I studied French and German at university and one of the definite highlights of my degree course was having the opportunity to live abroad for a year.

I spent the first part of my time abroad doing a German language course at an International Summer school in Bonn, the old capitol of former West Germany. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to get a bursary towards the cost of the course from the German Academic Exchange Bureau, an organisation which promotes cultural exchanges between Germany and its international partners. The course was a great opportunity to get speaking the language, to settle into Germany properly and to meet some fantastic people from all across the globe…in my class alone there were at least 10 different nationalities ranging from Chinese to Portuguese! There were also some great trips to Köln, Düsseldorf and Trier amongst quite a few other places and some of the other highlights included lots of wine tasting and visiting a chocolate factory. Needless to say I still have some great memories of the experience.

After that I moved to Frankfurt to teach English in a grammar school for 6 months under the British Council language assistant scheme. On the teaching side of things, I generally took conversation classes with groups of pupils for 12 hours a week…leaving plenty of time to get to know the locals better and to fit in a fair bit of travelling. In my free time I set up something called a ‘Stammtisch’ which was a weekly meet-up of language assistants and students of all different nationalities in a local pub who wanted to meet some new friendly faces and talk about anything and everything in German! I also enrolled at the uni which was also great for socialising as it organised quite a lot of activities for international students such as Erasmus parties, excursions to neighbouring cities and visits to the famous Christmas markets where the mulled wine and all the delicious food were out of this world! I also went on quite a few more trips with some of the other English assistants …we went to some great places including Wiesbaden, Mainz, Heidelberg, Nuremberg and Leipzig to name but a few.

After living in Germany, I then moved to France and studied at Nantes University for a semester. At first I suffered a bit of a culture shock having to get used to yet another way of life and having to speak French again having had such a long break from the language! However, Nantes was a great city to be in – particularly during the summer months as the coast was only a stone’s throw away and the weather always seemed to be gorgeous! There were also loads of good pubs, cafés and the food was great – for anyone planning on paying a visit trying galettes (savoury pancakes) at one of the town’s many creperies is simply a must! It also goes without saying that having the chance to be an Erasmus student was a unique experience and I met some amazing people and made some great friends who I would never have had the chance to get to know otherwise so I would definitely recommend it to others.

I really enjoyed my year abroad and I would even go as far to say that since then travelling has become a way of life. Having graduated this Summer I have already recently worked as a travel rep in Germany and am planning to return in a few weeks time to do some volunteering work before going to France for a year to work as a language assistant (again!). To anyone thinking of studying a language at uni or spending some time abroad to improve their language skills my advice would be just to go for it – whether it be the Parisian suburbs, the Swiss alps, or some of Spain’s fantastic beaches – who knows where your languages could take you?