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Living with a Spanish family…the best decision I’ve made
December 31, 2013
Post written by Faith Locken. I now arrive at the five month mark of my six month stay here in Seville and it is safe to say that, with regards to language acquisition, I have most certainly excelled. Before embarking on my year abroad one of the promises I made to myself was that I …
The more you refuse to use anglicised words, the more foreign you will sound
Post written by Charlotte Barnard. I knew that working as an English language assistant wouldn’t necessarily equal the best possible chances of improving my German on a day to day basis. After all, with ‘English’ in the job title, what more can you expect? It’s because of this that I’ve been trying to involve myself …
Shaping my native tongue
Post written by Josephine Adams. Before I had even thought about organising it, I knew that I expected my language skills to improve during my year abroad. Of course, the image that this conjures up involves speaking nothing but French at home and at work, something which couldn’t have been further from the truth for …
Appreciating the difference in language across Spain
Post written by Abigail Brown. Being one of the main aims of the Year Abroad language acquisition has certainly been a main concern during this first semester. One of the first things I wondered, as I mentioned in the previous blog, was whether I actually knew any Spanish at all when I spoke to people …
Novel ways of language acquisition
Roughly half way through my year abroad my language skills have no doubt improved. Rather nervous before setting off that I would not be able to understand any Parisians I am glad to say that I am able to understand people when they talk to me in the street or in lectures. However there is …
I had no choice but to embrace the language
It’s been six months since I’ve been living in France now and I must admit, I have made a lot of progress. My summer began in a small village in the high Alps called La Chapelle en Valgaudemar as an au pair for 2 months. To be honest when I first arrived in France, my …
My extra attempts to hang out with French people are really starting to pay off
A lot has changed since my last blog post – I have decided to stay here in Bordeaux but I have been offered an internship so I sadly left KEDGE last week. It does mean that I get the best of both worlds however as I get to improve my French in a working environment …
A rapidly expanding vocabulary list
Although I wanted to experience as much culture as possible and meet new people, my main goal going into my year abroad was to improve my linguistic skills in both German and Spanish. Even though being in Germany and being surrounded by native speakers would obviously immerse me in the language and would naturally improve …
Picking up good and bad linguistic habits in Bordeaux
December 30, 2013
The thing about living in a foreign country is that you don’t acquire the sort of language suitable for fourth year essay writing. Unless, of course, the department decides to set an essay about the numerous swear words that are profligate in France. I like to think that I have learnt more than a handful …
What a difference a term makes
Having now spent three months in France I feel a great sense of pride at how my language skills have developed. This has been helped by the amount of traveling I have done around the country. A personal highlight has to be spending a weekend in Bordeaux. I celebrated a friend’s twenty-third birthday in the …
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