Lancaster University

Learning the academic vocabulary in English was the easiest. After a couple of months I had no problems anymore. The social vocabulary was longer to acquire: it can be difficult when you are with a group of English and you are the only foreigner. However, you get used to speaking with people from different origins (local and foreigners)and to understanding different sorts of accents in English. KEEP IN MIND that it is very easy to stay all the time with friends from your country (or speaking the same langauge as you) and to spend a year in the UK without improving your level of English.

the language was everywhere English i.e. with professors, with locals, with other international students. if there were language problems there was always the possibility to join one or more of numerous language and writing courses offered by the uni. communication with the other international students is of course easier in the beginning as they are somehow a group being together from the beginning through meetings and parties etc

All of my classes were in English which made things easier. The accents took a while to learn although that is what I was studying while I was in England--I think it took about 2 weeks to understand my professors, but that was part of my abroad experience. I did take French while I was there because I needed it to graduate with a Linguistics degree, but languages are taught the same around the world!

This is for sure the main benefit of studying abroad. I am not sure one year is enough to become perfectly billingual (especially with slang) though it is obvious that linguistic improvements are huge. The more you stay with people who do not speak your native language, the more you improve your language and communications skills. This is even truer if your friends are local people.

I struggled a lot when I first arrived to understand what people were saying. The fact that the university is in the north attracted many students from Liverpool, Mancherster... with a very strong accent, quite difficult to understand. At the end, I was able to have a real conversation, I could see my evolution.

When i got to Lancaster University i though my level of English was very good. However there is a bid difference between using english as a second language and using it ALL the time. My language skills have improved inmensely.