I had already been an ELA with the BC in France and China and both experiences were fantastic so I wanted to go somewhere relating to my degree (French and German, Durham University) but with a reputable company which is why I chose this programme. The experience was a lot better than my expectations! I attended an induction day and I found talks from previous assistants useful as well as lesson plan ideas.

I worked in a gymnase in Payerne (Fribourg/Vaud) that took students from two cantons who were from 16 to 19. I worked 12 hours a week and did a mixture of taking half classes for speaking and taking full classes with the teacher in the classroom.

The main challenges for me were coming up with new speaking activities every week in order to keep students engaged and finding motivating topics especially when dealing with grammar to get students talking and revising language structures. The rewards were definitely seeing students participating enthusiastically in the activities and generally enjoying the lessons. I used quite a few clips from YouTube so perhaps DVDs of your favourite programmes and films would be useful as they can be exploited for listening and speaking activities.

The most difficult thing about the assistantship was integrating with local people as they were friendly, as someone has already mentioned but very reserved, so making friends with them wasn’t easy. I did feel very welcome where I lived though and people did acknowledge me in the streets which was fine. Adapting wasn’t a problem and I was very fortunate that the teachers at my school were very welcoming and often met up on a Friday evening for drinks which was a nice way to socialise with people outside of work.

In my spare time I took language lessons which was another way to meet people and improve your language. Travelling in Switzerland is very expensive but I did manage to go and see some places such as Zurich, Zermatt, Geneva, Basel, Luzern and Montreux and also went on a trip with the teachers to Ticino which was lovely.

I hadn’t spoken French or German in over three years when I arrived so I was a little apprehensive about how I’d cope but it was fine once you get speaking to people. The lessons definitely helped me and meeting people outside of school did too.

I honestly think that the programme allows you to discover more about your strengths and weaknesses as you are away from your comfort zone and how you deal with obstacles is a way for you to gain confidence in your abilities. This will definitely be a benefit for you in the future.

My advice if you are considering the programme is to go for it! It really is such a wonderful experience, not only do you get to improve your language skills but you get the opportunity to meet so many different people and get to experience a different culture.

I wish all assistants the very best and long may the BC programme continue giving great opportunities for people to work abroad.