Universitat d'Alacant (UA)

This year,for me, has been the most amazing and diversified in terms of languages and cultures. I studied business courses taught in English, and languages all taught in the language itself e.g. Italian taught in Italian, French in French and the regional language Valenciano(of which I had no prior knowledge of), German taught in German and Spanish, Chinese taught in Spanish. Overall, I was attending classes with international and local students and I was taught in six languages - a tryly amazing experience. In terms of communication with the students the majority was done in English, Spanish and French.

My classes were all in Spanish. I was in the intermediate level. I got most of my practice with my host family. It was more difficult to communicate when I went clothes shopping. Also, travelling one time, I missed my flight and no one spoke english, so that was a challenge to try to explain what happened and that I needed a new ticket, but everything worked out. I wouldn't change anything! I loved my whole experience.

I wanted to live with natives - I lived with Spanish and Argentinian people, it was very useful because I had to use Spanish all the time of my stay. At the university we (Erasmus students) weren't treated as any special group of students, we have work as hard as Spanish students and we had to cope with any language difficulties.

After four months of studying in Alicante, i have noticed alot of improvement in my language skills, I can now understand most of what people say when speaking spanish, i understand spanish programs and I am able to have joke around with my spanish freinds. My conversation skills have also progressed as i am able to hold good conversations with people.

I was in an advanced program so all my classes were taught in Spanish and there was a strict rule of only speaking spanish at all times. This was very hard at first but after the first month it became normal and I notice that my Spanish was improving rapidly because of the constant exposure to Spanish all day long.

The lectures and support were all in spanish and my progress was notable in a short period of time - my understanding improved dramatically although i still had problems with responding in some situations - this was more a confidence issue than ability! On reflection I would just jump in with both feet - make the mistakes and be corrected!