How often does anyone get the chance to live a truly memorable and unique experience that they can treasure for the rest of their lives?  Once a week?  Once a month?  Or maybe even longer.  However, making life-changing memories, experiencing myriad cultures and meeting a whole host of new people with their own stories to tell is the daily norm when you learn a language, especially when you get the chance to live abroad.  Having just finished a year studying in Frankfurt, I am thrilled to share my own experiences and hopefully encourage everyone to take the leap and enjoy any and all time in a foreign country.

My name is Euan O’Neill and I have the privilege of taking on the role of German Editor for the UOB Linguist Magazine this year.  Having studied German since year 7, I was very excited by the prospect of living in Germany for a year.  I had read all the textbooks, seen the pictures and watched the videos, but nothing could have prepared me for the real thing.  As soon as I arrived in Frankfurt I was instantly surrounded by large skyscrapers, contrasting against the beautiful, traditional old town.  There were people drinking beer around wooden tables, and stalls selling pretzels, bratwurst and almost any German speciality you could think of.  It was everything I had wanted to see and more.  I had just about built up the courage to go order myself a currywurst from one of the stalls, fearing at the time that I wouldn’t understand a word of German and all the vocabulary would just fall out of my head.  I’ll admit it… I don’t think I had a clue what was said in that exchange, it was such an out-of-body experience speaking German to a real German!  However, what surprised me was how quickly I was able to adapt and how easy it was to find my feet with the language and the culture – it just took some guts to get going!

Daily, there were memories to be made and new experiences to absorb, whether they were traditionally German or if they came from the people I met while out there.  I was lucky enough to make a group of friends from across Europe, spanning Sweden, France, Slovenia and Turkey, to name a few.  To learn from them and dip your toe into all of those different cultures was incredible and certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Having said all this, the pick of the bunch in terms of experiences has got to be attending the world-famous Frankfurt Christmas Market.  This one was certainly a step above the Birmingham Christmas Market – to say the least.  The heart of Frankfurt’s old town was packed to the rafters with a mix of locals, students and tourists from all corners of the world who had come to see the plethora of stalls offering beer, mulled wine, oh and chocolate – lots of chocolate.  This experience epitomised what it meant to be a language student: all the effort put into learning culminated in this truly mind-blowing spectacle.  I hope all of you reading will have the chance to experience it for yourselves!

Euan O’Neill