Two weeks of English classes, homestay family life and BC cultural immersion — a structured study tour for teens aged 14–18.
Maple Fun's flagship spring ESL programme combines morning English classes with afternoon cultural excursions and full immersion in a vetted Canadian homestay family. Built around two core themes — Canadian culture and environmental stewardship — the fourteen days are designed to take a student from cautious classroom English to genuine, confident conversation with locals their own age.
Students live with screened host families in Greater Vancouver, attend small-group lessons with experienced ESL teachers each weekday morning, and spend afternoons on guided field activities — UBC's Museum of Anthropology, Granville Island markets, Stanley Park, Lynn Canyon ecology centre, Spanish Banks beach. A Maple Fun coordinator is on-call 24/7 for the entire programme; chaperoned groups from partner schools are welcome.
Thirteen nights of true immersion — your own bedroom, three meals a day, and a family that has hosted international students for years. Host families are interviewed, criminal-record-checked and home-inspected annually.
Mornings Monday to Friday with experienced teachers. Activity-based curriculum focused on speaking confidence, not grammar drills. Placement test on Day 2 ensures the right level.
Canada's premier collection of Northwest Coast First Nations art, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. A guided visit anchors the programme's cultural theme.
An afternoon at the Musqueam Aboriginal Youth Activity Centre — sport, conversation and a rare chance to meet Indigenous Canadian peers on their own land.
Public market, artisan workshops, the seawall and downtown landmarks — practical English in a real-world setting.
A free suspension bridge, an old-growth temperate rainforest, and the programme's environmental-protection theme made vivid.
A guided ride on the 10-km seawall around Vancouver's most famous urban park — totem poles, harbour views, the open Pacific.
Day 13 closes with certificates, a teacher's report card for parents, group photos and a host-family farewell dinner.
A Maple Fun coordinator meets every student at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) arrivals — look for the red Maple Fun sign at the international exit. After a quick orientation and SIM card hand-out, students are driven to their host family's home in Greater Vancouver (typically Richmond, Burnaby or West Vancouver, 25–45 minutes from the airport). Host parents greet you at the door, show you your room, and share a first family dinner. Early to bed — jet lag is real and Day 2 starts on time.
Morning at the school [TBD]: welcome, campus tour, placement test, classroom assignments. Lunch with classmates in the cafeteria. The afternoon launches the programme's cultural theme with a guided visit to the UBC Museum of Anthropology — Bill Reid's monumental cedar carvings and one of the world's great Northwest Coast First Nations collections. From UBC the coach continues to the Musqueam Aboriginal Youth Activity Centre, where students meet Indigenous peers their own age for sport and conversation on the traditional, unceded territory the city of Vancouver was built upon.
A full classroom day to settle into the routine. Mornings 9:00–12:00 are speaking and listening; afternoons 13:00–15:00 alternate between guided reading, journal writing in English and small-group projects on the week's cultural theme. Teachers correct gently and reward confidence over accuracy — the goal is to get students talking. Home by 16:30 on the SkyTrain or by school bus, then family dinner and homework. Parents back home receive a daily check-in via the Maple Fun parent app.
Morning class. After lunch the coach picks up the whole group for a guided city tour of downtown Vancouver: Canada Place and the cruise terminal, the Olympic Cauldron, the steam clock in cobblestoned Gastown, Robson Street's shops, and a walk through Chinatown — North America's third-largest. Teachers prepare scavenger-hunt questions in English that pairs of students must ask passers-by to answer. Most students log their first unscripted English conversation with a Canadian stranger today.
Morning class. After lunch, a short ride to Granville Island — a former industrial peninsula reborn as a food-and-arts district tucked beneath the Granville Street Bridge. Students get a small CAD budget and a worksheet: buy a snack, ask the vendor where it's from, find one item made by a local artist, photograph one boat at the marina. Free time inside the public market for the famous donuts and the food court. Return to homestays by SkyTrain — the first independent transit ride for many students.
Morning class. Afternoon at Queen Elizabeth Park, the highest point in the City of Vancouver and one of its most popular spring picnic spots — cherry blossoms in early April, rose gardens later. Inside the Bloedel Conservatory dome, tropical plants and free-flying parrots offer an unexpected English-vocabulary lesson on biodiversity. Group photo at the lookout (you can see all the way to Vancouver Island on a clear day) and journaling time on the grass before heading home.
An optional full-day excursion on the world-famous Sea-to-Sky Highway, one of the most scenic drives in North America. Photo stops at Shannon Falls (the third-tallest waterfall in BC) and the Stawamus Chief granite monolith above Squamish. Lunch and free time in Whistler Village — site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Optional upgrade to the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola for a 360° alpine view. Return to Vancouver in time for family dinner. Students who skip the trip spend the day with their host families — many host parents plan a weekend outing of their own.
A full day with the host family — no school, no group activity. Families typically take students on their own weekend outings: a hike in the North Shore mountains, a ferry day-trip to Bowen Island, a Pacific Coliseum hockey game, or simply a long brunch and a movie. This is the day when many students stop translating in their heads and start dreaming in English. The Maple Fun coordinator remains on-call by phone all day.
Morning class — week two opens with progress check-ins. After lunch the coach heads to Spanish Banks, the long sand beach west of UBC where Vancouverites picnic on summer evenings. Beach volleyball or frisbee with the teachers, a guided walk along the tide line to identify shorebirds (the day's environmental-protection vocabulary), and a long photo session against the North Shore mountains in the distance. A favourite afternoon of the whole programme.
A full classroom day focused on the week-two project: students prepare a short English presentation, in pairs or trios, on a theme of their choice connected to Canadian culture or BC's environment. Topics in past intakes have ranged from 'How recycling works in Vancouver' to 'First Nations storytelling' to 'Why salmon matter'. Teachers coach delivery, slides and Q&A handling — the presentations are given to families on Day 13.
Morning class. In the afternoon the coach crosses the Lions Gate Bridge to the North Shore mountains for the programme's environmental centrepiece: Lynn Canyon Park. Cross the free suspension bridge 50 metres above the canyon, walk the cedar-and-fir boardwalks of a coastal temperate rainforest, and tour the Ecology Centre's exhibits on salmon, watersheds and forest stewardship. Many students cite this afternoon as the most beautiful single hour of the trip.
Morning class. Afternoon at Stanley Park — 405 hectares of urban rainforest jutting into Vancouver harbour. Bicycle rental at Denman Street, helmet fitting, and a slow guided ride of the 10-km seawall: the totem poles at Brockton Point, the Nine O'Clock Gun, Siwash Rock, English Bay. The seawall is flat and one-way, ideal for first-time city cyclists. Group photo under the totem poles, then return rentals and head home to start packing.
Morning: students deliver their project presentations to teachers, classmates and visiting host families. Lunch together as a full programme. Afternoon: organised sports — soccer, basketball or volleyball, mixed teams of students and host-family children. Evening: graduation ceremony at the school hall — certificates of completion, individual teacher's report cards (a copy is emailed to parents), the photo slideshow of the past two weeks, and a farewell potluck dinner with host families. Many goodbyes, many photos, often a few tears.
Host family delivers students to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) at the agreed check-in time — typically 3 hours before international departure. A Maple Fun coordinator is waiting at YVR international departures to help with check-in, security guidance and to wave each student through. Parents back home are notified once their child is past security. Safe travels — and welcome to the alumni network.
Full-day Sea-to-Sky and Whistler Village excursion — quoted at booking. Optional PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola upgrade on the day.
BC Ferry to Vancouver Island, Butchart Gardens, Inner Harbour and parliament buildings. Chaperoned for students under 16.
School groups travelling with their own teacher receive a discounted chaperone rate. Chaperones stay in a hotel or homestay nearby.
Additional unaccompanied-minor coordination with the airline (escort fee waived by Maple Fun) — please advise at booking.
Every host family is interviewed in person, criminal-record-checked through the RCMP, and the home is inspected annually. Students have a private bedroom — never shared with a host-family child. Our coordinator is on-call 24 hours, and parents back home receive a daily check-in via our parent app.
Lower-intermediate is the entry threshold (roughly CEFR A2 / TOEIC 400+). Beginner students can join with a chaperone or in a group of 6+ from the same school. A placement test on Day 2 sorts students into the right class.
Typical gains are one CEFR sub-level in speaking confidence and listening comprehension. More importantly, students leave able to handle everyday English conversations with strangers — ordering food, asking directions, small-talking with a host sibling. The teacher's report card details measured progress.
Yes — and we recommend it. School groups of 8 or more can request the same intake date, with classmates split across nearby host families and combined for excursions. Larger groups (15+) can request their own dedicated class.
Our coordinator is reachable 24/7 by phone, WhatsApp and WeChat. Every student is given a laminated emergency card with the coordinator's number, the host family's address and the nearest hospital. BC has a public emergency number (911) that students are briefed on during Day 2 orientation.
Yes — host families are matched on dietary need (halal, kosher, vegetarian, allergies). Please tell us about any food allergies, medical conditions or religious requirements at booking, not on arrival.
Parents are welcome to visit Vancouver during the programme but we ask that they stay in a hotel — not in the host home — and keep visits to weekend Day 8 or evenings. The programme works because students live in English; parental presence in the home disrupts that.
We re-match without question or extra charge. Most issues are settled in the first 48 hours by our coordinator with a home visit; in the rare case of a deeper mismatch, the student moves to a new family within 24 hours.
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