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| The Berlin Wall |
Having
enjoyed my first visit to Germany so much I decided to pay Berlin another
visit, this time with my boyfriend, Matthew, who I finally got to see after two
months apart! I was a bit disappointed in my lack of ability to be able to
speak much German, despite having learnt it in school. Being there made me
realise that I do actually like the German language and this has inspired me to
investigate taking up German classes when I get back home.
These
visits to Berlin have made me realise the numerous opportunities we have for
travelling while we are here, something which we had previously been
overlooking. Thankfully, even though we are over halfway through our time on
Erasmus, we have still been able to plan a few trips and nearly all of our free
time until June has now been filled. We have booked a long weekend to Milan in
May and are also still trying to sort out the details for our upcoming trip to
Krakow, Vienna, Budapest and Prague! I feel much more confident when trying to
plan trips like this than I did when first arriving here. Most of the other
trips that we have been on were planned by our Erasmus friends and all we
have had to do is just show up, so I am enjoying taking responsibility
for planning the trips and developing my independence in this way.
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| Matthew at the Berlin Wall |
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| Daytrip to Szczecin |
After nine weeks I am still struggling to learn Polish, despite having six hours of classes a week. In spite of how much I complained about it in the first few weeks, that is nothing compared to how difficult I am finding the work now, as we move onto more complex aspects of the language. I have reached a stage where I feel like giving up with Polish, particularly as I know I only have fourteen lessons left (not that I’m counting...) but I know it is important that I don’t do this. I have also got out of the habit of trying to speak Polish when in shops and restaurants, so I need to force myself to make more of an effort with this. One of the reasons I feel it will be beneficial for me to learn Polish while here is the vast number of Polish people currently living in Northern Ireland. This is something I have encountered both in my personal life and also while on School-Based Work. The 2010 school census showed that over 5000 primary school children in Northern Ireland have languages other than English as their first language (Northern Ireland Assembly, 2011:6). Having already taught classes with many EAL children, I feel that having a knowledge of other languages will always be a benefit to me as a teacher. The concept of a multi-cultural classroom is one that really appeals to me, so I am enjoying the experience of living in a different country and developing personally.
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| Holocaust memorial |
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| Checkpoint Charlie |
Reference:
Northern Ireland Assembly, (2011) Migration
in Northern Ireland: a demographic perspective, Available at: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/researchandlibrary/2011/7111.pdf
(Accessed on 22nd April 2012)
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