Germanic / Hispanic Studies 2016

I'll hopefully being doing German with Dutch.

I'm familiar with Sheffield (more with the city than the uni) since I've already got friends who study there, and I'm familiar with university in general since I was a fresher elsewhere this year but dropped out. Can't wait to get back!

Nice, the Dutch lecturers are lovely, I did Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced with them and I enjoyed them all. Feel free to ask me anything about the Dutch side. I'm looking forward to the new start!

Hey I'm studying dual honours in languages (so do German and Dutch) and am at Sheffield in my third year so any questions feel free to ask

Obvious question, but do you enjoy it? And where do you study/work in the Netherlands/Germany? I really want to do a teaching placement in Germany but I'm not sure if I can do one for only 6 months.

I do German and economics with modules in Dutch actually, so I couldn't go to the NL. I did British Council (teaching) for the first half of my YA in the middle of no where hahaa but on the dutch border which was nice of them Now I am doing an internship in Bonn but live in Cologne. BC was definitely the better of the two.
You can do teaching for half a year either in first semester in Germany, or in second semester in Austria but only for 3 months.
As for enjoyment.. yes. I really love the language department. I really don't rate the economics department, they're not the friendliest bunch. The lecturer for beginners Dutch is incredible

Anymore questions throw them at me, and I'll probably see you at the DV events in September

Yeah do it ! ummm I didn't realise how competitve it would be and the demographics were, so I ended up in my third choice (Lower Saxony) in a tiny town despite requesting a city. BUT that did work to my advantage in many ways so I shan't complain I also preferred it there. haha! Bavaria and Berlin and the most requested (Berlin was my first choice), but good idea choosing to be away from Munich as you'll probably speak allllll English. You can also mention your exchange in your application. My internship is in Bonn but living in Cologne

haha yeees do itt! Ours does loads, unfrotunately I've missed out on lots due to econ having SO MANY mid term exams. Going to the german christmas market, its own sports teams, Blau Sein (sooooooo fun!), Currywurst and Corp etc... what uni were you at if you dont mind me asking?

Yeah I've been doing a lot of reading online (mostly on Third Year Abroad) and it seems like hardly anyone gets their first choice. I'd put Bavaria first, Baden-Württemberg second, then Schleswig-Holstein last (purely because it's next to Denmark.. easy trips to Copenhagen ). Yeah I guess you probably end up starting to love where you end up living anyway, I doubt there's anywhere that's 'bad'. I'm hoping to spend the other 6 months studying abroad @ Utrecht University in the Netherlands though, so that should be cool. Obviously none of this even matters for a few years yet anyway, but I guess it's still good to have some kind of plan haha.

Ahhh that all sounds so good! Seems like your committee put a lot of effort into running things and getting people involved. I was at Loughborough (studying Sociology). We didn't have a German Soc so someone set it up this year which is probably why things were running a bit slow. It wasn't awful but it wasn't like other societies (which were a lot more like what the German Soc at Sheff sounds like). Loughborough doesn't have a languages department or run any language courses either so the society was quite small too and mostly filled with Erasmus students - not that that's a bad thing, it was just a bit quiet and awkward at the very first meeting since they were a lot older and more focused on studying. I've seen some of the pictures from the Sauerkraut Cup since I follow the department's Twitter account

Well if you'd like I can link you my blog in private message (although I desperatelz need to post SOMETHING about this semester, because I couldn't be bothered as I have been writing my deathly year abroad essay). Utrecht is gooooorgeous (another place mentioned on my blog)! I went there to visit a friend and fell in love with it! So nice, it's like a smaller and prettier version of Amsterdam. No a plan is good to have - my future plans keep falling apart in front of me, it's so sad

Oooh yeah the Sauerkraut is huge (not that I've ever been ha), but the commitee do put in soooo much effort. I absolutely love the department and committee and I'd say that it's one of the best around. Also the years really mingle with each other - like I know the final years and the current second years. I mean the only thing is that the final years are a little quieter obviously (well they were last year, the current ones still seem to go out a lot ) hahaha!

I'm trying to think if theres anything else you need to know haha. Have you applied for accomodation yet?

That's cool - I've heard nothing but positive things about the Dutch lecturers everywhere I've looked so I'm quite excited to meet them!

What's it like learning a new language from scratch in university, is it anything like school?

I'm not a good one to ask because I lived in the Netherlands before, but I basically re-learnt the language. It's a lot more intensive and fast paced than school. Mostly grammar and technical focus since it's academic study but there are also conversational classes.

haha but you can speak soooooooo much more Dutch than you could after 5 years of learning German or French.. it's great

haha but it's very colloquial Dutch! Even I found writing super hard :[ I didn't do so well in the Advanced group because writing was so difficult for me.

I actually find writing way easier - its so similar to German :P

ahh even German is hard for me. I find spelling easier than in English but I'm not good at grammar in any language. I'm doing some extra modules in Chinese at university and I love it because they're grammar is a lot easier for me haha

I was learning Chinese on my year abroad actually ! But I found the word order was similar to Dutch! Are you in final year then?