Determined to speak fluent French…even if everyone else is speaking English
December 19, 2013
Having now spent six months in France, I feel it is a good time to reflect on how much my French has improved. I went out in June with very high expectations that I would come back almost fluent. I realise now that this was a very unrealistic aim! The main thing that I feel …
Practice makes perfect
December 16, 2013
Post written by Rosemary Ash. After over three months of living in the country of the language you are studying, linguistic knowledge or skills are bound to have been gained in some form or another, or so you would hope! One portion of mine is comprised of a small vocabulary book I try to keep …
Discovering new words everyday
December 15, 2013
Hello and Bonjour à tous, I hope everyone is well. I can’t believe that Christmas is already upon us… how time flies when you’re having fun! Everything is going well for me in France; after my first three months I feel as though I have fully settled in and made my mark on the community. …
Getting used to the accent in Barbate
December 13, 2013
Listening I was aware prior to arriving in Spain that the accent would be strong in Barbate because it is in Andalusia. When I arrived it was obvious from the start that the accent is extremely different from what we learn at University and therefore would take some getting used to. For example, they miss …
The other day I asked for a human breast instead of a chicken breast…
December 8, 2013
Post written by Madeleine Pitkin. I’ve now been living in Spain for almost three months, which is the minimum amount of time the university expects its language students to spend living in a country which speaks their chosen language, so I’d hope that my language skills would have improved by now. I was visited last …
It hasn’t been a waste of time after all!
December 2, 2013
Hello everyone, apologies for the lack of blog post recently, I can’t lie and say that I have been horrifically busy, more that I have been avoiding anything requiring intellectual basis (other than going to lectures… obviously) and I’ve been trying really hard to boost up my Russian recently, after a couple of test failures. …
Native Lisboans are doing wonders for my Portuguese
December 1, 2013
Written by Sidi El Alami. Although it’s only been a few months since I wrote something down about this revitalizing experience, it feels like years. I’ve definitely settled here, which is obviously great but I do feel quite detached from my life back at home. I’ve always had this sort of feeling in a slightly …
A fond farewell to Spain
October 22, 2013
So, after my time in Valencia, 2 weeks working on Summer Schools at UoN and one afternoon spent moving my stuff from my house in Nottingham back home, I spent a night at home and then jetted off to Madrid! I arrived eager to start the next part of my Year Abroad although was also …
Becoming more fluent in Salamanca
October 19, 2013
I’ve now been in Salamanca, Spain for roughly nine weeks, and I’m already halfway through the Spain part of my year abroad, which is pretty scary. Time has gone really quickly, and it feels just yesterday that I arrived! Arriving in mid-August, the heat was unbearable. I spent a few days in a hostel when …
Valencia
July 29, 2013
So, I’ve now (already!) completed the first part of my Year Abroad. I spent 3 weeks in Valencia studying Spanish at AIP Languages School and during this time I stayed with a Spanish family in a town called Alboraya, just on the outskirts of Valencia. I thoroughly enjoyed both studying in the school and also …
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