Program Reviews

I learnt lots here and it will no doubt be helpful to me in my future career with the skills I learnt. Met lots of fab people!! The kids were all abilities so we learnt how to communicate with all of them and play games!! It was also helpful to have coordinators and other mentors who had done the programme before to get tips. Great experience to say board and accommodation was paid for and the free tour. We also had a field trip on a boat on one of the days which gave us all lots of memories and it was very nice that the coordinators had brought their ukulele. We also had a bonfire which was nice! The biggest downside was the location but this was in comparison to some of the others as some of the other locations look amazing and this was slightly isolated with fewer facilities.

Doing angloville was one of the best volunteering experiences I have had! For a small deposit you receive a free walking tour of your city including lunch, transfer to your teaching city and accomodation and food every day of your volunteering. The days are long and sometimes hard but overall it is great fun.
I took part in a one week programme helping kids in Bran, Romania. The coordinators were great and ensured volunteers and kids needs were met. This meant they allowed us to have extra free time to explore the city of Bran as well. The accomodation we stayed in was lovely and had amazing facilities including a pool. The food was also delicious and there was plenty so no money was spent while I was actually volunteering. The only problem was I was sharing with 3 rather than 2 in a room meaning I was put in a very uncomfortable camp bed. This would not usually be an issue but days are very long so a good sleep is needed. There were also not enough volunteers on my programme meaning there was no chance to have one-to-one sessions and most of our sessions were one-to-five. This did make ensuring everyone was getting a chance to speak and improve difficult!
Overall I really enjoyed the week and it seemed as though the children did too! The more volunteers the better so it would be great if more native speakers took part.

As my first ever volunteering abroad experience, this was an incredible opportunity for both me and the junior students we were teaching. The co-volunteers were a wide range of likeminded people, from all different backgrounds, but the experience brought us together.

Invaluable, highly rewarding and incredible experience interacting with enthusiastic students 1 on 1 in order to develop language skills through immersion. This experience has taught me invaluable skills, patience and helped develop communication with this age range. As well as, it has sparked an interest in teaching English as a foreign language, especially since my fluency in Turkish has opened many doors. In order to obtain my TEFL qualification, this is the first step and many more Angloville programmes will follow.

The Angloville experience opened up a whole new world of volunteering for me; a world I was not aware of. What a fantastic way to meet extraordinary people, stay in breathtaking locations, learn about a different culture and cuisine; and all you have to do is talk! It doesn't get any better than this.

I participated in two weeks with Angloville in Poland and all of the above applies. Before each week's program, there is a city tour, to familiarise yourself with the city, as well as meeting other native speakers. This is a great introduction to the country, city and program, and highly recommended.

The food at some venues are not really up to standard, so be prepared by taking fruit and/or snacks and candies.

Still, this is the best way to experience a country and it's people, and a great way to make friends.

Angloville advertises free stay at beautiful resorts. This is not quite true. I did several programs at resorts in different countries. The resorts are of average quality, the food is average banquet style, and after coffee at breakfast, Angloville does't provide any drinks except water for lunch and dinner. You must pay for anything else. The wifi at the resorts is usually poor. Of course, Angloville forces you to share a small twin room for a week with a total stranger who may or may not be compatible with you.
Angloville also advertises a city tour before the program. This is only about 2 hours with lunch after (but you must pay for our own drink again).
Finally, the level of organization of the program itself varies from poor to good, depending on the coordinator.
Best part is the students who are interesting and motivated.
I would not do it again nor recommend to others.

Fantastic opportunity to travel. Every location is top quality and the work doesn’t seem like work at all. Brilliant to meet lots of different people where everyone is extremely friendly. The food was fantastic and there is very little stress in the volunteering as the coordinators can all do their jobs extremely well. It’s an extremely relaxed environment and I haven’t met one person who hasn’t adored the experience. Doing 3 camps in a row can be tough but if you’re travelling around also then it makes the experience wonderful. The hours are long but there is plenty of rest time and it’s not too stressful. You have a lot of time to be able to talk to fellow peers and volunteers and get to know them too; there’s always a lot of different characters to meet!

I participated in the programs at Folwark Lekuk and Bachledówka. Both places were very nice. The adult program was well organized and co-ordinaters very helpful. It was nice to meet not only Polish people, but also other English speakers from various parts of the globe. (Trainers, trousers, needing to go to the chemist, knackers. . .) Food was good, accommodation was comfortable and clean. (read hotel reviews before selecting a program)

Some of the idioms used in the program are not used in speaking today. I found that some of the activities such as the interrogation was not interesting for the Polish nor myself. Adding some topics that center around family disputes, stereo types or current social issues, light in nature, would stimulate lengthy conversations.

I completed 2 programmes with Angloville, doing the programmes out of Warsaw on both occasions.
It was an interesting experience and one can learn from the Polish participants, e.g. I had a great discussion on the theme of Common Law vs. Civil Law with a Polish Lawyer.
The hotels were good and well maintained. The breakfast was great but sometimes the other meals lacked variety. On the last occasion there was also no English language TV but one didn’t have much time either, maybe Angloville can chat to the hotel on that one.
Both the Polish and the Native Speaker coordinating team did all to make us feel comfortable.
The volunteers appeared to be very much appreciated by the students, and the students anxious
to improve their English, especially if you can help with specialist English, such as Technical, Legal, etc.

Overall, I would consider it to be a positive experience.

Angloville was an experience like nothing I have ever done before; overall, it was a very rewarding trip that enabled me to work with some amazing children and meet some equally incredible native speakers from all over the globe. I completed 3 weeks of programmes back-to-back in Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw so that I was able to achieve the Tefl qualification. This did mean that it was a very busy trip with few opportunities to rest, so potentially choosing to take a break between programmes to spend time in the cities might be wise, especially if you're planning on spending more than 3 weeks with Angloville. I really enjoyed my programmes in each of the venues- the schedules were jam-packed, but the days ran smoothly on the whole, with the help of the hard-working mentors and coordinators. The standards of the venues were mainly good, however the food sometimes let the side down; I have food allergies which were made very clear and confirmed before my travels began, however I was often catered for poorly at the hotels which was sometimes challenging. Despite the fact that my Angloville experience as a whole was very worthwhile, I personally did also suffer from some complications in the middle of my programmes- I was completing my Angloville journey with my friend and half way through our second programme we were "moved" without notice to another venue in Poland for the following week. This was unexpected and stressful as we had already booked transport to our original venue in Warsaw. Thankfully, our coordinator in Krakow did his best sort out our situation, but this help wasn't coordinated well with the Angloville offices and so, the situation wasn't actually sorted until the day before we were due to travel to Warsaw. We are unsure why this happened in the first place, but it left us feeling worried that we were not going to be able to make our third and final programme.

It's a summer camp for kids who want to improve their English so two main things are you should like kids and it's a camp so it's a few hours (by car) away from the city center. If you go into it knowing that you'll have a great time and meet some amazing people from all over the world and get to worl with slme great kids! So many people I plan to keep in contact with and visit later on. The coordinators are amazing and have great ideas om keeping the kids entertained while balancing the needs of the native speakers. It can be a draining program- the kids program is high energy and can be physically draining while the juniors program can be mentally draining while you're trying to keep a conversation going. All of the kids seem to really enjoy there time at the camps and their english improves a lot throughout the week.