Bayrische Julius-Maximilians-Universitaet

The experience of studying abroad was extremely helpful in order to improve my knowledge of the German language and my ability in speaking a foreign language. Thanks to the everyday contact with German people and the possibility of studying and following the lectures in a foreign language I had the possibility to deepen and strengthen my previous, pretty theoretical knowledge of the German language and to acquire some basic knowledge of the slang. At the end of my Erasmus experience I noticed that I could speak confidently and write without too many uncertainties. The ability of understanding both a colloquial and an academic speech was reinforced as well.

All courses at the university were based in the German language. I studied Swedish, French, German and Spanish and all languages used German as their form of translation. No concessions are made for international students in lecture halls with more than 200 students, however lecturers in smaller groups are sympathetic to language difficulties and try to speak a more 'universal' German. The city is small enough to remain very traditional and German and although there is a lot of US servicemen living in the nearby barracks, German is still spoken to international students and efforts are made to help these students integrate.

At the beginning I found it hard to understand everything in the lectures. But as I became more confident my understanding and proficiency greatly improved. I worked for a few months during the latter half of my year and this job was completely through German, so I feel that my skills improved a lot. At times there were of course misunderstandings, but these became fewer as the year progressed.

At the beginning of my stay was a bit difficult to understand the chemistry terminology but my boss was very kind with me and I was able to learn them quickly. It is a good idea to have german courses for forein people because you can communicate better with people from your host country.

Being integrated into a situation where only german was spoken was perfect for me. I had no opportunity to even try to revert back into English. I was pushed to use my german knowledge and I appreciate that. my language skills increased immensely.

In the latest months it has been excellent. The key was to find an environment where you were the only international student with a group of Germans. The best opportunity for that was to find a job, so that is what i did and my language and communications skills have improved enormously.