GOING to a high school in another country is entirely a very exciting experience indeed. The experience is even more compounding when you go to a country where people don’t speak that much English and English is just a second medium. You automatically go to an international school where you consider it as a safe haven sort of.

An international school in Spain also offers Spanish subjects though but they are limited in Spanish language, Spanish literature, Spanish history and European history as a whole. Throw in some subjects about political science and lessons on economics and you’ll get the point. The rest of the subjects such as accounting or algebra perhaps must be taught in English as obviously, the student cannot cope with the new medium if he or she is forced to take on Spanish as the medium of instruction.

Anyway, students in an international high school here in Spain need not panic that they cannot cope with studying here. All of their classmates are foreigners too just like them. In fact, they will have more advantages than their Spanish counterparts as international schools tend to organize excursions all throughout Spain. Of course, this is deducted from one’s tuition but most of the students in these international schools are children of diplomats anyway so they enjoy lofty discounts.

Excursions range from going out on a food trip to any Spanish restaurant or going skim boarding or learning flamenco dancing or learning how to scuba dive off Costa del Sol or just simply marveling at the great architectures of Spain such as the cathedrals, among others. But this is not the gist of schooling in Spain.

Schooling in Spain means studying hard and students in international schools must have ample time and place for studies. Their libraries are a conducive place to study and research as they have stockpiles of lots of international educational materials and not just Spanish and French. Because Spain is part of Europe and the European Union requires that students must learn another European language, libraries of these schools have great resources of other language such as French and German as well.

That is how a student in an international school in Spain learns. He or she not only learns the value of international cultural awareness and tolerance, the student also learns not just one language but other languages as well. Spain in itself is abundant with not just the national language but other regional dialects such as Catalan and Basque. But if students cannot simply cope with the Spanish language, there are still other techniques to go about.

Hiring a private tutor is one. Spanish international schools employ tutors who are hired by students who have a hard time in coping with the language. They are usually teachers in these schools who offer home tutorials after 3 p.m. to the students. They charge only reasonable rates. Their demeanor makes studying the Spanish language a fun one instead of just being forced to learn it.