What inspired you to work for your organization?
I came to Malta by chance in 2015, to learn English for a summer, mostly because my girlfriend, now my wife, practically made me go. Living it as a student, I noticed there was no agency in Malta itself offering a truly personal service. Agencies were based in the students' home countries and often didn't really know what they were selling: they had never lived in the city, never visited the schools and couldn't tell a student what a normal week would feel like. We wanted to give students that personal experience, with the knowledge of someone who actually lives in the destination and can answer from experience, not from a brochure. That's how Vivirse started, and it is still the reason I do this every day.
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
Start preparing before you leave, including your English. The better your level before you travel, the better the whole experience will be: you make friends faster, understand more in class, feel more comfortable dealing with the practical side of life abroad and get much more out of every week. Even a few months of regular study at home, or a couple of conversation sessions a week, makes a real difference when you land. I would also tell myself to arrive with my documents organised and a realistic budget, and to say yes to plans from the very first days, because the first weeks are when you build the routine and the friendships that shape the rest of your stay. It is much easier to enjoy the city when you are not worrying about the next step.
Why should someone choose your organization over competitors?
We are always in the destination. Our team lives where our students study, so the advice comes from people who know the city, the schools and the paperwork first-hand. Before recommending anything, we look at each student's goals, budget and visa situation, and we compare schools with their real differences, downsides included. Our process is highly automated: each student gets the right message at the moment they need it, so we act before problems appear instead of reacting to them. That made the difference when EC Malta closed overnight in September 2026: the next day, our students there, around 60, were already placed at another school, while many students who had paid EC directly lost their money.
What is your organization's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
Our motto is "your family abroad", and before any decision we ask ourselves one question: would a family do this? A family tells you the truth even when it's hard to hear, doesn't promise what it can't deliver, and doesn't disappear once you've paid. In practice that means explaining costs, requirements and timelines before showing a single school, being clear about what depends on us and what depends on others, such as visa decisions, and never pushing the most expensive option. Then we follow each student step by step, from choosing a course to the visa and the first weeks abroad, so the next step is ready before they have to ask for it. That is how we want every student to feel: accompanied, never alone.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
Confidence in English, and in themselves. When students arrive, everything is new: the city, the language, the routine, even simple things like opening a bank account or finding the right bus. A few months later they handle it all on their own, with friends from many countries and a level of English they can actually use at work and in daily life. Many discover they are capable of much more than they thought before they left home. That independence, and the open mind that comes from sharing a classroom and a city with people from all over the world, stays with them wherever they go next, whether they return home or decide to continue their journey abroad. For us, that is the real result of the experience.
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
Because you only really understand another culture by living its everyday life: the bus, the supermarket, a classmate from Brazil or Japan explaining how things work back home. It changes how you see your own country too, and it makes you more patient and more curious about people who think differently. Learning a language where it is spoken turns it from a school subject into something you use every day, from ordering a coffee to solving a problem at the bank. In a world that is more and more connected, that experience is one of the best investments a young person can make, both personally and professionally, and it is something no online course can fully replace. It also teaches you how much you can adapt.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
Travel that changes how you live, not just where you take photos. For our students, that means studying, building a routine, sharing a flat, making friends from other countries and learning to solve everyday problems in another language. It is the kind of trip where you come back, or decide to stay, with a clearer idea of who you are and what you want. It also means travelling with honest information, so the experience matches the expectations: knowing the real costs, the real requirements and the real downsides before you leave. When people travel prepared and well supported, they can focus on what matters, which is learning, meeting people and growing. That is what we try to make possible for every student.
