If you’re out of school or never went to college…your opportunity to study a language abroad isn’t over! There are plenty of programs for adults to immerse themselves and even have homestay experiences.
Be careful – there are a lot of scams out there. This article will share some resources you can use to research an adult study abroad program to learn a language.
I’m going to talk about actual language programs and schools, nothing where you’re also working.
There are volunteer abroad and au pair programs – but those require you to work. These can be great options if you don’t want to pay for a school, but that’s for another post.
This company offers language immersion, has homestay options and allows you to customize the amount of time you spend in the program. They have tracks for adults 25+ and adults 50+.
To get an exact price, you’ll have to ask for a quote. But I’ve seen a couple weeks in most destinations come in around $5k, at time of writing. This will include your course, accommodation and meals.
They offer English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, German, French and Italian.
This isn’t a school itself, but an aggregator of programs. You can find just about any country or language on here. They have “less popular” languages, like Czech and Malaysian.
The costs and types vary – they have volunteer, gap year, and teach abroad programs. Of course, you’ll want to filter by general language programs open for adults. There are tons of options.
If you’re US-based and can’t afford to leave the country, consider an immersion program here!
This school is located in Vermont and offers summer intensives in Abenaki, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
If you’re from outside the states, it’s probably only worth it to come study English. Otherwise, you may as well go to the actual country your target language is spoken in.
Since this is at an actual university, there are scholarships available. You don’t have to be a student to attend one of these, and their students range between ages 18-80.
You’ll have to inquire about the specific language you want for the cost. Other than that, note that there are strict application deadlines for each program. If you miss out one here, you can always apply the next.
Clic Centro de Lenguas e Intercambio Cultural
This school is located in Spain, but they offer more than just Spanish! Choose between Spanish, English, French, German and Portuguese. They say that all of their teachers are native speakers.
They offer multiple cities (Malaga, Cadiz, Seville) and have a variety of accommodation options.
They do have options for both younger people and language programs for adults 50+.
This school offers French, German and English. Their main location is in Switzerland, but they also have schools in France and Germany.
Accommodation rates start at 220 CHF (253 USD) a week and go up to 315 CHF (363 USD). They offer planned excursions, school facilities, exam prep, and work study options. From their site, I can’t tell if the rates include the course or not, but I would assume not. You’ll have to inquire for that info.
They have pathways for kids and students, but most of their courses are for anyone ages 16+.
The list is short since I only want to include reputable institutions. There are plenty of smaller schools out there that may not have the resources to help you with travel, accommodations, food, etc.
If you have basic skills in your target language, these smaller schools could be a good option as they often cost less. If you can’t search for this info in your target language, then you probably should stick to the bigger ones.
Most universities will have some type of program as well. Check out the popular universities in your country of choice.