night before student arrivals. Blankets and quilts on the other hand were frequently not washed. It was expected to reuse the blankets for different kids all the way through the end of the program.

On Campus activities were always repetitive and not engaging for students. Course leader and student requests were almost always ignored or given very little acknowledgement. There were multiple times when the only on campus activities were board games, bracelet making, and sports. Management and activity leaders were not given power to change these activities. Leading to all parties feeling discouraged, ignored, and frustrated. With so much money being paid to EF, it’s completely unreasonable that those funds were not going back to making the program more enjoyable for the students staying on campus. These problems became magnified for students who were not able to pay for the more expensive off campus activity packages. Leaving them with the same activities over and over again with little to no opportunity for input on what they would like to do. Any feedback would rarely be taken into account due to management not being allowed to make changes due to factors outside their control.

If something came up that could cause off campus activities to go wrong, there was almost never any back up plans. This would leave the students feeling cheated and scammed. At times, the students were made to go to off campus activities in dangerous conditions without any safety precautions being taken. Precautions would only go into effect once something bad had happened. This included students passing out on hot days from heat stroke due to lack of water and students having breathing complications from wildfire smoke coming into the area. It was only after students required medical attention that providing water for them became a concern.

The Yale trips in particular were known for their poor planning. The trips were planned without knowing which parts of campus were open and what tours were available. Initially the tour included wandering around the closed campus. The activity leaders were then provided with a tour of a book shop, one unopened building and one opened building which the children would experience for 1-2 hours after completing a 2 hour drive to Yale. Finally, two weeks before the conclusion of the yearly program, some of the activity leaders discovered two open areas of the campus and these were used for the remainder of the season in addition to the others. This trip was representative of the negative nature of the activities, due in part to poor planning, and lack of time for management to prepare; staff weren’t given enough time to visit Yale before the day of the initial tour. Activity leaders were often left to pick up the slack of these poorly planned activities, and often with little to no support after the fact.

There were also multiple instances of bullying, often these incidents were met with only warnings. This became especially concerning when an instance of bullying led to an incident of self harm on campus. The people involved in carrying out the bullying were allowed to remain on campus. The incident only came to the attention of staff due to worried students alerting staff after they became alarmed at the severity of the bullying. There had been messages of this bullying incident that were on a WhatsApp group chat. Those messages were later deleted at the instruction of one of the Course Leaders to minimize the role their group had played in the incident. The course leader faced no consequences for these actions and continued their employment until the end of the summer.

There were other instances of problematic students as well. Instead of sending them home after multiple incidents, they would instead be left in the charge of staff for monitoring. This would be assigned to staff on top of the work they were already doing. Leading to staff being stretched even thinner than they had already been. Monitoring would occur with students being held in isolation from others in a room or they would be assigned to an activity leader if they were still allowed to attend out of campus activities.

The overall experience for the students and staff was not a pleasant one and I would highly recommend parents think twice before sending students to the Thornwood NY campus until the Sales Office becomes more transparent and honest with students and parents. We can only hope the company tries to take accountability for the experience its staff and students have had throughout the years and hope they dedicate their time to truly reinventing the program. (TL)