Seeing noticeable differences in fluency and comprehension
April 24, 2015
After three months of living and working in France I’m currently back in the UK for a week or so to catch up with friends and family over the Christmas period. This has also allowed me some time to reflect on how much I’ve done and just how far I’ve come in terms of improving …
I realised how far I’ve come
I hate making mistakes and I am terrible at taking criticism and being on a year abroad in Brazil, having only studied two years of Portuguese, I make about 300 mistakes a day. Most people are nice about it or don’t try to correct me but my class of 6 year olds take great pleasure in pointing …
I can access a whole other culture
During my first few months in France I was happy enough just to make myself understood. I was massively pleased with the relative easiness of setting up my rent, bank account and social security and I surprised myself in being able to get what I wanted from teachers/shop staff/the CAF officers. After nine years of …
Throw yourself out of your comfort zone
It was quite a daunting thought at the start of my year abroad that I was left totally responsible for my language learning for a full academic year. No assessments or weekly oral classes to check my progress. This is my sole chance to immerse myself in the local language and become as confident as …
Confidence is key!
My time in France so far has been a fantastic experience which has given me an invaluable opportunity to expose myself to everyday spoken French. However, when it comes to the immediate fluency that we all hope for, perhaps this is a little bit of an unrealistic goal for within the first few months. I …
Has your French actually improved?
One of the questions friends and family often ask regarding my year abroad is: “Has your French actually improved?” Ever since starting to learn the language back in secondary school, I have never been the strongest when it comes to speaking and listening in French. Even at uni, I struggled in oral classes and thought …
It’s up to you how much German you speak
Having arrived in Germany, I thought that I would be speaking German 100% of the time, however that turned out not to be the case. Being new in this country I think it’s only human nature to mainly communicate with people from your own culture or with people that are in the same position as …
Every day I seem to be learning something new
Perhaps the biggest fear of my year abroad was considering that I would actually have to speak Spanish. What if I don’t understand them? Or what if they don’t understand me? What if I don’t know enough vocab? I need to calm down, were my thoughts on my first day. After conversing a few words …
My daily life runs completely ‘auf Deutsch’
In terms of the development of my language I was starting to get a little worried at work because a lot of people were trying to practice their English with me, and also I was introduced at first as not being able to speak German much at all. I think there was a little bit …
Making connections with my favourite music
April 14, 2014
Spain is famous for its rhythm. Whether that is the rhythm of daily life or the flamenco music and the dancing that accompanies it. It was Spanish music that captured my heart and sparked my interest in learning the language. Unfortunately, at school we only had the opportunity to learn German or French. As much …
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