Language exchanges and paid stay holidays for children can now be organized directly between families.

A very welcomed new arrival on the Internet, Lingoo.eu is an innovative website dedicated to improving language learning for children. Lingoo enables parents to arrange for their child to stay with like-minded families abroad, through language exchange holidays or by paying to stay with a host family.

According to Anne Goldstein, founder of the site, "We all know that the best way to improve a language is to practise it in the country where it is spoken. However, it can be difficult to find a formula that really suits the individual child. Just ask people around you and you will be surprised by just how many bad memory stories you will hear. Through Lingoo, parents can now find families abroad with similar aged children, similar interests, similar values or similar religious beliefs".

"The Lingoo project was based on the idea to take advantage of the formidable potential the internet provides to make contact and communication easy. Whereas before parents needed to delegate this task to a specialist agency, with Lingoo they can directly plan and organise their child’s language study holiday with just a few clicks".

"On Lingoo, the families search, meet, get to know each other and, if they like each other, go ahead and organize their child’s language exchange holiday. As a result you get a language holiday abroad without the need for a commercial intermediary and really made to measure! All the families on Lingoo have followed a strict reference process so the contact is always established in mutual confidence".

Lingoo also appeals to people who are interested in welcoming school children from abroad into their families as paying guests. By being a host family through Lingoo, you will be able to select a child from a like-minded family abroad and get to know them before their visit. Your role will be to help them to understand about our culture and, in the process, you and your family will gain greater knowledge about theirs. An enjoyable activity that fits perfectly into family life.»

Anne Goldstein concludes, “Young people who speak more than one languages start life with a great advantage. They also have a greater understanding of their own language as well as a more open-minded approach to other people’s cultures. Lingoo also contains an online directory, a comprehensive and easy to use directory of useful addresses to help your children develop their language learning”. »

Lingoo currently exists in English and French and will introduce Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German versions before the end of 2008.