During my studies at Sheffield Hallam University I undertook a year abroad in Germany from June 2014 to March 2015. I began my year abroad in Munich, Bavaria working for Robert Bosch GmbH then for the second half I moved to Berlin to work at Siemens AG. The scholarship from the John Speak Trust afforded…

At age 72, looking back and having studied several foreign languages I have learned that language learning is similar to a jigsaw puzzle; learning one foreign language certainly helps when learning another.  “Once you start dreaming in a foreign language it means you must have learnt it”. I was fortunate to have an Italian Professor…

My name is Imogen Page-Jarrett and I have just finished my year abroad in Beijing, China. The past year would have not been quite the same incredible experience without the assistance of the John Speak Trust, and I would first and foremost like to thank them for their consistent help and support. My home university,…

“The John Speak Trust Scholarship was of great benefit to me personally and also to my career; a very useful and informative six months” At the age of 18, I was fortunate to receive a John Speak Language Trust Scholarship for six months.  This allowed me to travel to Germany to improve my study of…

In 1953 at age 22, I was fortunate to receive a Scholarship from the John Speak Trust to assist with my French studies.  The Scholarship provided a small amount of funding towards my travel, lodgings and food during six months abroad.   I received a mere £30 per month.  I worked in the wool trade (salary…

I am a student of French, Spanish qnd international business at Sheffiled Hallam University.   I have spent my year abroad in Noisy-le-Grand, just outside of Paris. Whilst in France, I worked for a holiday comparison website which allowed me to develop my French and Spanish skills in a professional environment. The placement also helped me…

In March 2015 I travelled to Jena, a small city in the former Eastern part of Germany in order to study business and German at the local university.  I am currently a 2nd year student at Sheffield Hallam and initially I chose to take part in a study abroad period in order to enhance my…

In August 2014 I set off for Beijing for my year abroad at Peking University to continue with my language studies. I’d spent a month in Beijing the summer before and loved it, so I went back with very high expectations of what my year abroad was going to be like. Somehow, my experiences in…

I can´t quite believe that my 18 months abroad are coming to an end, it only seems like 2 minutes since I was boarding the plane to Alicante in January 2014 to begin my Erasmus study period! I feel that my time abroad, in France and Spain has been the most beneficial part of my…

I’ve just finished my third year of studying Chinese at Cambridge University, spending my year abroad studying at Peking University in Beijing, China. I was lucky enough to have a fairly relaxed schedule at Peking University, so I was able to do a variety of internships and volunteering during the year, from marketing internships and…

The year was 1960, I was nineteen years old, working in the wool trade for the family business, Kassapians (Combers) Limited.  I applied for a John Speak Trust Scholarship to finance a six month study/voluntary working trip to France to improve my French and broaden my horizons. Unfortunately I had experienced a rocky start on…

The year was 1986; I was 21 years old and had just finished a Business Studies Course at Bradford College. I had taken a linguistics option with advanced French and beginners Spanish so when I learned about the John Speak Language Scholarships I was eager to go to Spain to bring both languages to a…