Talk for your Supper

If you are a native English speaker with the gift of gab, you have the chance to enjoy a free week at a country hotel in Eastern Europe while conversing with locals. An organisation called Angloville http://www.angloville.com provides programs whereby English speakers spend a week with local adults who are learning English in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Romania.

As a speaker, you receive free room and board, transfers to the hotel from the closest major city of the country you choose, and a one-day tour of that city.  Programs run year-round, and the most opportunities are in Poland. In exchange, you converse with a designated student and participate with them in organised activities for about 70 hours per week. In other words, you earn your keep.

Most of the students are young business people, and most of the Anglos are long-term travellers or expats. However, there are no age limits or country preferences with regard to the kind of English you speak. The hotels look very appealing, but it doesn't sound as if you have much chance to relax at them. Generally the hotels are at least an hour or more from any large city.

Initially I was thinking of applying for this program, but with sober second thought realised I would find it exhausting to be required to spend 70 hours a week conversing with anyone, not to mention someone whose English is not very good. This program sounds as if it is best suited to the very talkative. For them, it could be an interesting opportunity.