Servas Youth Language Experience (SYLE) 2024 programme
SYLE is an opportunity for young members between the ages of 16 and 30 to spend some time with one or more hosting families in another country, learning their language and discovering their customs and way of life.
If you are a young Servas member, between 16 and 30 years old, you can apply for a SYLE or Junior SYLE programme by filling in the registration form. Please read the information about the programme below and reflect on what you would like to get out of the experience before submitting your application.
SYLE and Junior SYLE registration form 2024
From the information you provide about yourself – your interests, where you would like to stay and the language that you'd like to speak – the Servas SYLE Coordinator will consider your application and, if it is accepted, pass it on to the Servas regional Youth Coordinator in your preferred Servas member country. The regional Youth Coordinator will publicise your application to members there.
A visit is dependent on finding hosts able and willing to take on a SYLE visitor at a particular time. Between the members who respond, the coordinators and yourself, or your family, we will try to arrange a programme that suits the SYLE experience you are looking for.
What is involved in SYLE exactly?
The aim of SYLE is two-fold, both to improve language skills, the basis of communication, and to better understand other cultures. It is offered only to Servas Members between age 18 and 30 or to younger children whose parents are established Servas members.
There are two individual hosting programmes within SYLE:
- SYLE - hosting for 18 to 30 year-old members of Servas, and
- Junior SYLE - hosting for 14 to 18 year-old members of a Servas family
SYLE (for 18 to 30 year-old members)
SYLE offers an extended stay in a Servas member country of between two and four weeks, staying with one or more hosts for a minimum period of a week with each host or hosting family, longer than the normal two-night stays expected of adult travellers. The hosting household may or may not include younger members, but ideally during a stay we should aim for some contact with other young people and if possible the opportunity for you to join in local community activities.
You are not just a guest, you are an active member of the family
You should be treated as part of the family and share in meals as well as tasks in the home, but the host is not expected to fund expenditure you incur outside the home.
It is important to respect the household rules of your hosts and discuss these together in advance of your stay. Some hosts may be working and a degree of independence is normally expected of a young adult SYLE member (18+). It is also expected that you will write a short report after a SYLE visit, describing your experience. This may be published on the Servas website or in Servas news bulletins.
Some Servas member countries offer programmes which include a volunteering experience in the community, offering the opportunity to better understand local issues. Malawi offers such a programme, as do the Servas Turkey and other Servas peace schools.
Junior SYLE (for 16 to 18 year-old members of a Servas family)
Hosting a 16 to 18 year-old member of a Servas family in another country, is something which we can try to facilitate but which is the responsibility of the Servas members involved. It may involve an exchange between two young members from different countries or simply hosting on one side, depending on what is agreed between the two parties. Servas coordinators are not responsible for any such arrangements.
Applying for SYLE
For both SYLE and Junior SYLE the members concerned – you, if you are 18 or over, or your parents, if you are under 18 – should have a valid letter of introduction (LOI), and submit the registration form at least four months in advance to the Servas International SYLE coordinator.
See also
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