Cultural Visits to Get You Talking
Culture-led Experiences to Inspire Your English
Cultural Visits, Activities and Great Conversations
Enjoy a holiday filled with experiences designed to develop your English language skills while exploring Scotland.
Once you book, we continue chatting about activities you might enjoy seeing in Scotland.
In addition, we keep an eye on music concerts, public talks and events where we know you will find top-quality culture and/or conversation opportunities (for this reason, it’s a good idea to book early!).
You can find a list of our more popular visits in our Activities Directory.
This page shares:
- The non-touristic, non-public experiences to get you talking! (Remember, we get you behind the scenes of Scotland).
- How we build a bespoke English language holiday for you.
There is an art to building a holiday for you
Ruth, your English coach is an artist, a culture lover and a wildlife enthusiast.
She knows how to share the best of Scotland with you.
We Buy Your Tickets
All entry to museums, castles, music events and Scottish visitor experiences are included in your course fee.
Attending ticketed events is included in the price of your holiday!
What WILL Be Featured?
In addition to ticketed events, you’ll be treated to a wealth of English-language activities, all of which share Scotland in intelligent, positive tourism ways,
Visit our network of artists and makers
Join our friends for games, drinks or meals
Spontaneous socialising is a huge part of relaxing into English. Sometimes, we even host public events to get you involved with our community, like this music event with Lhamo Grace.
Outdoor recreation activities
We partner with businesses which share the Scottish landscape, history and wildlife in non-invasive ways.
Expect to go on wildlife adventures exploring Perthshire’s woodlands on foot – and sometimes by bicycle or canoe.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to get physical!
When you book, we’ll ask you what level of fitness & activity sound good to you.
Scottish Wildlife Encounters
We share our knowledge of Scottish wildlife and nature in ecologically sound ways that help you understand the landscape, the history of our community and the history of land and wildlife management in Scotland – a rich topic for conversation.
Try this Sample Lesson with the 2nd Conditional describing River Fishing
Visit Exhibitions & Galleries
Visit exhibitions, museums and art galleries on your language holiday in Scotland.
We regularly visit: The V&A Dundee (Scotland’s Design Museum), Perth Museum, The Burrell Collection, and Glasgow Tramway.
Your Own English Journal
All your cultural activities, visits and conversations combine into a living language experience of 1000 micro-moments of you being you, in English, and that’s a powerful thing.
Look at this visual record of just 1 week’s activities and English encounters.
Made for You | English Language Activities
It’s worth comparing our English language activities with corporate language school holidays
There, you’ll find a list of things they arrange for you (whether you are interested in them or not).
In addition, with those schools, you go by yourself, and join an excursion taking place in English. There’s no English coach by your side.
With this little independent language school, you choose how you want to experience Scottish culture – and get taking!
Behind the Scenes Planning
Behind the Scenes of Your English Language Holiday
From the moment of booking, I begin planning your holiday.
Because we’ve had a Zoom chat, I have a good idea of your interests and goals.
I’ll send you a few WhatsApp messages to determine the kind of music you like – and learn if you prefer a street art tour of Glasgow to cycling through a forest. (If you like both, no problem, so do I!).
For the weeks up until your arrival, I keep an eye on social media for community events. I check my favourite venues for gigs and the galleries I love for interesting-looking exhibitions and book tickets.
I’ve got much of Scotland to pick from!
I balance the week by having top-quality cultural events, laced with hundreds of tiny details, like trying a particular cheese or smelling the bluebells after the rain.
This Trello Board supplements my static activities list (that’s things always available in the area, like castles and wildlife experiences).
It’s a loose plan.
Once you are here we tend to veer off and take advantage of things that occur through conversation (What??? You’ve never seen an X Y Z.)
I know the best time of day to visit Stirling Castle, see a beaver or where the hidden picnic benches are. I weave this into your holiday on a more moment-to-moment basis.
When I am adding to your week – or moving things around to balance the experiences want to share, it feels like adding paint to a canvas or carving into a sculpture. I have to survey it regularly to make sure it all balances.
Your English coaching occurs live around all these experiences. We may dust off a grammar book occasionally to review a certain structure, but the majority of your English training will be live.
You’ll feel confident using your English in every context because speaking grows language skills bigger, better & stronger.
About Our Language Holiday Schedule
The schedule page exists because a few of our English language holidays follow a schedule determined by external events.
On those dates, people join us BECAUSE they want to practice English AND partake in a cultural events.
September is a language immersion holiday built around making and exploring art. (There is a Perthshire-wide open studios event around which we build a holiday).
October is flexible, but with outdoor and autumn-themed English adventures. (The idea is to get outside and dedicate time to enjoying the landscape, to enter winter with a healthy body and mind).
