Student Name: Kirsty Weakley
Degree Course: History
Erasmus Host University: Université d'Angers
Dates: September 2006 - January 2007

Quite honestly I am not entirely sure why I decided to take part in the Erasmus exchange programme.  Not being a languages student I was not required to take part – some family and friends even thought I had gone a little bit mad for deciding to do so!  The only reason I can really think of is that I have always wished to travel more, and feeling cheated by not having a gap year, the Erasmus semester abroad idea felt too good to pass up.  I expected the experience would not just improve my French language skills but would broaden my horizons and give me the opportunity to really immerse myself in the French culture. 

 

Having A-levels in French and German I had the choice between France and Germany, aside from the obvious advantages of good wine and pains au chocolat, I have always felt more comfortable with the French language and pace of life.  As for my choice of Angers university, educational and cultural concerns played a part in my decision.  My department at Swansea had already sent a student there so I felt more comfortable and secure knowing that there was already an established academic relationship between the two departments.  The fact that Angers was a relatively big, historic French town in the Loire Valley, a place I had visited and loved on a family holiday, was also important to me as I felt it was somewhere I could feel at home. 

 

Naturally I also assumed that I would get the opportunity to learn history from a different point of view and be able to bring these back into how I look at British history and how I approach essays in Swansea.  I was obviously concerned by the prospect of non native speaker at the university and how this could impact on my ability to learn and contribute in lectures and seminars.  The practicalities, such as washing, shopping and public transport, also worried me in the lead up to my departure from England.

 

Academically I found the structure and content of lectures and seminars differed significantly from my experiences in Swansea.  The most striking difference was that there was very little choice in terms of modules and that the length of all lectures was two hours – which was hard to get use to at first.  The other striking difference in terms of content was the spread of periods of history, with students having to take courses in ancient, medieval, early modern and modern history, which was hard to get my head around at first as in the United Kingdom ancient history is virtually a separate subject and is treated as such by universities and most students are able to avoid time frames or subjects which do not interest them. 

 

Another significant difference was the methods of assessment.  Angers relied heavily on oral assessment – with either the coursework being an oral presentation or the exam being an oral one.  Again this quite a shock to me as in Swansea, although we do oral presentations they are not an assessed piece of work.  Although initially this seemed like the hardest thing to do as a foreign student, it was actually a really good experience as it gave me the opportunity to use language that is not general conversational practice in a useful and rewarding way whilst further building my knowledge of French and history.

 

Historically the biggest advantage of learning in another institution was the benefit of a different, fresh perspective on certain aspects of history.  This was particularly noticeable in the module that I took on the Britain and the English Civil War.  The ability to look at events and historiography differently is an important one in history and I certainly feel that this was developed by studying English and British history from this viewpoint and is hopefully a skill which I will bring back to my studies this year in Swansea.

 

On a slightly negative note I found that the library and internet access was nothing like as good as in the UK.  It came as a big surprise to find out that the library closed in the weekends and on Sundays meaning that I had to be a bit more organised when it came to research and revision.  The internet was also much slower and more temperamental than I am used to in Britain and there was no wireless internet in the halls (only five dinosaur computers that was often a queue for) and no large computer hall in the library. 

 

One of the most important things that I feel I got out of the experience was the confidence, not only in terms of language but the whole experience of managing by myself and not being able to expect parents or other family members to turn up and fix anything.  I also feel that as a result of this new found confidence I have matured a lot and am more prepared to face the world of work next September.

 

What really mad the experience so special and enjoyable was the people I met and the friends I made.  The two week French language and culture course for exchange students was a fantastic opportunity to get to know loads of people from across the world that all had a common interest in languages.  It was most embarrassing to discover that lots of the Europeans were there to learn French as their third language as they could already speak English better than I can!  This really brought it home to me how much we as a nation still have to do in terms of modern languages education.

 

Although I had been on family holidays to France so was aware of the differences in culture it was not until I lived there it was possible to really embrace it.  The slower, more leisurely pace of life is something that I could really get used to.  The pride and time taken in meal times was a major feature of the way of life in France.  Although this did mean that the working day could start at 8am and not finish until 7pm with shops shutting for lunch it did mean that unlike in the UK everyone was practically forced to take a break for lunch.

 

Another major feature was the real sense of the town community and local festivals.  The second week we were there was the annual local festival and it was amazing to see the amount of effort, time and planning that had obviously been put into this outdoor street event, last years theme was ‘la ville en rose’ so there was pink everywhere – it just is not something that you see in Britain (possibly because if we tried it would rain and wash everything away). 

 

Life experiences and learning experiences have always been inextricably linked, right from those first few days at primary school – what happens in one naturally impacts on the other.  My experiences in Angers are no different and although it is not always completely obvious how the social and cultural aspects are linked to the academic ones, indeed it is sometimes the case that too many social and cultural experiences are detrimental to academic achievement.  Being an exchange student we were lucky enough to have some cultural activities organised for us, for example trips to chateaux, Paris and Mont-St-Michel which are an obvious link but there are also the life skills needed to go shopping, fix any problems and understand what was happening in the world around me of course added to the quality and quantity of my French so in that respect I could not help but absorb new information constantly.

 

Overall the experience both of a different university and the French town and culture was fantastic – I learnt many things that simply could not be learnt on a holiday.  I feel I have developed both socially and academically and am now much more mature.  The experience also proved to me that, I do definitely want to go into some sort of career that involves travel or working with the international community when I graduate at the end of the year.