Ireland

On Growing by Rebecca Senti Half of my stay abroad is over now and it is time to start reflecting on my language skills… When I applied to study abroad, I already considered myself a pretty competent English speaker. Before I go any deeper into this, a short backstory to the development of my English language skills over the last few years might be necessary. I applied for the B2 Cambridge exam when I was 16 even though my fellow classmates at that time told me it would be pretty hard for me to pass. I did it, though, and from then onwards, I wasn’t worried anymore about my English exams. I started watching TV shows and movies in English and when I began travelling on my own, I was confident when speaking it. Then the Matura (A-Levels) came along and I picked English for both my written and oral finals. The oral final gave me the opportunity to partner with a classmate whose mother tongue is English. That made me push my English language skills even further. Still, I never would have considered myself a good English speaker. By the time I had English for Architects at university, I didn’t have to invest hours on end in the assignment and I was very excited to get a chance to improve my English abroad. But even at this point, many people asked me if I was intimidated by the Irish accent and by having to present my work in English. For your information: the language was the last thing I worried about. So when I arrived in Ireland, I expected to primarily have English-speaking friends and that I would learn a lot of vocabulary by having to present my studio work every week in English. My expectations were not met at all. I made a lot of German friends as the Irish prefer not to get too involved with people who will disappear again after three months. In studio, the presentations are fewer and a lot shorter than what I am used to, so I wouldn’t say that my English vocabulary has really grown. What I did notice pretty early on, though, when I met other foreign students, was that I actually was a good English speaker. I realize now that my classmates in high school were probably jealous of me passing the Cambridge exam when they told me before that I’d never make it. So for years after I passed the Cambridge exam and got an excellent mark for my oral English Matura, I had this image of myself as being okay or average at speaking English, when in reality, I was actually good at it. So, for everyone who was worried: No, I never had a problem understanding someone. I love the Irish accent. I think it’s so cute how we try for years during English class to nail the proper pronunciation of the dreaded “th“-sound and then the Irish just pronounce it as a normal “t”. My coping strategies for when I didn’t know the proper vocabulary when explaining something to an English speaker are to use other words or to simply look it up in an offline dictionary on my phone. In everyday life though, I have no problems in terms of my language. In studio, I sometimes struggle to present my work with the same emotional language I would use in German. If that happens, I get a little bit frustrated because I know I would be able to sell my work better in my mother tongue. But I think that this isn’t a vocabulary problem but one that has to do with thinking. After a month, I started taking private notes in English, for example my shopping or to-do lists. Also, very recently I noticed that I think and even dream in English. Despite having mainly German friends! So there is probably still hope that at my final presentation, I will be able to sell my project to the tutors.
So how did study abroad affect my English and what did it teach me for my future professional life? I guess the answer is confidence. That’s something I could put as a label on every aspect of my semester in Ireland. You just become more confident as a person when you have no one to depend on other than yourself. You grow as a person and, naturally, your language skills have to grow with you, even if it’s not your vocabulary but how you evaluate your skills. I’m sure that being confident in myself and my abilities is vital for my future in the professional environment.
Also, I applied for the IELTS exam in December. Guess we’ll see how well I do on that one but my goal would be to reach level C1.

Rebecca Senti