Case Study
Case Study: Olivia Sayers – Costa Rica, 2020 – 21
In October 2020 I left the UK to spend six months working as a Conservation Education Intern at Wild Sun Rescue Center in Costa Rica for my Year Abroad. My internship wasn’t paid, so I’d accepted that I would be living a frugal life and would just explore the area around where I was working.…
Read MoreCase Study: Jonathan Ferguson, Beijing, China –
As part of my undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies, I spent the last academic year abroad, initially in Beijing at Peking University. The course in Beijing covered a broad range of areas, from newspaper reading and 20th century literature, to more advanced speaking classes and classical Chinese. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, my UK university…
Read MoreCase study: George Illingworth-Valencia,Spain 2019-2020.
First of all, I would like to say thank you to the John Speak Trust for sponsoring my adventure and alleviating a lot of the financial stress that came along with it. With the help of the Grant, I was truly able to enjoy my experience to the fullest extent and really immerse myself in…
Read MoreCase Study: Jonny Ferguson – Beijing/ Taipei 2019-20
As part of my undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies, I spent the last academic year abroad, initially in Beijing at Peking University. The course in Beijing covered a broad range of areas, from newspaper reading and 20th century literature, to more advanced speaking classes and classical Chinese. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, my UK university…
Read MoreCase Study: Jack Marshall Oldfield, Leipzig, Germany – 1934
In February 1934, at the ripe old age of 19, I left the UK to begin a German language scholarship in Leipzig, Germany. My Scholarship was awarded by the John Speak Language to study German from February to October. My journey began by boat from the UK to Bremerhaven During my stay in Germany,…
Read MoreCase Study: Charlotte Grundy – Paris, France 2019
Case Study: Charlotte Grundy – Paris, France 2019 Over the past 6 months I have been completing an internship in Paris as part of my university degree. Ever since I started at university and was aware that I would be spending 18 months abroad, I knew that I wanted to spend some of my time…
Read MoreCase Study: Patrick Longmate, Colombia 2019
From July to December 2019, I had the privilege of studying at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, as part of my modern languages degree year abroad. My Spanish improved immensely whilst in Colombia, partly through daily exposure to the language in my university classes (which included Salsa – a cultural, if not academic…
Read MoreCase Study: Eileen Maguire – Chile, 2019 – 20
Case Study Eileen Maguire As part of my Year Abroad during my degree in Spanish and French, I spent the last six months in Santiago, Chile, working for the British Council as a communications and marketing intern. The scholarship from the John Speak Trust allowed me to take on this unpaid internship, which wouldn’t have…
Read MoreCase Study: Joshua Binfor – Lisbon, Portugal 2019-20
As part of my year abroad, I spent 7 months in Lisbon working as a translation and communication intern. My initial and main goal was to immerse myself in Portuguese as much as possible. Although I arrived in Lisbon already having an intermediate level of Portuguese (B2), my understanding of Portuguese was tested to a…
Read MoreCase Study: Joseph Brazier – Amman, Jordan 2018-19
As a compulsory part of my undergraduate degree in Arabic and Hebrew, I have spent my time this year between Amman and Jerusalem, learning both languages during my time abroad. Coming off the plane into Amman, I was so scared and worried. I had never been to a country with such a different culture, and…
Read MoreCase Study: Oliver Sale, Beijing, China – 2019
In September 2018 I came to study at Tsinghua University in Beijing, to improve my Mandarin and understanding of China more generally. The intensive nature of the course has meant that my language ability has steadily increased throughout the year. Of course, the real test of ability has come when out and about in the…
Read MoreCase Study: Daniel Osborne – China 2018-19
As part of my undergraduate degree, I spent a year abroad in Beijing where I enrolled at Peking University. The course at Peking University consisted of all key areas of the Mandarin language, including areas such as speaking to newspaper reading, and even advancing our skills in classical Chinese. The excellent teaching meant that I…
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