A risk but most likely worthwhile

The most important thing to know is that the program is a gamble. For me, it was an amazing experience and for most of the people I know, it was positive overall. However, there are the odd horror stories. Given the nature of the schools you are teaching in, kids,teachers, etc. can be extremely difficult.

If one of your main goals is to learn Spanish, then EOD ticks the box. There's an online Spanish course that you can do as part of the program. But much more helpful than this is the fact that you live with a Chilean family, so you will definitely be speaking Spanish every day. Having said that, if you don't know any Spanish, you will be pretty lost for the first couple of months and will have no idea what people are trying to say to you (Chileans speak particularly difficult Spanish).

I had a really cool host family. They were really sweet, made great food, introduced me to their friends and generally I loved hanging out with them. But I can imagine that it could be a intense living with a family that you don't get on with - basically like having parents you hate.

Undoubtedly the best part of this program will be your students. Most of the lessons these kids have a ridiculously boring and basically rote learning. So they love the fact that they can have a fun lesson with games, music, etc. Obviously there will be some kids who couldn't care less and a few who will try to disrupt your lessons. But it's incredibly rewarding when you get through to some of them. There should be low expectations on the degree to which you can improve their standard of English given the time constraints but making any kind of impact is great. You can make much more of a difference with kids who are keen to learn and participate in Public Speaking and Debate competitions.

Finally, choose wisely when you opt for location preferences and prepare to be very adaptable. Chile is geographically very diverse. The South gets freezing in the winter, whereas the North is a desert and obviously your experience will be very different depending on whether you're placed in a tiny, rural village or in Santiago.

Overall, as I said, being an EOD volunteer a risk, but chances are you won't regret doing it.