EF Reviews

I went on a high school exchange year with EF a year ago, and it was the best year of my life! 
EF has always supported me throughout my Exchange Year. And even gives me a chance to inspire new exchange students after my exchange year as an ambassador. My exchange gave me the chance to learn about myself, other cultures, and to find a second family and friends from all over the world! Thank you for making me realize that I want to go to college there. Thank you to the whole EF-Family who made this year so special!

I signed up for 3 weeks in Malaga, and I liked it so much I extended my stay to 4 weeks! The social scene is great, you meet plenty of fun people and learn so much about other cultures. But you're meeting them all in english. Most people leave the spanish at school and don't want to go through the effort of socializing in spanish. So, try as you might, you won't really get a ton of speaking practice outside of school. As long as you apply yourself during the classes though, you'll still learn a lot. Not as fast as you do in some more focused programs, but that's the price you pay for the great social/party scene. Speaking of the party scene, if you are under 18 you simply aren't going to have as fun a time unless you have a group of other under 18-year olds who don't like partying, which I didn't see once during my summer. If you are under 18 and do like clubs and partying, I will say that the law is more of a suggestion there.
Also: the host families are awful. You are guaranteed to have a max of 5 kids in your host family... Except that rule is often broken. I was fortunate enough to switch from an awful family with 8 kids to the literal "#1 Host Family Malaga," so I ended up being ok. But my advice: don't spend the extra money to stay with a host family. You won't end up interacting with them and actually practicing spanish a ton, and you almost certainly will get something uncomfortable and dirty. But I won't end on that bad note; overall I had an amazing time and would definitely recommend it!

I am 16 years old and my trip with Ef Tokyo was my first trip abroad alone.This trip was my favorite vacation ever and I have made so many friends from Japan and other countries. I was only with Ef Tokyo for two weeks but I learned a decent amount of Japanese while I was there. While in Tokyo you have a lot of free time and you can go wherever you would like. You can go throughout the country independently which was something surprising but definitely something I enjoyed. I took trips to Akihabara, Kyoto, Harujuku, Shinjuku, and so many other places. My residence was 1 hour by train away from the school which is in the heart of Shibuya which is an awesome location. One thing I didn’t like about the school was the time of the classes because some days they were at 9 while others were at 18:00. I loved meeting new people while I was in Japan especially Japanese people because it gave me a new perspective of life in Japan. I made a Japanese friend that
took me too his home town’s festival. If you go to Ef Tokyo you will have so much fun and make so many friends no matter how long you go. I really recommend Tokyo even if you are like me and knew 0 Japanese when you arrived. I’ll be honest it is sometimes hard to get around without being able to speak Japanese but I could always rely on google translate so I’m the end it was okay. I also really enjoyed the activities the school provided. My favorite one was my trip to Kyoto where I bought a model katana and learned about Japan’s history. If you like the city or the country side Ef Tokyo is great because in 1 hour from the residence is the heart fi Tokyo and 1 hour the other way you can visit beaches and mountains. I am so glad I did Ef Tokyo even though I was super nervous in the beginning. The staff was great and everyone there is super nice I really do recommend visiting Ef Tokyo! Oh one more thing the food! I loved the food you can get such good food for so cheap. Japan is the most beautiful country I have visited and I hope everyone can experience Japan once in their lives!

I traveled to Rome for 4 weeks through EF and have had the most amazing experience. I stayed through the Dotcsmpus which is about 20 min away from the center and school. Overall, this trip has been the time of my life, Rome is a beautiful city, with so much culture and history but I also had the opportunity to really learn some Italian while being here through a couple of my instructors at the school. On top of all of this, within this experience I’ve met incredible people from all over the world, in which I will see again in my future. Truly the best trip!

Advisor was always available, until I signed my 17 yr old daughter up. After that, I could not reach her by phone, email or even by scheduling a phone appointment online. She completely “ghosted” me and my husband. I called EF 800 number to talk to someone else and they would not talk to me, only transfer me to our advisor which would go straight to her voicemail.
Host family was horrible to my daughter. And since the advisor wouldn’t answer my calls, there was nothing I could do, short of moving her into an Airbnb. My daughter was getting badly bitten by mosquitoes every night in her bedroom. Host wouldn’t allow my daughter to close the window or use a small fan. Host threatened my daughter she’d charge her for electricity because my daughter would use a flat iron to straighten her hair. My daughters bedroom door didn’t lock, nor did the bath door, host would walk in without knocking. Host would dictate when my daughter could shower, which would throw her schedule off. Host would talk about my daughter to the other EF student in Spanish and complain that my daughter is messy and doesn’t help. Host yelled at my daughter for 2 drops of water on the hard floor that dripped from her leaving the shower to her bedroom. My daughter was uncomfortable and in tears nightly, and again the advisor was not responding to me at all. EF enrollment form said they would give free weekend activity if you referred a friend who booked, we provided all the proof, but never received anything. My daughter said she is learning more Spanish in Italy, because her host family speaks Spanish. The teachers at the campus; some are okay but giving instructions in Italian to a student that speaks 0 Italian isn’t helpful. My daughter who is a high honor straight A student, was frustrated and confused most the time. Don’t waste your money on EF Language Abroad. The advisor who I was in un-lucky to end up with should be fired. Her initials are M.M and her last name rhymes with tarr.

During my 2-week spring break, I decided to travel to Nice, France, for EF's intensive language immersion program. I had a wonderful time learning the language, interacting with locals, meeting new people, and exploring surrounding areas. I think the program is best geared towards younger students (ie high schoolers), but I was lucky to make friends with fellow adult learners. I was already at an intermediate-advanced proficiency in the language and would go back to France in a heartbeat if given the opportunity.

I was so worried about college and my next steps in life after I graduated high school in 2022. I decided I wanted to take a gap year and see where life takes me. In the fall of my gap year, I found EF’s website and fell in love. I decided on the European discovery since I always wanted to go to Europe especially France and Italy! I worked and saved the next few months and in April of 2023, I finally flew to London and met my fellow travelers. And I can’t put into words how amazing it was. I had a great group and tour leaders who made the experience so much better! I felt supported 24/7. It was affordable with insurance plans, a phone bill plan and great hotel/hostel accommodations! I felt safe at all times. We had amazing dinner reservations, wonderful tour guides in the cities we were at and special activities such a cheese factory, a cooking class and more!
I will be returning to EF on my next trip!

I attended the EF Gap finder as a fresh college graduate and this program was everything I could've wished it could be. Although many of my fellow travelers were recent high school graduates, we all came from many different walks of life. This program was perfectly structured to ensure we saw the many highlights that the various European cities had to offer. From seeing the Northern Lights, to taking a cruise along the Seine river overlooking the Eiffel Tower, to tasting authentic Parmesan cheese in the Parma Region of Italy it was perfect. Not only did I learn so much about all of these amazing places, I made incredible lifelong friends who I continue to keep in touch with and am making plans to see again very soon. EF took care of everything so I could sit back and enjoy my trip knowing that everything would be taken care of. The trip was a perfect combination of structured activities and free days, in which you can spend how you choose, which included for me a trip to Stonehenge and a day trip to Dresden in Germany. I would absolutely recommend this trip to anyone wanting to travel, even if they had no real prior travel experience. I would relive my gap semester again in a heartbeat.

La atención desde el primer momento fue muy buena y la experiencia sin duda fue lo mejor también, he aprendido mucho gracias a ellos durante tan solo 2 semanas sin embargo conseguí mucha fluidez y confianza en cuanto a todas las cosas (hablar, leer, escuchar...) ya que aprender un idioma en el lugar en el que se habla creo que es lo mejor para aprender tanto este como la cultura y todo lo que lo engloba.
No tengas dudas si te lo estás pensando o llevas tiempo posponiendolo, créeme que no te arrepentirás

English:
The attention from the first moment was very good and the experience was undoubtedly the best too, I have learned a lot thanks to them during only 2 weeks, however I became very fluent and confident in all things (speaking, reading, listening. ..) Since learning a language in the place where it is spoken, I think it is the best way to learn both the language and the culture and everything that encompasses it.
Do not have doubts if you are thinking about it or have been postponing it for a long time, believe me you will not regret it

I've done an exchange year with EF and I couldn't be more grateful. They've been helpful with everything and supportive. As something really usual I've had ups and downs during my year and they've been there every time I needed something. Welcome days in New York are amazing and a really good experience to meet new people from all over the world and make new connections. I really enjoyed those days and made new friends. I'm so happy that since the first day, I chose EF to make my year abroad, thank you!