A FAMI in England

Within the Leonardo project I went to work as a volunteer at an academic library in York (England), in order to gain some practical training abroad. Throughout that time I stayed with a host family. My host works in the same library where I did my practical training. One part of the costs was taken by the project but the rest I had to take care of myself. Even if my English hadn’t been that fluent before I went to England, I was able to communicate with my colleagues in York. All of them were very kind and patient when explaining all processes in detail and discreetly correcting the mistakes I made in English.

Besides the practical training in the library I had many opportunities to improve my language skills. One of my English colleagues and her husband took me on a weekend trip to show me the rural area near York. I also did a lot with my host family.

Being with people all day long who don’t speak German at all helped me to overcome my hesitation and soon I was able to speak English fluently, even though from time to time I still made grammatical errors or didn’t remember certain words which I tried to explain. Sometimes I didn't have enough time to put words into nicely sounding sentences in my mind before talking about something. You just have to talk without worrying and people do understand you.

To sum it up I can say that I gained a valuable experience within my practical training abroad, met many kind people and improved my English language skills. I can give everyone who thinks about it the advice to try it and to go on a practical training abroad.

It’s worth it!