I will begin by saying that I am a language student at Queen’s University Belfast, and I study Spanish and Portuguese. This past year I have been on placement abroad. I chose to do my Portuguese-speaking placement first and I lived in the city of Porto in Portugal for 5 months (September to January). Next, I moved to San Jose in the Spanish-speaking country of Costa Rica for 5 months (February to June). My time in Portugal was a study placement – meaning I had to spend the majority of my time there within the education sector. I was enrolled in the Universidade do Porto for one semester. I studied five different modules, had classes every day and exams in January. One of the modules I elected was Beginner French. This was probably my favourite subject because I love learning languages and I also made two good friends in that class. In Costa Rica I was able to organise my activity independently, so I volunteered with an organization called Christ for the City International (CFCI), Costa Rica. CFCI works with people in need in underdeveloped areas in various countries in Latin America. I lived and worked in the capital city, San Jose in two of the CFCI centres located in the suburbs. These centres are all about providing practical solutions for the community and ways for them to make their own money and be economically self-sufficient. Examples include: sewing courses, baking courses and English classes. I mainly helped with the English learning classes.

What did I hope to achieve on my year abroad?

My main objective on my year abroad was to improve my linguistic abilities as much as possible. I have studied Spanish for many years and am very aware of how beneficial it is to spend time in a country where the language you are learning is spoken natively. I also wanted to experience living abroad, explore new cultures, make new friends and everything else that comes with an international experience. Those were my two main objectives – improve my linguistic abilities and experience living outside the UK for an extended period of time. I am happy to say that both of these objectives were met. I experienced a rapid improvement in my Portuguese, especially speaking ability, and a lot of ‘fine-tuning’, so to speak, in Spanish. Before moving to Portugal, I had never stepped foot in a Portuguese speaking country, and so, it was my first-time hearing Portuguese spoken all around me and having to speak to others in Portuguese all the time. At the start it was difficult, and I found the jump from classroom Portuguese to real-life Portuguese very marked. After this initial slow start, however, I began to advance quickly and was able to speak and communicate more fluently. At the end of the semester, I was able to see how much progress I had made and felt so much more confident speaking and understanding Portuguese. In Costa Rica, it was slightly different because when I arrived there my level of Spanish was much higher than my level of Portuguese when I arrived in Portugal. My time in Costa Rica provided me with the opportunity to bring my Spanish up from a conversational level to proficient level.

How did I benefit academically from this award?

I would say that my biggest academical benefit from this award was the opportunity to go to Central America. It is obviously much cheaper, from the UK, to travel to Europe than to Central America, and without this award I would not have been able to choose Costa Rica over Spain. Spain is the most common and easiest choice for Spanish students because it is the only official Spanish-speaking, European country. This award gave me the opportunity to choose something different. For me, going to Costa Rica instead of Spain had two main benefits. Firstly, I have family and friends in Spain, and I visit the country regularly. Spain is where I initially learnt to speak Spanish with competence, and built up a solid foundation in the language, but Costa Rica appealed to me because my eldest sister (who is a fluent Spanish speaker) had visited the country in 2018 and recommended it.

The second benefit is the difference in language. Both countries obviously speak Spanish but the difference in the language between the two countries is quite substantial. It is similar to the difference between English in the United States and English in the United Kingdom. Spanish speakers in Costa Rica speak, with a different accent, different vocabulary and different slang. Whilst this made it difficult at the beginning and I struggled a little bit to understand the different accent and learn a new set of vocabulary it was so worth it because now I have a better grasp of the Spanish language in a broader sense, not just Spanish from Spain.

Why would I recommend participation in a study exchange/work placement in a foreign country?

In my opinion, participation in a study exchange or work placement in a foreign country is something that every student should take part in if they have the opportunity. I think it is obviously incredibly beneficial for those studying languages as part of their degree, but I would also encourage those who study another language for fun or have a basic level of another language to look for opportunities to study or work abroad. I think that some will always enjoy it more than others but from my experience you learn so, so much. I learnt to appreciate things that are unique to my home country and that I didn’t have when I went abroad. I learnt so much about different cultures and gained more global awareness which helped me to think more broadly. I was forced to go out of my comfort zone and make friends which lead to beautiful relationships and potentially lifelong connections. Living abroad also includes its own set of challenges, homesickness being the most obvious one. However, overcoming these challenges is entirely possible and makes you more resilient as well as making the experience at the end even more rewarding.