Tag Archives: Berlin

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!  

German, Student life, Studying at Oxford

Eine Reise nach Berlin

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In this week’s blog post, current German and Linguistics student, Emma Davis, talks about her time in Berlin, a recent trip funded by her college. Over to you, Emma!

Thanks to the travel, research and study grant available at my college (St Hilda’s), I had the opportunity to spend a jam-packed 5 days in Berlin over the Easter vacation to supplement my German degree. This funding highlights that studying languages at Oxford University is about more than just passing your exams, but about gaining linguistic proficiency, confidence in foreign countries and a rich cultural understanding that widens your view of the world. Travel grants are available, often with priority placed on languages students, at many of the Oxford colleges so it is important to research on your college’s website to see what is offered and how to apply.

In my opinion, there are four must-dos if you are planning a trip to Berlin… Firstly, make the most of the tours on offer. On the second morning of the trip, we embarked on a 3-hour walking tour which allowed us to get our bearings and helped me to link all the historical and architectural facts I have learnt about Berlin across the course of my German studies. Visiting the Reichstag building is another non-negotiable. Seeing the glass dome, the inscription above the entrance (‘Dem deutschen Volke’) and the artwork inside (‘der Bevölkerung’) was both interesting and powerful as these features symbolise the importance of democracy to Germany today. My favourite day of the trip was spent just 45 minutes outside of the city centre, in Potsdam. Sanssouci Palace – the summer residence of Prussian King Friedrich the Great – was stunning in the sunshine and provided excellent German audio guides with a long but clear explanation about each room which was enjoyable to listen to. Furthermore, techno clubs are seen as an integral part of Berlin’s cultural scene, to the point that some DJs have campaigned for them to receive Unesco World Heritage Status. After being questioned on the door (the clubs in Berlin do this to increase their exclusivity), we made it into Tresor and had a great night…and morning – the techno scene doesn’t really get going until 3am!

Reichstag – German Parliament Building. Photo courtesy of Emma Davis.

A few misconceptions I had before I travelled to Berlin were that most people would speak back to you in English, the dialect would be difficult to understand and that vegetarian food options may be few and far between. However, everyone that I approached spoke to me in German and I didn’t encounter any difficulties with the dialect. Moreover, there were countless vegan/veggie food options to try, including a twist on the traditional Currywurst!

East Side Gallery Mural. Photo courtesy of Emma Davis.
Brezhnev and Honecker – East Side Gallery. Photo courtesy of Emma Davis.

Berlin is a city full to bursting with museums and during my week there I explored the German Spy Museum, Humboldt Forum, the Jewish Museum, and East Side Gallery. The Spy Museum is slightly less well-known than the destinations on Museum Island but is an engaging multimedia museum which walks visitors through the entire history of German espionage. For me, the most interesting part was listening to audio recordings of Germans who were involved in creating the Enigma code. The Humboldt Forum, considered the German equivalent of the British Museum, contains a thought-provoking exhibition responding to the question of whether colonial countries should return looted artefacts to their original owners or whether they should be displayed in places like the Humboldt Forum. This forces people to consider their country’s colonial history (incidentally, one of my favourite German words is die Vergangenheitsbewältigung which means ‘coming to terms with the past’). The Jewish Museum educated me on not only the extensive persecution that Jewish people have faced throughout the ages, but also the successes of many Jewish people, for example in the Weimar Republic. Finally, East Side Gallery is not a gallery in the conventional sense but rather a 1.3km stretch of the Berlin Wall that is painted in countless murals, many with political messages relevant to the reunification of Germany.

To see even more of Berlin, I walked from the Brandenburg Gate, down Unter den Linden and past the Tiergarten to reach the Victory Column, which is 60m tall with a 360-degree view of the city. Another option for an incredible view is the Television Tower, which stands at 368m tall with a viewing platform 203m up.

Berlin’s Television Tower. Photo courtesy of Emma Davis.

I had a fantastic week, would highly recommend Berlin as a travel destination and am very grateful to my college’s travel grant for this opportunity.

German life, Student life, Year Abroad

BERLIN AND THE BRITISH COUNCIL: Notes on a Year Abroad and Teaching English with the British Council

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Alannah Burns, a fourth-year Philosophy & German student at Lady Margaret Hall, loved teaching English at a secondary school in Berlin on her Year Abroad. Here she tells us why.

‘Too many choices of what to do on a Year Abroad?! But one obviously stands out…’

Berlin’s ‘Karneval der Kulturen’ (Carnival of Cultures), May 2018]

Nine months. One city. One school. One job. One language.

  • Today, it’s the game ‘werewolves’ in English for Grade 8 at 12pm.
  • Tomorrow, it’s one-to-one English speaking exam practice with Grade 10 at 2pm – this will be the first time they are learning what the exam is really like.
  • This morning it was going through the answers to the English class test from last week with Grade 8 step-by-step.
  • Tonight I’ll have to look up the lyrics to a Disney song and create a gap-fill exercise from it to help Grade 7 students practise listening to and understanding American accents.

For nine months I was paid to assist Grade 7, 8 and 10 English lessons at a ‘community school’ [Gemeinschaftsschule] in Berlin. I worked at the school for just over 12 hours a week (that’s right! Only 12 hours a week minimum and 20 hours a week maximum are required of you!). I did this as part of the British Council’s English Language Assistant programme. This is a very popular choice for those doing a Year Abroad, and I’m here to show you why.

I had never been to Berlin before I started my Year Abroad. I lived in nine different flats in eight (very different) areas of Berlin, for periods ranging from only five days, to four months straight (try doing the maths on that one!). I saw so much of the city this way, and experienced so many different kinds of city environments. I was paid 850 Euros a month for the teaching and (amazingly) never paid a cent more than 500 Euros for an entire flat to myself in Berlin with all bills included… Student life certainly does not get better than that! Teachers I worked with let me stay with them at the start of my time in Berlin, and helped me open a bank account, register my addresses, and find new places to live. The English Language Assistant placement with the British Council is also part of the Erasmus+ Scheme (which most universities are signed up to), meaning that you have access to extra funding and can continue to receive your maintenance loan from Student Finance as usual! I even still received funding, as I do every year, from Oxford University’s Moritz-Heyman Scholarship which is for students from backgrounds with a low household income. Put all these things together and see just how quickly my financial worries about a year of moving to a new country by myself were extinguished!

‘Living abroad for a year?! But how will I finance this?! How will I make friends?!’

outside the ‘Berliner Dom’ (Berlin Cathedral)

Another scary part of spending a year in a new place and new country is how to get to know new people. The British Council run training sessions before your placement which are usually (but not always) in the country you will be spending your Year Abroad. This training lasts for a few days (for which they usually provide you with accommodation etc.) and during it you work closely with the other people from different universities who are also going to be teaching English at schools in the same city/region as you. This means that you know a circle of interesting people straight away who will be doing the same job, and build good friendships with them early-on while learning how to prepare lessons, work with teachers, teach different age groups etc.

Now to the job itself. The idea behind the British Council’s English Language Assistants programme is to foster an environment of joyful learning and incredible cultural exchange abroad, with a native English speaker supporting and encouraging people abroad to enjoy learning English and about English-speaking countries.

My experience was pretty unique: I never prepared my own off-curriculum lessons on British culture (or indeed anything), and never spoke German to the students… Here’s why: Most students at the school were from migrant or economically-disadvantaged backgrounds, with many students having diagnosed behavioural problems or learning difficulties. Some students had weak levels of German, let alone English. Not knowing I can speak German thus encouraged them to practice English with me – great for the students, but not for my spoken German… We followed the curriculum strictly as the students’ English levels generally were too weak to diverge from the textbook with exams/class tests always looming. 

‘You don’t have to be crazy to work here. But it helps tremendously!’

found in the school’s staff room

As an enthusiastic native English speaker, I was told I had become a very valuable asset to this school. I led whole lessons, supported students in one-to-one speaking sessions, ran lunchtime English clubs, explained grammar, produced my own worksheets, and marked tests and homework. This experience was perfect for me as I hope to become an English teacher abroad in future. but my experience was certainly not typical! I know some people who worked at schools in Spain which asked them to teach science or other subjects in English, and others in different countries who were always preparing their own English lessons about British culture or their own background. The teaching experience is what you make of it and what you want it to be. There is always so much scope to talk with your school about what they want to get out of having a lively native English speaker in their classrooms, and what you want to learn from the experience and gain skills in. Every key skill you could ever need to show-off on your CV (such as leadership, teamwork, confidence, independence, reliability, punctuality, commitment, etc.) is what you can gain from this Year Abroad placement with the British Council. I cannot recommend it enough!

After leaving Berlin I gained a TEFL qualification through doing around 250 hours of volunteer English teaching to Polish children/teenagers in Warsaw and London, and German business professionals in Frankfurt. The English Language Assistant programme with the British Council certainly prepared me well for this.

You can find out more about the British Council programme here.