Category Archives: Year Abroad

French, Student life, Studying at Oxford, Year Abroad

The Year Abroad: A semester in Switzerland

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On the blog this week, third year student Alice tells us all about the first semester of her Year Abroad…

I’m Alice and I’ve just returned from spending the first part of my year abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a French and Portuguese student, I spend time in both French and Portuguese speaking countries during this year – having spent one semester at the Université de Lausanne, next I am going to do a language course in Lisbon for four months. The year abroad offers quite a bit of flexibility in terms of the activities you choose, and I found studying to be a rewarding experience. Whilst many French year abroad students choose to go to France, I decided to study in Switzerland and I’m very pleased with my decision, despite my nerves before going!

Choosing to go to Switzerland was a tricky decision because I really didn’t know Lausanne as a city, and I knew of only one other Oxford French year abroad student who would be in Switzerland at the same time as me. So I was quite anxious about living abroad in a city without people I know. However, as well as having family connections in German-speaking Switzerland, I also wanted to explore more of a country that I had been to a few times as a child. Also, my decision to study at a university meant that I knew I would be able to meet other young people in classes and lectures. 

I really enjoyed exploring different areas of Switzerland and as my family connections are in the German-speaking part of the country, this encouraged me to travel quite a bit during the semester. Although travel and the cost of living are expensive in Switzerland, I managed to find quite a few deals which cut the cost of journeys. I got a ‘Half Fare Travel Card’ that allows you to travel on trains at half price and so I made the most of this offer – I visited my aunt in Rapperswil, as well as Zurich, Montreux and the Jungfraujoch, using the efficient and reliable trains. As the city where I lived and studied for the semester, Lausanne, is quite small, I really enjoyed being able to travel and meet up with the other year abroad student in Geneva. That said, Lausanne itself was a lovely city to live in and felt just the right size for me, as someone who comes from a relatively small place in the UK. As well as having Lac Leman within walking distance from the university campus, I also enjoyed exploring the historic centre of Lausanne. Although it is quite a walkable place, I really appreciated using the metro in such a hilly city and I used it to travel to the university campus too.

Whilst the weekends often gave me the opportunity to explore different parts of Switzerland, during the week I studied at the Université de Lausanne. The first few weeks of classes at this university allow the students to try out all of the different courses, and so I went to a variety of classes in different faculties, before finalising my choices after the first four weeks. This system relieved some pressure as I was able to attend a wide variety of classes without having to remain in them for the whole semester, and it encouraged me to try some classes I might not have gone to otherwise. The majority of the classes I chose were taught within the French as a Foreign Language Faculty as they offered some really interesting courses aimed at international students. For example, some of the classes I took were: ‘Améliorer son écrit en français’, focusing on improving written French specifically; ‘Histoire du français’, a class looking at how French has evolved as a language from Latin to modern French; ‘Lire un texte littéraire à tous les niveaux’, where we got to present a book of our choice to the class for discussion; and I also took one cinema option ‘Analyse d’une séquence d’un film’, which I really enjoyed as I had never studied cinema before and I learned how to analyse films using specific terminology. 

It was through these classes that I was able to meet new people who I saw on a regular basis which helped me to feel settled into the university quite quickly. One aspect of studying abroad that I appreciated was the ability to experience a different university system. Although it was overwhelming at first, I valued some of the different teaching methods, such as the focus on presentations, debates, and group work; this allowed me to improve my spoken French and engage with the other students. I became good friends with the international students in these classes and I enjoyed attending some of the Erasmus student network events. Although I did find it harder to befriend the Swiss students, I was able to take part in the ‘Tandem programme’ in which you are buddied up with another student in order that you teach each other your mother tongues. I met a Swiss girl wanting to learn English and so we met regularly, becoming friends whilst practicing our oral skills. It was a great way for us both to improve our oral skills because during our meetups we split the time in half so we could practice both French and English.

Overall, I had a lovely time studying in Lausanne and I’m glad I decided to explore Switzerland and a different university system. As well as improving my French, it has made me feel more confident about going for the second part of my year abroad to Lisbon, as I want to make the most of my time there and get stuck into different activities offered by the ICLP language course at Lisbon University. 

German, German life, Student life, Studying at Oxford, Year Abroad

The Year Abroad: My time in Berlin

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On the blog this week, final year German and Portuguese student, Aaron, reflects on his time in Berlin and what he wishes he’d known in advance of his year abroad…

My name’s Aaron, I study German and Portuguese at Wadham, and as I’m writing this blog post, I’ve been back at Oxford for one term since my year abroad. I recently wrote another post about the more general, administrative stuff that’s associated with the year abroad, but this time I want to talk about my time in Berlin and write something that I, myself, would have found useful before going abroad.

When I landed in Berlin and got the keys to my apartment, to be honest, all the fear came to a head. How was I going to meet people? What if I ended up holed up in my flat every day? The great thing about the year abroad is that it’s tried and tested – especially in major European cities. There are countless blogs (including this one!) that document the experience, as well as travel sites, and as an Oxford student in particular, you will usually be able to reach out to your college parents (a set of students in the year above who do your subject) and get their guidance too. Alongside all of this, it’s good to try and get an idea of the social media landscape, since it can vary from one place to the next. Things like TikTok and Instagram are generally helpful for finding stuff like exhibitions that you might want to go to, but for more personal events, there are apps like Meetup and Flock.

Meetup is particularly good for finding groups with specific interests – it has everything from wellness events to Dungeons and Dragons groups, from sports clubs to foodie meetups. It was through Meetup that I made some of my closest friends, and the great thing about using apps or sites like these is that the other people you meet are usually as new to the city as you are. We also ended up finding a lovely weekly brunch group, where they’d go to a different restaurant every Sunday and spend a few hours with some yummy pastries and good company. The other really nice thing about the major cities is that they’re super international, so if you’re not feeling very confident in your second language, you can usually find people who speak your first, whether that’s English or not.

While I do enjoy spending time with other people, I also love a good bit of ‘me time’ – the year abroad is great for this in general, there’s always museums and beautiful scenery to take in. For me, I often found myself walking the length of Berlin’s Tiergarten park, losing myself in its beauty and wandering through the Brandenburg Gate before grabbing a coffee and just taking in the view. This is another reason why it’s important to love what you do; Berlin is now one of my absolute favourite places to be, but being there on your own schedule and with total freedom is such a special and freeing experience. Berlin, specifically, also has two great museum programs: the first is Museumssontag (Museum Sunday), where entry to around 80 museums is free on the first Sunday of every month. The second, and my personal favourite as a certified night owl is the lange Nacht der Museen (the long night of museums), where a number of Museums are open from 6pm until 2am!  

Berlin’s also known for its Sunday flea markets or Flohmärkte, of which there are many. One of my absolute favourite things to do was go and wander the Flohmärkt am Mauerpark, one of the best-known markets, with hundreds of small businesses trading out of it, selling artisan jewellery, art prints, and (the best part) all manner of different foods. Berlin is split up into a number of different districts, each with its own distinct identity and character. From one market to the next, you can really see the character of a given area and the difference in the locals, even what they’re selling. There’s a flea market at Rathaus Schöneberg, the same place where John F. Kennedy once stood and proudly professed himself to be ein Berliner (understood outside of Berlin to actually refer to a jam-filled doughnut). Anyway, this market completely encompasses the historical nature of the area – there you’ll find vendors selling anything from old books to items from the GDR, or even antique jewellery.

So, there was plenty of stuff to do! The last thing I’ll mention is that, because you’re not the only person trying to experience as much as possible, you get to watch friends find all of these incredible things too. A friend of mine from Paris found a local dance group dedicated to waacking (a street dance style, originating in Los Angeles in the 70s), while another friend, a local, was part of a university handball team – going to their performances and matches was great, as it pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and gave me the chance to see if those things were for me too. Unfortunately, I found that my waacking ability was inversely proportional to my enthusiasm for it…

All of this made the year abroad a really great experience and probably the best part of my languages degree so far!

German, German life, Student life, Studying at Oxford, Year Abroad

The Year Abroad: Practicalities

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On the blog this week, final year German and Portuguese student, Aaron, reflects on some of the practical elements of organising and preparing for his year abroad…

My name’s Aaron, I study German and Portuguese at Wadham, and as I’m writing this blog post, I’ve been back at Oxford for one term since my year abroad. For the first half of my year abroad, which is the time I’ll mostly be focusing on here, I was based in Berlin. Before my year abroad, I had to take some time away from my studies due to some personal issues, so I hadn’t been in Oxford for two years before I went to Berlin, meaning I also hadn’t really spoken much German! As you can imagine, I was definitely nervous to go. I’m lucky enough to have had the opportunity for the odd visit to Germany before, but living on my own so far from home was this strange mix of nerves and excitement… The thing is, the one thing I think everyone comes to agree over their time at uni (whether at Oxford or not) is that you absolutely have to love what you do, and I really do love speaking German, so I’d been looking forward to the year abroad for a long time.

For a year abroad as an Oxford student, you agree what you’re going to do with your college tutor (often called your organising tutor – you may have two if you do two languages), with the general options being: teaching in a school via the British Council, studying at a university, or finding some form of internship. That said, I was doing a virtual internship with a company based in Hamburg, because I had a couple of friends in Berlin and wanted to be able to find other opportunities while I was out there.

Finding accommodation can seem super daunting, but it’s one of those things that always kind of works itself out – in my case, I found an apartment through a private renting website that was pretty central, but the great thing about Berlin (and most of Germany, to be honest) is that the transport links are much better than I’m used to, coming from Newcastle, so you could get to just about any part of the city within an hour. A lot of people tend to use something like AirBnB to find a temporary place to stay, then find a more permanent place after a couple of weeks. This is a great tip for saving money as you can usually find better deals locally.

The other biggest hurdle to tackle is visas – this is definitely something you need to research well before you arrive in your chosen country, around the same time as searching for internships and study places. Lots of countries require visas to be dealt with before you arrive in the country, and this can require sending your passport off too, so it’s vital to get this sorted in good time. There are also often requirements for what you need to do once you arrive in the country; for example, in Germany, you usually have to register at an address when you’re staying for over a certain amount of time.

Having said all of this, one of the great things about the year abroad is the flexibility of it all. For example, lots of people will get a study placement that lasts maybe three months, but book their accommodation for an extra three months and either travel around the country (especially with trains in continental Europe generally being drastically cheaper than in the UK) or try to find an internship, etc. I personally found a lot of time for this outside of my internship hours, but obviously this depends on exactly what your placement requires.

In terms of staying connected to Oxford, it was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, societies and student groups on the whole have moved a lot of their stuff online, making it really easy to get involved with from afar. I wrote articles for R:Ed, Africa’s largest lifelong learning and mentoring resource, edited for a number of student publications and managed to set up my own student-led project, all from the comfort of my Berlin flat. This meant it was really easy to keep my finger on the pulse of the student community in Oxford and still feel connected.

That’s all from me for now – next time, I’m going to talk a bit more about my specific experience in Berlin and what sort of things you can do on the year abroad once you’ve dealt with all the admin!  

French, French life, Studying at Oxford, Year Abroad

A Year Abroad in Paris: A time of study, theatre, and film

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On the blog this week, former student and student ambassador, Elise, reflects on her year abroad. Despite logistical challenges, Elise managed to tailor her year to align with both her academic goals and professional aspirations.

My year abroad was over 2021-2022 and, as I think pretty much every languages student will tell you, ended up being wonderfully not to plan! Thankfully, having an EU passport meant I avoided the visa and administration challenges that many others experienced. Covid was the first spanner in the works. The pandemic meant that many organisations in France were not actively hiring, and consequently university partnership places were wildly oversubscribed. When someone dropped out of the Erasmus programme over summer 2021, I managed to secure their spot for the 2022 summer semester at the Sorbonne.

The summer semester goes from January to May. The teaching experience was very different to my first two years at Oxford. Classes came in two forms: CMs (cours magistral) which are large-scale lectures in amphitheatres; and TDs (travail dirigé) which are seminar-like classes often with about 30 students – bigger than typical Oxford class sizes which makes for a different participation dynamic. The CMs typically lasted 1hr-1h15 but the TDs were often 2hrs with a 5-minute break. From a concentration perspective, 2hr TDs took a little getting used to! Classes were also located all over Paris – definite metro distances, rather than Oxford’s walking distances. The Sorbonne has 29 different campuses over the city and I moved between two: the original site in the 5ieme arrondissement which is informally called ‘La Sorbonne Mère’, and the ‘Campus Clignancourt’ which is the 18ieme arrondissement, the final stop on metro line 4.

Subject choices determine the campus you are taught at. As a French and Philosophy student looking to work in theatre and film after graduation, my priorities were picking anything which would sustain my Oxford studies, particularly for philosophy, and allow me to expand my knowledge of French theatre and cinema. I kept up my language work by choosing translation classes (English to French and French to English) and then fought for places on the oversubscribed Philosophy courses: ‘Histoire de la Philosophie Antique’ and ‘Textes Philosophiques en Anglais: Hume’. My favourite classes by far were ‘Initiation à l’histoire et à l’analyse de l’image’ in which we traced the history of cinema through a series of film case studies from the 1820s to 2008; and ‘Littérature et cinéma’, a class dedicated to the work of Eric Rohmer and the relationship between his films and literature.

The Erasmus community often bonded quickly in classes, but it was trickier to meet French students. I met the French friends I am still in contact with two years later through the extra-curricular opportunities. I jumped at the chance to get involved in student theatre. Extracurriculars are run more centrally at the Sorbonne than at Oxford. Student theatre is run by the university itself and they invite external practitioners to work with students and direct pieces over the term. I workshopped and performed two French-language devised productions.

The first, ‘Mère(s)’, explored motherhood and the figure of the mother, sewing together pieces in French, Spanish, Arabic and English. I was introduced to the work of Pierre Notte and Guillaume Gallienne and given the chance to perform extracts in French from their respective works ‘Moi aussi je suis Catherine Deneuve’ and ‘Les garçons et Guillaume, à table!’. The devising process also involved me translating moments from Andrew Bovell’s Things I Know To Be True into French as well as constructing a version of Act 3 Scene 4 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which I, as Gertrude, performed the original English text in conversation with a French-speaking Hamlet, whose lines were taken from a French translation of the play.

The second project, ‘Bienvenue chez nous!’, was a forum theatre improvisation-based show of conversations about ecology in different household settings. This piece was particularly terrifying to build as we were improvising on stage in French. It forced me to be quick on my feet, listen carefully to what was said by others and be brave in my responses before my peers and the later audience. By being willing to risk making vocab and grammar mistakes, I inevitably expanded my vocabulary and strengthened my confidence in my spoken fluency. With trust and risk taking at the core of an improvisation project, we also grew close as a cast. I am still friends with the girls I worked with and we have continued to reunite in London or in Paris over the subsequent two years.

The other way I made wonderful French friends, especially ones with shared interests, was through culture trips offered by the Sorbonne. Through an online portal, they organise free visits to theatre and dance shows, music concerts and museum exhibitions. A group of us started booking onto the same events and regularly going together. You often had an afternoon workshop about the event, and then the visit itself. It was a great way to see shows that I would not have realised were on in the city, might not have thought to book myself or would not have been able to afford. My favourite was Boxe Boxe Brasil a dance piece by Mourad Merzouki’s company käfig in which Brazilian dancers performed a blend of hip-hop and boxing to the classical accompaniment of the Debussy Quartet, on at the Cité de la Musique.

After the Sorbonne term ended in May, I turned my attention to professional development opportunities. I had long wanted to train at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, a drama school specialising in physical theatre and mime. I was accepted onto their ‘Le Masque Neutre’ course, over which we learnt and played with the ‘journey of the masked man’. Through mask and mime, we experimented with how our bodies interact with various different natural environments: sea, forest, rocky mountains, stepping stones over a river, grassy fields and desert sand. This was an incredible experience both professionally and personally, consolidating for me the importance of awareness of breath, active presence and specificity of movement when performing.

I also enrolled on a screen acting course at the Cours Florent, another French drama school. This was a brilliant learning opportunity, and fascinating to compare with my experience at Lecoq: there was an important overlap in the foundational need for active presence and grounded emotion for both mediums. These two experiences gave me first-hand exposure to drama training in France and allowed me to network within the theatre community in Europe. I am immensely grateful for the generous financial support of St Hilda’s College and the Liz Daplyn Travel Bursary as well as the Cameron Mackintosh Drama Fund through the University Drama Officer, which helped me afford both courses. Like the Sorbonne student theatre, the training was not only beneficial for my professional development in the performing arts, but also hugely advantageous for my French language abilities. Speaking and acting fully in the French language, enabled me to broaden my vocabulary and hone my fluency ahead of my return to Oxford. All that remained was a wonderful final summer month fully dedicated to touristing around the city. July was a final adventure of ticking things off my Paris bucket list in the sun and seeing as much French theatre and film as possible, before coming back for fourth year and finals.

Merci, Elise!

French, Spanish, Student life, Studying at Oxford, Why study languages?, Year Abroad

An experience of a lifetime in Argentina

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On the blog this week, one of our final year French & Spanish students tells us all about their experience of being an English Language Assistant in two Argentinian schools…

As part of my year abroad, I spent five months in Argentina taking in the beautiful setting, learning a new kind of Spanish and meeting some lifelong friends. I was quite keen to push myself and make the most of the opportunity to go abroad so going to South America was definitely on the top of my list. After having applied to some other programs and been unsuccessful, I found an experience which offered the possibility of teaching English in school. The thought of being placed in ANY part of Argentina (the eighth biggest country worldwide with one of the most varied climates) meant that I was excited yet also nervous about what could lie ahead.

During my time in Argentina, I worked with two institutions in the Buenos Aires province which both offered unique experiences! I stayed at my first institution for two months and it was an amazing private school with some equally incredible teachers. The best thing was being able to share my culture with others as well as form a rapport with the children that I taught.

During my first placement, I had the pleasure to live with a wonderful host family who made me feel welcome despite the fact that I am naturally quite shy and introverted and they were always willing to help me with my Spanish, share their culture and take me in as one of their own. My arrival began with being invited to a quince (a fifteenth birthday party) which was overwhelming yet it meant that I soon made friends. The welcoming and kind-hearted nature of the people meant that I was invited on many outings, meals out and drank a lot of mate (a drink which has the same cultural prestige as a cup of tea in England).

The second institution that I worked with was in a small town of 5000 people in the countryside and whilst I did the same activities in regards to sharing my culture and teaching classes, I had a whole host of new experiences. I lived with two fantastic families who welcomed me as one of their own. Something I still miss to this day is the tasty soup and desserts that were made by Hebe! A memory that I will never forget is that I taught students the moves to the cha-cha slide and the Superman song. Whilst there were times that I missed home, these times were few and far between. I am extremely thankful to have met my supervisor as well as to have had the opportunity to go on outings with different families and of course, drink more mate! I still keep in touch with my supervisor and friends I made there and I hope to visit them again someday.

During my free time, I was able to organise my own travel around Argentina. My favourite trip definitely had to be visiting Iguazú Falls in the north of Argentina which definitely was a sight to behold! I frequently visited Buenos Aires and marvelled at what the city had to offer. Whilst there were some anxieties about being in Argentina as a result of cultural differences and general feelings of homesickness which comes with any experience abroad, I always had support around me whilst I was there and knew that I could contact my tutors back in Oxford in the face of any problems.

My advice to anyone considering a degree in Modern Languages is to go for it and make the most of the year abroad! The opportunity to further develop your cultural knowledge through literature alongside the different options available for going abroad is something I will always be grateful for. If you had asked me when I first started my degree whether I would have travelled to Argentina alone, met amazing people and have done the cha-cha slide with students in a small town in Argentina, I would have thought you were crazy. However, that’s something that became a reality and now a fond memory and, I am looking forward to going back one day.

Russian, Slavonic Languages, Student life, Year Abroad

We’re in Baltic business, people! The *new* beginners’ Russian year abroad

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In this week’s blog post, third-year French and Beginners’ Russian student, Catrin, tell us all about her year abroad spent in Tallinn, Estonia!

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the beginners’ Russian cohort spends the year abroad in Tallinn, Estonia, engaging in an intensive language programme for eight months. At first, it disappointed me that I would not experience the legend that is the traditional Russian ab initio year abroad to Yaroslavl’ (seriously, it’s described like folklore in the department), spending a long winter only 270km outside of Moscow with a firm and matronly ’babushka’. However, this disappointment was of course dwarfed by the gravity of the situation in Ukraine and my sympathies for those living through the atrocities.

When I left the UK for my first semester, with two large suitcases and no expectations, I was yet to know the magic of Russia’s tiny neighbour; I was yet to learn the intricacies and nuances of life in a post-Soviet country, and I was yet to feel that I had truly built a life and home for myself abroad. All these things had become true as my time in Estonia came to an end in May of 2023.

The language course provided by the organisation ‘LanguageLink’ in Tallinn is the same as the one previously given in Yaroslavl’. There are daily lessons in literature, translation, grammar, essay writing and speaking. The lessons take up half a day, in a morning or afternoon slot, and in them we covered a wide range of themes. The courses are all provided by native Russian speakers, but what made the lessons all the more interesting and unique was the politicised lens through which Russian as a language is considered in Estonia. In 2011, nearly 50% of Tallinn’s inhabitants spoke Russian as their first language and the vast majority of Estonians are fluent in, or can at least understand, Russian. Relations with the language were already strained after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the re-adoption of Estonian as the country’s official language and were then made even more precarious following the invasion of Ukraine.

Our teachers had very personal stories and interesting views on their relationship with Estonia and the Estonian language: some had lived and worked in Estonia their whole lives, and others had moved to Tallinn more recently following the start of the war. A particularly memorable lesson included a discussion about the implications of displaying a destroyed Russian tank in the capital’s ‘Freedom Square’, with plaques in Estonian, Russian and English explaining the choice to put it on show. We pondered the task of translating and conveying the message in three different languages in such a tense political climate.

I loved the afternoons and weekends we spent in Tallinn, and given that our classes only took place in the morning, we had lots of free time to fill with many cultural activities… and cinnamon buns. Tallinn itself is very architecturally interesting, like a cultural canvas onto which various eras of history have been painted and blended together. You can spend hours wandering around the picturesque medieval Old Town and traditional wooden houses in the neighbouring creative district, or get swept up in the remains of the Soviet era the traces it left (including the derelict Linnahall, which for you Christopher Nolan fans, is used in the film ‘Tenet’).

Alternatively, you could lean into a more modern, slightly Scandinavian way of life. All of this together is what makes it Estonian. Some of my favourite habits included a weekly trip to a coffee shop with a friend after our Friday morning class, taking turns to pick a new café and explore new districts by the very efficient Tallinn public transport system, as well as a Sunday afternoon trip to the sauna to go ice-swimming in the capital’s seaplane harbour.

Many of us lived in the east of Tallinn in Lasnamäe, often called ‘the Russian ghetto’ given the high number of Russian speakers living in the area. Many lived with babushkas, but a friend and I lived with a man who trained Ukranian soldiers and ran a metal-for-furniture business on the side (whatever floats your boat?). We enjoyed conversations about his work and his family, which was spread between Estonia and Ukraine. His mother came to stay with us for a month from Kyiv, and we really enjoyed learning about her life and interests in a mishmash of Russian and Estonian, which she was learning at the time.

However much I loved Tallinn, one of the best things about it was how easy it was to leave. As in, it has excellent (and cheap) transport links to many parts of Estonia and other capital cities. The ferry trip to Helsinki is around £25 and takes two hours, other Baltic capitals are easily reachable by bus- although the overnight trip home from Vilnius to Tallinn is not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had. One reading week at the end of March was enough time for a whistle-stop tour of Scandinavia by train: a friend and I interrailed from Helsinki to Kemi in the north of Finland, across the north of Sweden, before seeing Trondheim and Oslo in Norway, finally making our way down to Copenhagen. Many of our classmates travelled further afield to Georgia, Uzbekistan and Hungary during these reading weeks.

Although not what I expected when I originally applied to study Russian at Oxford, my time in Tallinn was formative, fulfilling and most importantly, fun. The beginners’ Russian year abroad seems highly structured, with little space to make it your own, but all our cohort came home with different experiences, stories and memories. Looking back, I realise that Tallinn to me was originally a ‘plan B’, an alternative, and a place I never would have considered home. How wrong I was!

Catrin, French and Beginners’ Russian

You can read more about Catrin’s year abroad experiences in Estonia here on the blog.

Russian, Studying at Oxford, Year Abroad

The Estonian Sauna

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On the blog this week, French and Beginners’ Russian student, Catrin, tells us all about the wonders of the Estonian sauna, and her experiences of using them while on her year abroad last year.

The Estonian sauna is a weird and wonderful place.

Photo belongs to Catrin Mackie

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our Beginners’ Russian cohort was told we would be going to Tallinn instead of Yaroslavl’, which had been the destination of choice for decades. I had no idea what to expect from Russia’s small north-eastern neighbour. Tallinn truly surprised me, and one of the things I miss the most is cold water swimming and the sauna culture that accompanies it. My favourite Russian word that I learnt on my year abroad was моржевание (morzhevanie); a specific, one word translation for “cold water swimming” or “winter swimming”, that comes from the word “morzh” meaning “walrus”.

Tallinn is a coastal capital, sitting on the shores of the Baltic Sea, which meant any ‘morzhevanie’ I would take part in would be, well, baltic. I was sceptical. However, when told that the Estonian way was to swim in the freezing cold water and then run straight back to a cosy, boiling hot sauna, I was more convinced. The ritual of the trip to the sauna became part of my life in Estonia- a friend and I went every Sunday through the winter swimming season, which lasts from the beginning of November through to the end of April. Estonians and the international community alike can buy season tickets for their favourite sauna for a discounted price, much like football fans would do in the UK.

Sauna culture in Estonia is sacred. There are approximately 100,000 saunas in Estonia for a population of 1.3 million. In the capital, it may be a somewhat trendy novelty that tech employees and Erasmus students dabble in for the period of their stay, but a more traditional kind of sauna, namely the “Võromaa” smoke sauna tradition in southern Estonia, has warranted cultural heritage status on the UNESCO list. It is part of a wider Russo-Scandinavian sauna tradition, with slight variations from Estonia to Russia to Finland to Sweden to Norway. Some of the most burning questions include: is it a wood-burning or a steam sauna? What sticks do you hang in the sauna to hit your body with to increase circulation? Should you wear a little felt hat to regulate your body temperature or not? And, for the sauna fashionistas amongst you, what colour should the little felt hat be?  

A testament to its cultural heritage and importance, saunas are now being delivered from Estonia to Ukranian soldiers on the front lines of the war by the NGO “Saunas for Ukraine”, and the movement is garnering support online to send more. It has provided battalions of the Ukranian army with a place to wash, convene, and boost morale. The modern Tallinn sauna is part conference room, part cool hangout spot, part extreme sport training centre. During my first trip to the sauna- a repurposed small shipping container in the trendy, harbourside Kalamaja district- it was full of people who were attending the same technology conference which didn’t officially start until the following day, but business discussions had clearly begun as they scurried as a pack between the sea and the steam.

In the following weeks, we became regulars and noticed that the French embassy in Tallinn ran a group trip to the sauna every week; a mixture of diplomats and NATO soldiers who challenged each other to stay in the freezing sea as long as they could (one soldier managed 8 minutes!). I heard friends conversing in Estonian, Finnish, Russian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese (that was just on one Sunday afternoon in mid-January). The sauna was a very international space, and a great place for cultural exchange.

Photo belongs to Catrin Mackie

One of the most memorable conversations we had was with two of the chattiest Estonians my friend and I had ever met (Estonians are famously quite reserved), who, upon hearing that I was Welsh and a Welsh-speaker, immediately asked “can you tell us that really long Welsh place name?”. I obliged before even thinking how incredible it was that two Estonians knew about the name of a tiny village, which happened to be my grandfather’s birthplace, on the complete opposite end of Europe. In exchange for my consonant-heavy declaration, we were told an Estonian phrase that was made up almost entirely of vowels- “on the edge of the ice” in Estonian is “jää-äär”.

On other visits, the sauna was completely silent, and a place for meditation and reflection. Desperate not to miss our habitual “ice swimming Sundays” on a trip around Scandinavia, we found the most intense group of cold water swimmers in Kemi, Finland (a mere hour outside the Arctic circle!). The sea was completely frozen over. The sauna was boiling hot, and very quiet.

The relaxed nature of the cold-water swimming community in Estonia eventually left me wondering: what kind of place would the world be if all diplomatic and political negotiations happened in saunas?

– Catrin Mackie, French and Russian student

French, French language, French life, linguistics, Student life, Studying at Oxford, Year Abroad

Montreal, the forgotten Francophone city?

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In this week’s blog post, current French and Linguistics student, Josh Winfield, talks about his time in Montreal, a trip funded by his college. Over to you, Josh!

Photo by Josh Winfield

In March 2022, I was lucky enough to secure a travel grant from my college (St Hilda’s) to go to Montreal for 10 days. This blog aims to recount: what I found in Montreal, both from a touristic and student point of view; why I would recommend Montreal as a potential location for the year abroad; and to explore how Oxford colleges can help with course-related study trips.

If you were to look at the last ten years’ worth of year abroad archives, you would not be blamed for thinking that France is the only option for this exciting part of your degree course. When writing this blog, there were only a few students in the archives who had gone elsewhere. Whilst France is the potential obvious choice, considering its proximity to the UK, and the focus of French language courses on metropole French, I will aim to highlight some of the many advantages of Montreal as the location for your year abroad, or at least to inspire you to travel there as a student of French!

I have been interested in the French speaking region of Canada for a long time, particularly Quebec, using the question over its sovereignty as the focus of my Independent Research Project for my A-level French exam. However, I had never had the opportunity to actually visit it. When I started my course, I was shown the extensive list of bursaries that Oxford students could be eligible for, and as one of these, the travel grant (which is not just a Hilda’s thing, many colleges offer travel grants1) This generous funding allowed me to journey to Montreal, and paid for my accommodation. There are many funds available for undergraduates, with different colleges having differing amounts available, but for course-related travel, a well thought-out application is normally quite successful.

The language of the region

The breath-taking interior of the Notre-Dame Basilica. Photo by Josh Winfield.

This is obviously one of the most important factors in the choice of the year abroad location, especially how much you are able to use it and learn.

Montreal, and the broader Quebec region are quite unique in the fact that they are both officially bilingual. And, whilst the news and nationalist politicians might make you believe that the speaking of English is minimal here, this is contrary to my experience, in fact the city operates as a melting pot for both French and English communication. 26%2 of the Montreal population acquired neither French nor English as their maternal language, and both Spanish and Chinese are commonly spoken here, making French a lingua franca amongst speakers. This phenomenon means that it is very easy to use French in day to day life, and that there is no presupposition as to which language you are going to speak. When I was there myself, at least 80% of the time I was greeted in French and spoken to in French as if I was a native speaker. This makes it very accessible for learners, and gives you the confidence to use the language more often.

Furthermore, the dialect in Quebec is very interesting (particularly for me as a Linguistics student too!). The accent is not only different to the standard metropole French in terms of pronunciation and slight lexical differences, but it is also not unusual to hear (even native French speakers) switch from French to English in a sentence for certain words, and even phrases. Despite the difference, after a few days there (and some YouTube videos) I got used to this, and didn’t have any trouble understanding people.

Worth considering too, is that the written language is almost exactly the same, making signs and menus easy to read for French students. What I have just discussed about the language may be off putting to some people , particularly the presence of English, but as a student with a disability myself, I am comforted by the fact that in a worst case scenario, doctors, hospital staff, and the majority of the public speak and can understand English. (Plus all the visa applications can be in English which is a huge bonus!)

The atmosphere of the city

One of the many green (or white!) spaces in the city. Photo by Josh Winfield.

Despite the fact that the city was just resurfacing from years of strict COVID regulations when I visited, the city life was still vibrant. There is a plethora of restaurants, night-time activities, sights to see and museums. At every turn there is something historically fascinating to see, an amazing piece of architecture, or just natural beauty. With a thriving Chinatown, Little Italy, Little Portugal and International Quarter, Montreal defends its position as one of the most diverse cities in Canada.

The city is passionate about inclusion and diversity3, and feels very safe, with the Economist naming it the 4th safest city in North America4. There is also a large Gay Village, which hosts many aspects of LGBTQ+ life, including Drag Shows and Montreal Pride. As well as the city life, or is worth mentioning that Montreal has some beautiful natural areas. In the centre of the downtown, Mont Royal (the city’s namesake) occupies a near 700 acre park, boasting beautiful views of the entire city. All around the city there are green areas, allowing you a break from the city feel of Montreal.

Travel and pricing

City view from Mont Royal. Photo by Josh Winfield.

Inner city travel in Montreal is cheap, easy and fast. Operating on three lines, the majority of the city is only 15 minutes away from a metro stop. For a one way journey it was (when I visited) $1.60, $3 for a return. The metros are clean, open and easy to use. I used it the whole time I was there, and found it easier than the tube in London. In more general terms about cost of living, the city is of equivalent cost to Oxford and London pricing. However, when you take into consideration the exchange rate, the cost of living is not necessarily something to put you off (I also did live like a tourist for my time here – residential areas will no doubt be cheaper). With a student visa, most people are allowed to work up to 20 hours whilst studying which can help with the cost of your time there.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, with three excellent universities5, a welcoming accessible environment to speak and learn French, and an exciting and different city life, why not consider Montreal for at least part of your year abroad (or perhaps a shorter trip with a travel grant!).

Footnotes:

1) https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/fees-funding/international/scholarships-exchanges

2) http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-555/table/A7-fra.cfm

3) https://montreal.ca/diversite

4) https://www.jechoisismontreal.com/fr/vivre-a-montreal/vit-on-en-securite-dans-le-grand-montreal/

5) https://etudes-au-canada.net/liste-des-universites-a-montreal/

Czech, Student life, Studying at Oxford, Why study languages?, Year Abroad

Why Study Czech?

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In this week’s blog post, recent graduate in Spanish & Czech from St Peter’s College, Joe Kearney, reflects on his decision to study Czech at Oxford and where the journey has taken him…

I chose to study Czech at Oxford because I wanted to try something completely different. At school I had studied French and Spanish, and I wanted to learn a language from a totally new language family.

Exploring Štramberk, Joe Kearney

The first year of Czech was certainly the challenge I’d been looking for. I sat in my first language class of the year, in front of the Czech lady (Vanda, she is lovely) who had been tasked with teaching me and my three classmates Czech from scratch, and wondering how I was ever going to learn what any of this stuff meant. The learning curve was steep, but incredibly rewarding. We started with the absolute basics: how the alphabet works, how to introduce yourself, how to order food in a restaurant. By the end of my first year I’d read my first short stories in Czech and I’d been to Prague and worked for a couple of months as a waiter in a pizza parlour! Learning a language from scratch is fantastic for anyone who fancies a bit of adventure.

We spent second year developing our speaking, listening, writing and translating skills, as well as reading more and more literature in Czech. Because Czech is a small course, with just a handful of undergraduate students every year, the course is really flexible. 20th century Czech history and literature fascinated me, and I was able to shape all of the rest of my degree around it. I learned about the interwar period in the First Czechoslovak Republic, the Czech experience under communism, and the Czech journey out of communism in the 90s and 2000s. Writers like Jiří Weil, Ludvík Vaculík and Bianca Bellová captured my imagination, and I was able to take my newfound interests with me on my year abroad, where I studied New Wave Czech film, a history of Czech photography, and modern Czech politics at the University of Ostrava.

View over the aptly named Smrk mountain, Joe Kearney
Skiing in the Slovak High Tatras, Joe Kearney

In Ostrava I got a job as a waiter in a tearoom (the best language training anyone could get!), I went climbing in the hills with my Ostravák friends, and I travelled with a great group of Erasmus students. One of the best things about the Czech Republic, we quickly found, is that it is a fantastic basecamp from which to travel all around Europe. I visited France, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, and even Sweden that year, as well as making use of the ridiculously cheap trains to get all around the Czech Republic. Some highlights were České Švýcarsko (Czech Switzerland), Skiing in the Slovakian High Tatras, and visiting Kraków, in Poland, and Stockholm, in Sweden. 

My love for Czech grew immensely on my year abroad, and final year went by in a blast. More learning, and more opportunities to take the voyage of discovery further and further.

I would highly recommend learning a new language from scratch at Oxford. My Czech degree was a fantastic awakening to a new world of culture, travel, and wonderful people. I have never looked back!

View over the Beskydy mountains, Joe Kearney

A huge thanks to Joe for sharing his wonderful experiences of studying beginners’ Czech as well as the stunning photos taken on his year abroad in Ostrava last year (2021-22).

If you’re interested in following a similar path, you can find out more about Czech at Oxford here.

French life, Year Abroad

Dispatches from the Year Abroad: Paris

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Third-year undergraduate Beth Molyneux (Lincoln College) has been sharing updates on her Year Abroad travels. Following on from her earlier post about her time in Munich, she is now in Paris.

Even before coming to Oxford, I knew I wanted to spend some time living in Paris, having caught glimpses of the city on family holidays and on a day trip during my French exchange. It’s potentially the least original of year abroad locations, but I really do think there’s a reason for that!

A lot of people come to Paris to do an internship during their year abroad, but I’d chosen to study for this semester, and was quite excited to get back into the academic world after having taken time off from studying in Germany. That’s one of the great things about the year abroad: it gives you time and flexibility to try out a few different things, and mix and match between your studies and the big scary world that comes after university.




  • Flipping crepes for ‘Chandeleur’
  • Place Vendome at dusk
  • L’arc de Triomphe

Oxford has an exchange programme with La Sorbonne, and I was lucky enough to get a place to study there for the second semester of this academic year. Oxford aren’t very prescriptive about exactly what you have to study if that’s what you opt for on your year abroad, so as long as I do the right amount of credits, I’m pretty much free to choose whatever modules I like. I’ve stayed in my comfort zone so far, with modules from the department of ‘Littérature française et comparée’, but I also know people who’ve branched out into history courses, philosophy, and even Greek. I think I’ve managed to get a really good mix of modules that relate directly to some of the topics and texts I’ve covered in my course at Oxford, alongside some entirely new topics, and some language classes to keep that grammar ticking over.

I say I’ve stayed in my comfort zone, but even when studying a topic area that’s familiar to me, transitioning to a French university is far from simple! Academic systems are unique to each country, and I already feel like I’m beginning to get a flavour of what French university life is like and how it’s different to England, or at least Oxford, on the academic side of things. At the moment it’s harder to get an idea of what the social side of things is normally like, because there are far fewer social events on campus than there would be in ordinary circumstances. In this respect, though, I’m quite lucky that I’ve chosen to au pair alongside my studies, because it means that I have daily contact with a family, and a homely environment, where I have purpose and a little bit of my own space in the city, which might otherwise be a bit big and anonymous.

  • Walking in Le Marais with Parismus group (a society for international students, organised by French students)
  • The Sorbonne!

Living and spending time with a French family really gives you a sense of the difference between speaking French and becoming French. More so than when I was in Germany, I have the sense that I’m not just learning the language, but am also getting  used to the French, or at least the Parisian, way of life: shopping at the local market, eating well, exploring the city at weekends, and, in a few weeks, heading off to the Alps for a winter break, courtesy of the family I’m staying with. Once the COVID situation starts to improve a little and things open up again, I think there will be even more opportunities to soak up the cultural aspects of Paris, its museums, restaurants and libraries, and I can’t wait to experience the city in summer.

It’s hard to capture in a blog post the excitement that comes when you set up your life in a new place for the next six months, knowing that this is the place you really want to be, and having a stretch of time to do and see everything you want to, make the most of the opportunities thrown your way, and work your way towards becoming, slowly, a little bit more French (or German, or Spanish, or Italian), as you get accustomed to a new way of life and find your place linguistically, intellectually and personally. But it’s definitely been a feeling I’ve experienced on my year abroad, and I hope you do too!

by Beth Molyneux

(Image credits Beth Molyneux)