University of Edinburgh

During the whole year I followed Honours Courses in English. I also had to attend tutorials during which I had to speak in front of the rest of the group (presentations, exercises to solve...). Reading all the books they asked us to read, writing essays in English, taking the same final exams as the rest of the local students, forced and helped me to improve my English greatly. Thanks to this experience I have acquired a sound grasp of the Economic English vocabulary. Going out with Scottish and international friends and sharing a flat with three other international students (Swedish, Dutch and American)was a very good way to improve my everyday knowledge of the English vocabulary.

Speaking english did not pose a problem for me. However, spending a year in an english-speaking environment is still a great opportunity to get even better. The Scottish dialect is difficult to understand but all teachers at uni as well as most students speak Oxford english.

Overall, the language was easy, due to it being my native tongue. There were certain times the accent gave me a few problems, but I soon caught on. It is most important not to be rude when you do not understand, ask for repetition, or just smile and nod!

I was already fluent in English when I first arrived in Edinburgh, thanks to a 10-month internship in the US but I wanted it to improve it as much as possible and I think that's what I did thanks to both academic and social life

I'm a native english speaker so there wasn't much of a problem except for a few British words that I had to learn, or words that meant different things in the US versus the UK (eg 'pants')

Scottish can be a bit confusing at the beginning, but it is fun! At the beginning it was sometimes hard to explain myself, but people are very friendly, patient and helpful