University of Wolverhampton

After 12 years of English at school and 3 at my home university, I was pretty sure that I would be able to communicate without any major problems -nevertheless, I was surprised by the fact that even specific literature or courses in Management Accounting didn´t cause any trouble. In the social life, you have to get used to a certain kind of slang, especially in the West-Midland area, but after a week, I was able to understand and communicate in the local slang (except from one guy who came from Dudley, whom I didn´t understand till the very end of my stay, but who wasn´t even understood by native speakers!)

I have been studying English before I came to England. Therefore it was no problem at all to follow the lectures. I only had some difficulties in the beginning to cope with the slang of the man on the street. Furthermore I took part in an Enlish Module (English advanced 2).

the courses were held in English. I must say that the accent spoken in the West Midlands is quite hard for people who start learning the language because the people speak a heavy dialect. So in social life it was sometimes hard to understand them right away

Of course being in England is the best way to improve your English... And I guess my oral English is better now than it was before. As for the written English, I reckon it was allright -though not perfect- before coming to Wolverhampton.

At first it was difficult for me to understand everything because of the close accent of Wolverhampton native speakers, but at the end of the year I realized that my English had become very good.

Definitely my language skills have improved. I was also exposed to the local dialects of the Midlands area. The "Brum" - the local dialect of the people who live in Birmingham and the always-laughed-at dialect in Wolverhampton - it was interesting overall.