EF Malta St. Julian’s, St. Julians, Malta
Gernot Satler from Austria writes a review:
I (52; male) just stayed 2 weeks in EF Malta (End of August 2021) and was in an apartment and NOT with a host family. The first week I was in a great apartment in Baluba Bay which was unfortunately 25 minutes walking distance away from the language school + beach club. I asked EF Malta after a few days if I can have a closer apartment and at the beginning of the second week I got even an upgrade: I got a 3*** Hotel room (Doublebed) which was just 5 Minutes away (Hotel Allegro) with breakfast and rooftop pool. Many EF-students were in that Hotel too. The second week was perfect as I was able to fully participate in the social activities (events) organized by EF as well as joining the EF beach club in the afternoon where all the cool students hang around in late afternoon. The EF Beach club is just 2 Minutes away from the school.
The language school is located in Paceville (part of St. Julians) which is a big party area: 2 large clubs (Foodloose; Havanna) and about 10 smaller clubs/bars (Nordic bar, Native bar, etc.). I was out almost every night. Due to corona all clubs and bars had to close at 2 a.m. (but no other restrictions in the clubs/bars) which was Ok because some classes started at 8 a.m. next day. Many party people from UK and Scandinavia go out there beside of the language students. Mood was great.
The classes were OK, but the progress could have been 3 times faster. The focus was more on becoming fluent in speaking English and not so much on becoming better in grammer und vocabularies. Only a few grammer rules and new vocabularies were introduced but then repeated a lot in excercices. Also the pronunciation was not in focus and never corrected by the teacher. So if you already have good grammer + vocabularie knowledge and want to become fluent in speaking english, I fully can recomend EF Malta. You talk a lot in the 4 - 5 hours a day in the school as there are many exercise topics (e.g. Environment; Climate change: in which the introduced vocabularies and grammer should be used) which must be discussed and/or prepared with your neighbour or in small groups. And then it is important to go to the EF beach club to talk English with other students there (Do NOT talk with students of your home country in your mother tounge. I saw this unfortunately a lot).
Following nationalites were there:
20% German, AT, SZ + NL
20% French + Belgium
20% Italy
25% Spain, Portugal + South America
15% Other (Far East, Middle East, Africa)
About 75% of the students are female.
About 80% of the students were between 16 and 25 years old. If you are an older horse (like me) it is important that you are in good shape and like to talk and connect with younger people. As I do this at home a lot I was able to get to know many people here too.
At the beach club it is also important to organize evening activities with other students. So you can talk and listen english also in the evening / night and get to know many differnt people. If you are doing good, you speak and listen up to 14 hours english a day. I noticed one thing: The better the english level of a student was (>=B2) the more they were able or willing to get to know and connect with other students. The students on lower levels were usually the one who spoke with other students in their mother tounge. As I joinde C1 level classes (and passed the C2 level test at the end) I was able to connect with many other students. Everyone is friendly and likes to communicate (maybe not so much the one who are on the lower levels). But at least half of the students are B2 or higher.
I heard a lot of complaints from studendts which were in host families. There were maybe 30% which were satisfied with their situation. Many wanted to change there host families (dirty rooms; no or bad food and water; family-guys enter the door without asking ar knocking also in the evening or early morning; no one is available for you for days; guest family member watching TV the whole evening and do not talk with students; house is 1 hour away from language school, etc.). Especially for "underage student" (below 19) it was often a tough situation with their host families.
But for me it was one of my top 10 vacations of my life.
Bologna, Italy
The University of Bologna (Italian: Alma mater studiorum - Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (hence studiorum), it is the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and the first university in the sense of a higher-learning and degree-awarding institute, as the word universitas was coined at its foundation. It is one of the most prestigious Italian universities, commonly ranking in the first places of national, European and international rankings both as a whole and for individual subjects. Since its foundation, it has attracted numerous scholars, intellectuals and students from all over Italy and the world, establishing itself as one of the main international centers of learning.
The University of Bologna in Italy, founded in 1088, is often regarded as the world's oldest university in continuous operation
Education at its very best