It's difficult to prepare yourself for settling in when you arrive abroad - it depends entirely on who you meet, what your accommodation is like and whether or not your plans are going smoothly. This section is filled with advice, based on the experiences of previous students, on what to if you come across those most sneaky and unexpected of emotions: the Year Abroad Blues.
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Hannah is studying French and Italian at the University of Salford, and is spending her year abroad studying in Forlì, Italy, and teaching in a collège lycée in Brittany, France. Here is her advice for keeping busy and avoiding boredom on your year abroad...
Published in Year Abroad BluesTags -
Charlotte Watson is studying French and German Joint Honours at Bangor University in Wales. She spent the first semester of her third year abroad studying in Toulouse, France and the second semester studying in Passau, Germany. Here, Charlotte discusses a year abroad with a language learnt from scratch, living in a new city, turning your university romance into a long-distance relationship, and where to go for help and advice.Published in Year Abroad Blues -
There's no place like home...
Written by Natacha CullinanMaybe there’s a bit of truth in what Dot said, before her technicolour dream. What if there was no place like home? What if your year abroad fills you with dread, it’s not going to plan, or you just quite simply don’t want to have it on your degree menu as the main course?
Most students studying languages have to have a year abroad - it comes with the whole language learning shabang. And that’s fine, for most. But some don’t really like the idea of upping sticks and moving abroad, to work or study. The likelihood is, if you are studying Modern Languages, you’ll have to bite the bullet and go with it. A year abroad can be a real eye-opener, ask anyone who’s been on one - but it can also be incredibly hard at first.Published in Year Abroad BluesTags -
So you've just arrived at [insert destination], and after unpacking, re-shelving, turning around a couple of times on the same spot, you've noticed something is not quite right. It's not your second year room, Cassie isn't going to burst in your room offering a cup of tea and a chin-wag, and whatever way you try and look at it, your year abroad doesn't seem like such a great idea anymore.
Published in Year Abroad BluesTags
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‘The year abroad is a fantastic experience and I’d recommend it to everyone.’ Heard that before? Probably – it’s pretty much what all year abroad students say to everyone back home, and it’s true! But having a ‘fantastic experience’ doesn’t necessarily mean having ‘fantastic time’ all of the time. The truth is that for just about everybody who takes a year abroad, there are some pretty tough moments, and we all sometimes wonder ‘is it just me, or is everything not always croissants and chocolat chaud?’.
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W is for...What is culture shock?
Written by Kim Marshall & Steven GoodmanCulture shock affects people in all sorts of situations. However, it is deeply felt by students on the year abroad - whether it’s adjusting at the very start to your new surroundings, getting to know the locals, coming back home to notice things aren’t quite the same as when you left them, going back out there, still struggling with the language more than 3 months in...Though you can find articles on culture shock to do with specific countries, here are some tell-tell signs and general advice on how to cope.Published in Year Abroad Blues -
In all honesty, there will be times on your Year Abroad where you just want to curl up in a ball and teleport back to your nice comfy bed back home. There will be times when you find yourself hastily searching for flights, trains, ferries, Eurostars, anything to take you back home, to somewhere where you feel secure, organised, in control and, above all, at home. There will be times where you consider emailing your university and saying look, I just can’t do this (you can, by the way!). Finally, there will be times when you doubt your progress.
Published in Year Abroad BluesTags
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