Connecting Cultures through Language
ICYE Switzerland
ICYE Switzerland is an international volunteering NPO providing projects in Europe, America, Asia & Africa. Apply now!
Fostering contextual language learning
Language is one of the strongest heartbeats of a culture; it is arguably the most golden key to understanding a culture. And language stretches past the words we speak and write: we sing language, we dance language, we sign language; it is used to show who we are, how we feel, what we think and believe in. This is why teaching it can not be contained in the four corners of a grammar book. Teaching and learning with full intention expands far beyond this. An expansion that can only be realised in an immersive cultural context.
Living, learning, participating
ICYE Switzerland stands for reciprocal, ethical exchange. This means, the Non-Profit-Organisation organises stays for volunteers from around the world in Switzerland, and in return, sends Swiss residents to countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania as volunteers - in line with the federation we belong to. Equally, a core focus area of ICYE is to advocate for, and help implement the principles of informal learning.
ICYE Switzerland’s volunteering exchange programmes have at their core a language-learning component. They stand apart from traditional language learning courses, such as perhaps offered by EF or BoaLinga, as they are, rather, fully immersive intercultural exchanges that offer language learning as an integral part of getting to know a culture, and oneself.
Language in context
After arriving in one of 40 host countries, ICYE volunteers participate not only in a language course (conditions as to duration, extent and format apply subject to the length of their volunteering period), but also an introduction to the country’s culture and its people. They either stay with host-families (which may also be individuals or couples) or on site in their project, work as volunteers with the local community, and are supported by formal language lessons. This way they unfold language in its day-to-day use, in its most natural and living form. Getting to know the language in this intimate way, means getting to know the culture and its people with the same closeness.?
Cultures meet
Reciprocally, volunteers coming to Switzerland from the network’s host countries, such as Poland, Kenya, Colombia and 37 others, are submerged into the richness of the country by learning French or German (ICYE currently doesn’t have projects in the Italian- or Rumantsch-speaking parts of Switzerland) - but they too bring their own customs, traditions and values. Swiss guest families, who take in the young people, open their home to an unforgettable exchange.?
If you’ve wanted to experience a new world, and learn a new language in a rooted and meaningful way, join us as a volunteer or host-family. Perhaps, in the spirit of true exchange, even both by inviting a member of your host family to stay with you after your volunteering experience abroad!
More information:
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About ICYE
ICYE Switzerland is a non-profit organisation that promotes understanding between people of different cultures through ethical exchanges. We facilitate host families and projects for volunteers from abroad, and in return we organise volunteering opportunities for Swiss residents in many projects in over 40 countries worldwide.
We offer volunteer placements, preliminary internships (Vorpraktika), short term volunteering of 1-5 months, long-term volunteering of 6-12 months as well as special projects for teachers, health professionals and the people with a hearing disability. Unlike other exchange organisations that target young people, we also have projects for adults over 30. We offer a Mercator scholarship to graduates of apprenticeships, and through the foundation Movetia and the Swiss Confederation we are able to organise an EVS (European Voluntary Service) free of charge for Shengen-area residents and citizens.
Our address:
ICYE Schweiz
Weissensteinstrasse 16
3008 Bern
+41 (0)31 371 77 80