SO WHAT IS ‘ANDÉGO INTERNSHIPS ABROAD’?

Gabrielle: As one of Andégo's current teaching assistants in France, I’m excited to interview you today. Thanks for joining me.

Robert: Well thanks for making some time to sit down with me. I’m really looking forward to sharing about Andégo and our passion for helping people go abroad.

Gabrielle: You have so much expertise around cultural exchange that you can share with our audience. I’d love to start by having you explain the most popular program you offer: the English language teaching assistant internship. Who is this program for, and what can participants expect in general?

Robert: So for our gap year internship abroad, we have two durations: participants can either spend a semester (six months) or a full academic year (10 months) in one of two current locations, France or Mexico. There are 50 schools in France and 11 schools in Mexico that we partner with–including elementary, middle, and high schools. Our participants arrive in France or Mexico as English language teaching assistants, with the goal of motivating and creating inviting spaces for students to speak English and learn about their culture.

As part of the program, participants receive full room and board. They typically live with a volunteer host family. There’s a real emphasis on family, as the families truly want to share their own culture and language, and to learn from the young people they’re hosting.

Several of our partner schools are also boarding schools, where Andégo participants can receive a private room and bathroom, and still have meals provided. And a few partner schools in France and Mexico offer a mix, where participants will live in a boarding school during the week, and with host families on the weekends.

All Andégo participants also receive a stipend since they’re in a professional setting working alongside the language teachers at their host school. In France, that stipend is set by the French government, so it’s €417 per month. I believe next year it’s going up to €427, which is right around $500 per month. In Mexico, it’s about $250 per month. Due to the difference in cost of living, those are very similar amounts in terms of what you’re able to do with it.

The final thing I would share is Andégo participants can receive up to eight academic credits that can be transferred to any university. We also have a partnership with Pacific University located just outside of Portland, Oregon. So if participants are interested in attending Pacific, the year abroad with Andégo will count as a full academic year of their degree. In other words, students can do one year abroad with Andégo, and then three years on campus at Pacific to receive a bachelor’s degree.

THE INSPIRATION BEHIND ANDÉGO

Gabrielle: You started out as an educator. Can you tell me what inspired you to start Andégo?

Robert: I guess I would back up even further to my own experience abroad. I grew up in Boise, Idaho, not really exposed to lots of diversity. The first time I’d even been out of the country was to embark on a semester-long program in France in high school. And from there things really accelerated. Language became my passion, and as an educator, I sought out new ways to allow my students to connect to language.

Then I started hosting groups of visiting international students for two-week increments. Obviously for them it was a huge cultural exploration, but even for my American students, just the act of welcoming people from different cultures into their homes boosted a lot of curiosity.

Around that time I also started taking school groups abroad, which always involved a homestay to build those connections. Andégo grew out of one of those connections. The director of a school in France just outside of Geneva, Switzerland asked if one of my own students would be interested in coming to France to motivate kids to use English in less formal situations.

“As an educator, I sought out new ways to allow my students to connect to language.”

Once I saw the growth my students were experiencing on their amazing adventures, I slowly began to reach out to students at nearby schools in Oregon to gauge interest. As of today, participants from all over the United States and Canada, as well as the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, have taught at our partner schools across France and Mexico. It all started from that one kernel and grew into something quite international.

WHY IS ANDÉGO IMPORTANT?

Gabrielle: In your opinion, why is cultural exchange important?

Robert: Cultural exchange is so important early on because it helps young people realize what it means to be part of a wider world. They realize how language can not only be a skill that will be useful in their academic or professional lives, but that language also represents the connections, experience, and memories that one has while abroad.

“Cultural exchange is so important early on because it helps young people realize what it means to be part of a wider world.”

So in a nutshell, that’s what I would say Andégo is: We find different ways for world language teachers, especially high school and college-aged people, to have access, interactions, and relationships with the wider world.

Gabrielle: I love that answer. And what I’m also hearing is that giving young people that first exposure and point of connection helps them become the adults they’re going to become.

Robert: Yeah. It’s like the Nelson Mandela quote, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” Connections are automatically created between you and someone who speaks a language you also happen to speak. But beyond that, there’s an adaptability, independence, and confidence that comes from being abroad or hosting. Empathy, understanding, and curiosity are raised through welcoming someone from another culture and seeing how they interpret and navigate a new place.

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”

DO YOU NEED TO SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE BEFORE PARTICIPATING IN ANDÉGO?

Gabrielle: Do you need to have a base-level of French or Spanish to participate in Andégo?

Robert: Every school we partner with is a little different in how they utilize language assistants. We want to be adaptive and responsive to the needs of each school and community, and to the needs of the young person coming to live in a new country. 

For our participants, the overarching theme is to get their students excited about language. Since the focus is on spoken language, participants often do a lot of group work that involves games, art projects, singing, and going out at recess and playing with students in English. It’s just really about helping students realize that language is about connection and sharing, which so often happens outside the walls of a classroom. 

Gabrielle: One of the things that surprised me about the job was that I didn’t have to be perfect in French. Kids just want to hear about your culture. They want to hear what life is like in America. They want to learn American slang.

Robert: Exactly. And will some base of French help you adapt and integrate a little more quickly? Absolutely. As far as a language requirement, at the outset, we did have a three-years of study requirement. We removed that, however, because a few participants with no language background were just really motivated to go to France. And we learned that the open-mindedness and willingness to dive into life abroad is more important than anything else. It’s also about the ability to embrace the struggle and celebrate growth.

So we don’t have a language requirement anymore, and we have seen that several schools actually prefer participants who don’t speak the language. I’ll also say, for heritage Spanish speakers in the US who are interested in going to France, not only are they going to jump into French more easily because of the similarities linguistically, but they will also have the opportunity to share their culture as a Mexican-American or Latino American as well while working as a teaching assistant in France.

“It’s about the ability to embrace the struggle and celebrate growth.”

PREPARING FOR DEPARTURE

Gabrielle: When people are contemplating something like this, their first thought might be, “How do I even prepare to leave my own country?” What advice do you have around prepping to move abroad?

Robert: The first thing I would say is, take the dive. And listen to other people as well. So many people will say, “I wish I lived abroad when I was young.” On the other hand, I don't meet a lot of people who say, “I spent a year in Italy…What a total waste.” Not to say that it’s all butterflies and roses. There are struggles for sure, but, yeah, the first step is deciding to do it.

“Take the dive.”

Once they decide to take the plunge, we provide a structured path for participants to follow leading up to their departure. This structure is super important for participants and their families, since about three quarters of participants are within three years of graduating high school. We also offer ongoing support–whether that’s through regular check-ins to see how things are going, or by offering step-by-step assistance during the visa application process.

Once our participants arrive in their host country, we then hold a fun and informative orientation which gets them all connected to each other. So in France, for example, our interns spend several days in Angers, about an hour west of Paris, for orientation before traveling to the French town where they'll live for the year.

During orientation, we also knock out logistics like setting up a French bank account. There’s a running joke about French bureaucracy: You can’t set up a bank account unless you have an address in France. But you can’t have an address unless you have proof of income. But you can’t have proof of income unless you have a bank account. It’s just a vicious circle. We take care of all of those things for our participants.

They will then be welcomed into a supportive host family, and we also provide a point of contact for them at their school–an administrator who helps them get settled and involved in the community. It’s really just all about preparing our participants and creating a community around them.

VISAS

Gabrielle: You mentioned visas. Most people don’t have a strong understanding of the process of obtaining one. It just seems insurmountable. How does Andégo secure visas for its participants?

Robert: It's absolutely overwhelming to figure out how to find a job abroad, and how to get a visa. And whether you’re fresh out of high school, or a professional adult, Andégo is an opportunity to go abroad and put things on pause during a really memorable gap year abroad.

All of our participants receive a visa through the French government in cooperation with the university they’re currently attending or plan to attend. And we walk them step by step through that entire process.

“Whether you’re fresh out of high school, or a professional adult, Andégo is an opportunity to go abroad and put things on pause for a year.”

Gabrielle: As an American, you think it’s just going to be a series of forms, but you quickly realize it’s a very circuitous, intricate process.

Robert: Even going on the France visa website, right? No offense to the French government obviously, but when they pop out that list of required documents for your visa appointment, there are no links or examples to what the documents are. And so you have to appear in person. Or maybe you’re from Montana, and you have to fly to Chicago or San Francisco for your visa appointment…That’s an investment to go all that way with potentially the wrong documents. And it’s not like they will write you back saying, “Hey, could you just modify this?” They just say, “Nope. Your visa was denied.” And you have to start from square one. 

We’ve been in this environment a long time, so we know what’s needed. We know how to navigate the entire process and who to contact and what to say.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Gabrielle: I’m going to shift gears a bit. Once a participant is settled abroad, what’s a snapshot of an average day for them?

Robert: All of our participants have a set number of hours in which they will work as an English language teaching assistant at their school. The internship hours are somewhere in the low to mid 20s per week. So on average, they will work four to five hours a day. There’s a real emphasis on the assistant part of the job. You’re not the primary teacher. You’re not having to develop a full curriculum. Instead you’ll work alongside the teachers, whether that’s circulating and helping students navigate an activity, or giving a presentation about your culture. Many of our participants also run lunchtime clubs. France is famous for having nice long lunches–up to two hours in some cases. And in Mexico, it’s usually at least an hour. The important thing is to bring your own interests and passions and share those with your students. 

Outside of the internship hours, your time is entirely your own. You have the opportunity to make connections, whether it’s with the teachers at your school, other participants in the program, or people in the community. Our partner schools do a tremendous job of connecting our participants to social outlets as well.

One of the big things we encourage our participants to do is to join some sort of club or activity, whether it’s sports, music, theater, activism…just to build community without having to depend on their own social courage and language ability to walk up to someone and strike up a conversation.

“One of the big things we encourage our participants to do is to join some sort of club or activity.”

And for participants paired with a host family, time together might include enjoying meals, playing board games, or watching TV.  And of course, weekends and school breaks provide the opportunity to travel and explore outside interests. Participants can utilize their stipend to fund a lot of their excursions and outings.

MENTAL WELLBEING

Gabrielle: Would you say cultivating a sense of community is the biggest factor in maintaining positive mental health while dealing with culture shock?

Robert: We don’t talk about whether or not you’ll be homesick. It’ll happen. It’s more so how hard it will hit you, so it’s important to have different outlets to help you adapt. I also don’t recommend being so busy that you don’t even have time to consider homesickness…because that can lead to an intense crash at some point. During those moments of isolation, of desiring familiarity–which I think is really what homesickness comes back to–share the goals you’re achieving with everyone back home. It’s also important to focus on the connections you’ve made abroad, whether in your community, or with students and teachers.

Other things I’ve found that help with homesickness include journaling, positive self-talk, and taking a moment to stop and smell the proverbial roses. During my own time abroad, for me it was architecture. Just walking around my French town and looking up at the buildings was exciting because of all the ornate and intricate details on simple apartment buildings and shops. Those walks allowed me to say, “Wow I’m really here…a kid from Boise who’s never been out of the country. I’m doing this.”

“During those moments of isolation, of desiring familiarity–which I think is really what homesickness comes back to–share the goals you’re achieving with everyone back home.”

Gabrielle: That’s a great reframe, and then for the rest of your life, you will still have those memories. You can think, “If I can do that, I can do anything.”

Robert: That’s exactly what we hear so frequently during our post-Andégo interviews with returnees. How they realized that if they could do that year in France or Mexico, they can do so much. So just that overall boost in confidence is great. Participants also joke that people get annoyed with them now because everything they talk about is somehow related to their year abroad.

Gabrielle: That’s so true. After living abroad, conversations just shift towards things like, “This pizza is great, but, you know, pizza is just so much better in Italy.” You’re like, I’ve become so bougie, I have to stop! But travel just becomes something you want to share with everyone. It’s like the expression, “I got bitten by the travel bug.” Those cultural bug bites, if you will, are with you for life.

Robert: Yep. Absolutely.

BUILDING THE RESILIENCY MUSCLE

Gabrielle: You’ve seen many examples in your career of students who started out way over there: maybe a little shy or lacking in self-assurance…And then after their time abroad, they’re all the way over here: confident, cultured, resilient. Do any of your former participants pop to mind where you think, “Wow, who is this new person? They really are on the other side of that fence.”

Robert: Two participants come to mind. So, a part of our application process is an interview, and a portion of that interview is done in either French or Spanish. This isn’t a language test. It just gives us an idea of where our participants are with language so we can be more intentional in their placements. I remember one participant whose French interview was rough. When we switched back over to English, I could see the embarrassment he had knowing he’d studied French for years but still couldn’t speak it. I could just tell how genuine, kind, and open he was though, so I knew he’d do well abroad. And then during his year in France, he absolutely blossomed because he allowed himself to (in his words) “sound like an idiot and be totally lost.”

His internship took place in a French elementary school. A lot of times participants think, “Oh my French isn’t very good, so I should teach at an elementary school.” You have to remember though that elementary school students usually don’t speak any English. He just fully embraced that, however, and navigated his way through play. Not only did his school absolutely adore him, but his French also just skyrocketed. Again, that really just encapsulates the reason behind language: it allows us to have these incredible connections with people. Yes it’s an academic subject and takes a lot of cognitive brain power, but the WHY behind language is so important.

My other example is actually a former student of mine. I taught her through high school, and she got into a rut during her junior year. I actually chased her down one day because she was missing so much of my French class, and I found her heading into choir with a giant coffee in her hand…She had just skipped my class to get the coffee. I knew she had a good level of language already, but for her, Andégo really just allowed her to take a break. It let her take the pressure of school off of her shoulders and to feel like she was really contributing and growing within her school and community abroad.

It wasn’t all easy though. She switched host families at one point, which was a planned change, but it coincided with a peak of homesickness for her–where even the color of the sheets at her new host family threw her off. But her willingness to work through it and remind herself why she was there got her through that. Today, she’s graduating from college with a minor in French, and she’s maintained those connections from her time abroad. I think the experience clarified for her what her path could be like.

ANDÉGO VERSUS TAPIF

Gabrielle: When people think about doing a gap year in France in particular, the first thing that usually comes to mind is TAPIF. Can you compare the two? In your opinion, who should do Andégo, and who should do TAPIF?

Robert: TAPIF is a tremendous program, and our objectives align in a lot of ways. We both aim to expose young English speakers to French culture, and to expose young French students to English-speaking cultures and the English language.

At the same time, TAPIF has an age requirement, so you must be between the ages of 20 and 35 and most participants that I’m aware of do so after college at 22-23 years old. Andégo, on the other hand, is open to anyone 18 and up.

For our participants, language isn’t this carrot that has to hang out there until you have a job and it’s actually useful…You can go have that experience right out of high school. And for all the reasons we’ve talked about, that can be a really clarifying experience about what comes next in life. 

Students who are on deferment from their university are also a great fit for Andégo. If they’ve just gotten into a university, they can say, “I can’t wait to come to your school, but I have this opportunity I’m going to explore first.” We’ve seen a change in how universities view deferment–not as a burden, but as an opportunity. They understand that the students who participate in an experience like this are going to return with new skills, knowledge, and perspective. So not only are they getting a student who’s better prepared for their studies, but they’re also getting someone who’s going to positively impact all of the students with whom they come in contact.

“For our participants, language isn’t this carrot that has to hang out there until you have a job and it’s actually useful…You can go have that experience right out of high school.”

Andégo also offers an opportunity for older professionals who don’t necessarily want to relocate their entire lives, but who want to do a sabbatical or simply want the chance to go abroad for a year.

The other major differences between Andégo and TAPIF are the costs and level of support. So TAPIF doesn’t have an upfront fee to participate in their program, and we do. Andégo’s $7500 program fee can be an investment for families and individuals, so we go to great lengths to ensure that translates into A LOT of support. For example, we offer guidance throughout the visa process, whereas TAPIF just gives you a checklist of what to do. With Andégo, we also provide an orientation that connects you with our other participants. We get your bank account set up. We get you a phone. If you do TAPIF, you show up, head to your school, and figure those things out on your own. Not to say that teachers or locals aren’t going to help you, but we walk step-by-step with our participants in that sense.

And then the other major difference between Andégo and TAPIF is the accommodations. Through Andégo, year-long accommodations and food are provided as part of our program fee. That means you won’t have to deal with any future costs, including monthly rent, and you also won’t have to navigate the process of finding a place to live. All the French bureaucracy is removed.

TAPIF, on the other hand, offers a stipend of €800 to €850 per month, but within that, you have to find a place to live, pay rent each month, and pay for your own food and outings. During a full in France, TAPIF participants will easily pay €7500 or more on accommodations plus food, so the total costs involved with both programs work out to be fairly similar.

So if you want a program that will handle everything for you, and provide support from start to finish, go with Andégo. But if you prefer a high level of independence, then TAPIF is a better fit.

Andégo could also be a great precursor to TAPIF. That’s to say, Andégo participants who are fresh out of high school might want to do an independent program like TAPIF later on, after they’ve already had that initial supportive experience abroad through Andégo. That travel bug will still be under their skin…And at that point, TAPIF could be a great option.

“If you want a program that will handle everything for you, and provide support from start to finish, go with Andégo.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Gabrielle: How does a cultural experience, like a gap year abroad, potentially weave into someone’s professional future?

Robert: I think this goes back to our conversation about resiliency, which isn’t necessarily easy to put on paper. It’s not a skill that you can cite. But when you have a program like Andégo on your resume, anyone who’s had a similar experience will instantly recognize the courage it takes, and how that translates into everything you approach. You now have an ability to navigate and work through difficult situations. I’ve frequently heard employers in different industries say, "I can teach you the ins and outs of my industry, but it’s those intangibles that can’t be taught."

Same goes for jobs that require language knowledge. A lot of students will study a language for years, but an immersive experience like this solidifies and anchors that language. It’s something you’re going to maintain (or quickly resuscitate if it goes dormant) throughout your life. One of the big things our interns have specifically heard during job interviews is that their time abroad is what set them apart.

Gabrielle: Not to mention how when you’re first entering the professional world, you’re suddenly in an environment where you’re working with people of all ages and backgrounds, which can be overwhelming if you haven’t had an experience like this.

Robert: Yeah, our participants have already succeeded in adapting to a whole new culture in a different language.

Gabrielle: And if you can do that, then working at, say, Microsoft is gonna be a breeze.

“When you have a program like Andégo on your resume, anyone who’s had a similar experience will instantly recognize the courage it takes, and how that translates into everything you approach.”

MISADVENTURES ABROAD

Gabrielle: I’d love to wrap up by having you share one of your own misadventures in traveling from your own time abroad.

Robert: So when I was studying in Lyon, France, I was also working as a language assistant at a nearby middle school. There was another American college student I got connected with, and we took a trip to the Loire River Valley to check out some castles. That day, we decided to squeeze in just one more castle. So we took the train there, and as you can imagine, it was a fortified castle on a hill with a huge hike to the top. Well we finally made it and stormed the castle…only to find it was closed for renovations for like the next five years. Then while hiking back to the train station, we got turned around in this little town and missed the last train home.

So here we are, stuck on the opposite side of France from our host families, in this unknown, relatively small village. We ended up walking into this little family-owned restaurant. And by, I don’t know, some divine universal intervention, the restaurant owner was really interested that we were Americans who spoke French, so he gave us a free meal and let us sleep in the restaurant. And it just ended up being this really funny story. In the moment, we had varying levels of stress as two 20-year-olds abroad, but it became a huge souvenir of the trip: laughing about how we just had to see one more castle…which we didn’t even get to see.

Interested in spending a gap year abroad as a teaching assistant?

Learn more about Andégo’s gap year internship programs in France and Mexico or join an upcoming info session to explore whether the experience is right for you.