Natascha Mathews
Erasmus report- Georg-August Universität Göttingen 2014-15
Erasmus was something I had considered as a possible option from the
beginning of my time at Warwick, having always had a strong interest in
languages and travelling. Whilst France would have been the obvious choice,
since I studied French to A Level at school, German culture had always appealed
to me much more and so I decided to apply for an Erasmus year in Germany. I
picked Göttingen mainly because it was one of the few universities I had heard
about, because it occupies an importance place in mathematical history and
secondly because it is in Lower Saxony in North Germany, where “Hochdeutsch”, I suppose the equivalent of the “Queen’s English” is spoken, and so I
thought it would be the best place to improve my German skills.
Pre-semester language course
Having only done GCSE German and although a regular visitor to Germany
having not spoken much German for 4 years, I decided to take part in the presemester language course that the university offer to study abroad students. The
course cost somewhere in the region of 500€, which did deter me a little, but I
am really glad I participated, as although I don’t feel my German improved that
much in those 4 weeks specifically, it got me used to speaking and hearing the
language again and was a good introduction to life in Germany. The programme
included evening activities and weekend trips, so by the end of the four weeks I
had made some really close friends and felt very settled in the city. The only
downside of the course was that, obviously, all the participants are international
students and so for my first semester I did fall into the trap of the “Erasmus
bubble”, as a result of the friends I made in that initial course, which can be
annoying at times, as the most commonly spoken language is English and it is
almost impossible to get any other international students to speak German with
you. However, most of the other Erasmus students only stay for one semester, so
in my second semester I decided not to meet any of the new Erasmus students
and instead made friends with a group of German students. Both semesters were
completely different from each other but I am really glad that I was able to
experience both the Erasmus/International social scene and the German social
scene.
Accommodation
I applied for accommodation through the university accommodation service
Studentenwerk, and was placed in student halls called Studentendorf. Halls in
Germany is very different from the idea we have of halls in England. Whilst
almost all first year students will live in student accommodation in their first
year in England, this is not the case in Germany, with the majority finding private
housing from their very first semester. I chose to find accommodation through
the university, to avoid the hassle of finding a room in Germany whilst still in
England, which can be difficult, as they often require you to come for an
interview and often get 10-15 applicants for one room. However, despite
Studentendorf being very cheap (180€ per month including bills), if I were to do
my year again, I would definitely go for finding my own private room. I found my
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house very quiet, with most of the other students having lived their for several
years, yet not seeming to know each other at all, and I know this was a common
theme with a lot of my friends who were also placed in student accommodation.
The other alternative was that you ended up in entirely Erasmus flats, which
although very nice at the start of the year does end up again limiting how much
you actually speak German. Private houses are a little more expensive, but tend
to be much nearer the centre of the town and the few friends I know who opted
for that option had really great experiences and often became really good friends
with the other Germans they were living with.
Modules
My main intention for doing a year abroad was to improve my language skills
significantly, and with that in mind, in my first semester I took 3 language
courses at B2 level (Reading, Writing and Vocab) and 1 maths module, Algebra,
which from the course content looked to be fairly similar to Algebra I and II from
second year at Warwick combined, with a slight extension at the end. I was fairly
confident that this module would be a good revision for me and wouldn’t result
in too much hard maths, but unfortunately this wasn’t the case. We had an
assignment each week, which usually had around 15-20 questions, all of which
took a considerable amount of time to work through, and I found the lectures
quite hard to follow. All maths lectures are 2 hours long, and the lecturer tended
to squeeze a lot of content into each lecture, meaning in one semester we
covered more than we cover across both algebra modules in two terms at
Warwick. I didn’t find the language barrier a particular problem, the main issue
was that although the content was fairly similar to what I’d seen before, the level
of questioning was much harder and required a much more thorough
understanding of the content. We also had a seminar each week, where we went
through the previous week’s sheet, which was very useful and you had to present
at least two solutions in order to be allowed to sit the exam. This was quite
nerve-wracking at first, but got easier as the weeks went on! Unfortunately I
failed this module when I sat the exam in February, as did the other Warwick
student who had also opted for the same module.
In my second semester I once again opted for three German modules (Grammar
B2 and Speaking and Listening C1) and I took two maths modules Complex
Analysis (Funktionentheorie) and Number Theory (Zahlentheorie). These two
modules also had weekly assignment sheets, but they were much more
approachable and built up slowly on the content, starting very trivially in the
first couple of weeks. I did much better in the assignments in this course, despite
having never taken either of these modules at Warwick, and feel that I would
have most likely passed the exams, but unfortunately I left Germany early to take
part in Warwick in Africa so didn’t actually sit them. I would highly recommend
both of these modules though and would definitely suggest taking as many
language courses as you can, as they are really useful and definitely helped
improve my German significantly.
Social scene
Göttingen is a fairly small university town, in which the students make up the
majority of the population. The nightlife is not particularly happening, but there
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are plenty of small bars and clubs, which are always packed with students, and
the Erasmus group has a strong social scene as well. Most of us spent a lot of our
weekends travelling around Germany and also to other European countries, as
with your uni card you get free travel around your state and buses across Europe
are also super cheap. I would highly recommend getting in as much travelling as
you can, it’s one of the best opportunities you’ll have to do so and those
weekends away are some of the memories I most cherish from my year abroad. I
also joined a few trips run by the Outdoor Society, about the only society to exist
in the entire university, which was really nice as I got to see many local towns
and parts of the countryside I would probably never have chosen to go to myself.
Getting a bike
I would definitely recommend getting a bike whilst you are in Göttingen. Don’t
buy one new, there are plenty of people selling them at the beginning of each
semester (especially if you join the Erasmus page on Facebook) and the
university also hold several second hand bike sales. Bikes do get stolen quite
regularly, so the general advice is to get a cheap bike but a decent lock!
Buddy system
Before arriving at Göttingen I was offered the choice of having a ‘Buddy’ pick me
up from the station, or of finding my own way there. I opted for a ‘Buddy’ and it
was definitely one of the best decisions of my year. Arriving in a foreign country
is pretty nerve-wracking and having someone to drop you off at your halls and to
ask questions to over the first few days is a great help. I ended up becoming
really good friends with my buddy she was the link to me becoming really good
friends with a whole group of German students in my second semester.
Tandem partner
One of the things that Göttingen University also offers to students is the
opportunity to find a tandem partner. The idea of a tandem is that you are paired
up with a German student, wishing to improve their English. You usually meet
once a week, often at the Mensa (a huge and amazing canteen) and talk for half
an hour in English and then half an hour in German. I initially shied away from
this scheme, thinking it sounded rather awkward and forced. However, as a
favour to my buddy, I ended up agreeing to do a tandem with a friend of hers
who was struggling with his English course and was desperately looking for
someone English to chat with. This was without doubt the best decision of my
year! Not only did it significantly improve my German and my confidence in
speaking it, but within a couple of weeks (by this point, I have to admit, I was
pretty determined to finally make some German friends to speak to) I was
immersed in his entire friendship group and they became the people I spent
pretty much my entire second semester with.
Summary
If you’re still debating doing a year abroad, all I can say is definitely do it! Whilst
it wasn’t all plain sailing and it definitely took me a while to settle in, by the end
of the year I was not ready to leave at all and I’d happily have stayed another
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year! It was sad that many of my friends graduated from Warwick whilst I was
abroad, but having been back to visit several times during the year and now
being back for my final year, I can confirm that life at Warwick will stay pretty
much the same as when you left and you get the added bonus of having had an
incredible year meeting so many new people and experiencing so many exciting
things! Being in another country encouraged me to do tons of new things and
travel so much more than I would have done if I’d been at Warwick for the year
and I have so many friends now who really regret not having taken a year abroad
while they could! You’ll remember your Erasmus year for years to come and
make friends for life, several of my friends from Germany have already come
over to visit me since I left and I’ve already got a trip planned to go back to the
Christmas markets in December!