Canterbury tales (sort of)

When I heard last year that I would be going to the University of Kent as an exchange student, I nearly jumped out of my skin. I was going to live in England, and more precisely in Canterbury – at only 40 miles from London. Phew! Unbelievable. A dream come true. Studying English in England’s garden was the opportunity of a lifetime.

University of Kent is situated on a hill at two miles from Canterbury’s city centre. From the campus grounds, there is a wonderful view of Canterbury Cathedral. The campus is surrounded by open green spaces, fields and woods. It is self-contained which means that on campus you can find just about everything you need such as a theatre, cinema, library, bookshop, sports centre, laundrettes, an off-license, cashpoints, two nightclubs, pubs, restaurants and co-operative shops. In the first few weeks, this seems wonderful but after a while you feel cut off from the rest of the world. You get fed up with eating the same food from the same shop and the same dishes from the same menu whatever the restaurant. You feel like a fish in a bucket. But luckily, the city of Canterbury is nearby like a breath of fresh air.

The University of Kent is organised to perfection. As an exchange student, you can count on finding accommodation on campus which isn’t that simple as campus accommodation is reserved for freshers and off-campus housing is difficult to find. First, the university invites you to an induction week. On the very day you arrive, you may register and get your keys in a matter of minutes. Students wait for you so as to show you where you can find your room on this huge campus. In your room, a notice already awaits, explaining how to connect to the internet and providing other useful information. In the same week, you get a library tour which should later turn out to be very useful. The European office invites you to an international students’ dinner and organises a trip to Leeds Castle. So when the term eventually starts a week later, you can find your way around and everything seems to be already familiar to you. Everything just seems to go on smoothly. I admire the way everything is organised.

However, everything wasn’t as wonderful as it might have looked; for instance, the choice of the courses. Before registering, I had a look at the online catalogue. 41 literature courses were offered for stage 2 and 3 students. But after having excluded the courses not organised on that year and those only available at the spring term or assessed by means of an exam, only nine courses could be attended. Why did I eliminate courses assessed through an exam? Well, simply because as a one-term exchange student, you are allowed to keep your accommodation until December 30. The exams are organised in January which implies that you‘ll need to come back for them. With a Eurostar ticket at around 150 euros – that is, if you make an early reservation – and on top of that a bed and breakfast to rent, this exam session would turn out to be very expensive.

Most modules at University of Kent are worth 15 ECTS, which implies that with one linguistic course and one literature course you are already above the 22 credits required by the FUNDP. But of course, you think that this is a one in a lifetime opportunity to study English with the English in England, so you go ahead. A module usually comprises one hour of lecture and two hours of seminar. And multiplied by two, that makes six hours a week of lectures and seminars. Wow! Only six hours. Blimey, this is going to be a holiday, isn’t it? With plenty of time to socialise, visit London, and meander through the UK. Well, don’t even dream about it. They keep you busy with a massive amount of reading. So, instead of having a drink in the pub and trying to connect with the locals, you find yourself in your tiny room calculating how many pages you have to read per hour in order to finish your weekly novel in four days. You’re doing ‘time management’ because you also have to find three other days to read the articles for the linguistic course. And you want to stay ahead because you know that the deadline for the essays is fast approaching and that they will require a lot of your time, too. Of course, university is not play school. We can all agree on that one. So, let’s just say that it has been a ‘challenging and arduous’ process.

It was a bit disappointing to have so few opportunities to meet a representative of the local population. The English are friendly and polite but reserved (or maybe they just don’t dare to go out because of their safety phobia; never in my life have I seen so many warnings related to safety). However, despite not being able to socialise much with the locals, I really was lucky. I got to know two American mature students whom I met once or twice a week. Thanks to them, I had ample opportunities to speak English, which were essential for improving my conversational skills. Moreover, I shared a house with four Canadians and a British student. I was also able to go to London a few times, see the Grayson Perry Exhibition, admire the Rosetta stone and attend an unconventional performance of Romeo and Juliet on campus.

All things considered, this Erasmus exchange remains a wonderful opportunity. It allowed me to get acquainted with another academic system, culture and way of life, not forgetting that this experience will only improve my CV. Most importantly, it helped boost my level of English. I had first thought that I haven’t yet made enough progress in English until one day I burst out laughing while watching a TV programme. There were some funny puns and all of a sudden it dawned on me that I was able to understand every word. I no longer needed the subtitles! Of course, there is still a long long way to go and perhaps I may never be able to master the English language as well as I’d like to. Nevertheless, I think that this experience has given me confidence about my English language skills as well as the conviction that I’ll be a better teacher for it.

Safety phobia

Belgo American society (3 members only)

'Hey, what’s up dude?'

It’s time I tell you what happened to me in Maastricht from September to December. I reassure you, I will not tell anything special or tragic, I will just comment my stay as it actually was. I will begin with a little footnote, I’m REALLY BAD at remembering exact dates so be indulgent please ;)

You first have to know that I took the advice of a former student of our beloved faculty (namely Nolan Henno): I decided to choose the Guesthouse as accommodation. I’m actually joking, I didn’t “decide” to go and live there but it was the only opportunity I had! I must admit that I don’t regret this accommodation at all (even though it was quite expensive… Sorry dad!) because I got on VERY WELL with my flatmates and it made my stay extremely pleasing. Unfortunately, no one of my flatmates was fluent in Dutch: there were 2 Canadians (married for 3 years!!!), 1 Swedish guy, I Polish girl and last but not least an Irish girl. I have to admit that it took me something like 2-3 weeks before I managed to understand everything the Swedish guy said. He spoke so fast and he mumbled so much! But still I appreciated him a lot J

Let’s come back to the language-thing. As I said earlier and quite worryingly as it sounds, I spoke more English than Dutch there. But it doesn’t mean that I didn’t speak any Dutch at all! In order to do some sport, I decided to buy the UM sportcard. Unfortunately and it disappointed me a lot, they don’t offer table tennis… I thus chose badminton and basketball and I really enjoyed both of them. I especially enjoyed to play badminton with Morgane Hazard (who is not a bad player at all ^^). There, I spoke with the other students in Dutch and I tried to do it as much as I could (which was still not as much as I expected…). You are certainly asking yourself, why the hell didn’t he speak to the Dutch students? I will answer you then, THEY ARE FU***** DISTANT! Like a lot of other Erasmus students have said, it’s really hard to get in touch with them and to try to see them outside the tutorials and lectures. They rather stay with their friends (mostly Dutch ones) and the Erasmus ones stay together. In this way, I spoke English MUUUUUCH more, which is not so bad after all.

I haven’t talked about the university buildings and their easy access yet! I will first mention the university library because it’s the building that surprised the most. First of all, you can enter the library WITH your bag and jacket (which is a VERY good point in comparison to our dear BUMP…). Secondly, the open times are much more convenient there: from 9am to midnight (during the weekend as well!!!).  Last but not least, even though I don’t want to sound arrogant I think that many students will agree with me: the women working at the entrance of the BUMP are really not what we can call friendly. In Maastricht, the opposite is true: they answer you with the smile on the face and are always ready to help you if you don’t know how to find a book and borrow it (true experience!). As far as the faculties are concerned, I could say that they are all well pointed out in the city and they offer facilities such as bike-garage, student card that you can top up with credit to print files, rooms full of high-tech computers and so on. To sum up, UM offers you everything you need!

I will now briefly describe the courses I followed there and how I enjoyed myself there (the second point is very important ^^). From September to October I followed the course Globalization and Inequality, taught by professor Wiebe. I must admit that I didn’t have a lot of course hours a week (only 6) but there was still quite much to do.  As it was explained by former students, Maastricht uses the PBL system as education method and I found it very rewarding. You had to prepare the tutorials in advance (sooooo much reading…) and you discuss in class what you’ve read. At the end of October I had my first exam in an enormous lecture theatre, which surprised me a lot. From November to December I followed my second course called Cultureel Pluralisme which was taught in Dutch by professor Verouden (yeaaaah I practiced my Dutch ^^). I must admit that I didn’t enjoy it so much. The themes tackled during the tutorials were interesting but every tutorial was a kind of chaos because there was no line to follow, no learning goal (thus everyone spoke when they felt like they wanted to speak…). The schedule was the same as the previous course: 6 hours a week with quite less work to do this time. At the end of December I had to hand in my final paper. What about parties in Maastricht? I don’t want to keep it for myself, student life in Maastricht sucks! I mean, there is no place in the city where all the students can gather (like our dear bunker^^) except a student pub called The Highlander. It doesn’t mean though that I didn’t party a few times, of course! I rather went to jam sessions or squat parties with my flatmates and I had a really good time with them J Apart from partying, I also visited some buildings like the former church which is now a beautiful bookshop called Selexyz, the parcs of the city and I also window-shopped (you can’t live in Maastricht and not do that).

What can I say more? Mmmmh… I LOVED USING MY BIKE!!! I will miss Albert Heijn, people shouting in the street ‘Je rijdt verkeerd hoor’, my flatmates, the library, the squat parties, my studentroom, RTL 8, the radio in Dutch every morning when I woke up and I felt like I got lost, the showers with the hot water going up 80°C and many any other things…

Maastricht I love you and I will come back once, I promise <3

Utrecht in your pocket

Let us write a few words about Utrecht and the five months I spent at Utrecht University. To all students who are excited about going on an Erasmus trip next year, I would advise you to think a lot about it and to not make up your mind too fast about the place you would like to go. This is a very important decision you have to take! Studying abroad offers you the possibility to choose among a range of courses you would not be offered at your home university. I chose Talen in Contact (7.5ECTS), American Literature and Culture (7.5ECTS) and Taalvariatie en Taalverandering (7.5ECTS). The names may not be very evocative but the content of these courses certainly helps increasing your knowledge in linguistics, language acquisition, American literature and culture and acquiring experience in sociolinguistic experiments. Moreover, you will find kind and very competent teachers as well as a “studentbegeleider” ready to help you getting in touch with the Utrechtian academic life.

The Domtoren (view from the V&D restaurant)

I would also advise you to sign up for the activities organized by Erasmus student organizations like ESN. You will have the opportunity to get mentors: usually two Dutch people who will organize activities to meet people coming from all over the world! However, you have to know that the Dutch academic system has been arranged in a way that the only days free you have to visit the Netherlands and to go out is the weekend. Indeed, you attend classes for the same course during a few weeks – usually eight or nine. It goes on very fast and you have a lot more work to do on your own. During our leisure time we visited cities in the Netherlands but there are also a few places in Utrecht and in the neighborhood that are really worth visiting: the Domtoren, the flower market and a few museums in town and Kasteel de Haar in Haarzuilens. Utrecht is a typical and amazing Dutch city located in the centre of the Netherlands. Tourists really appreciate Utrecht because it is a famous historical place and there are hundreds of shops!

Whether you choose Nijmegen, Maastricht or Utrecht, you will have to get used to a typical way of life that could be summarized in a few words: bicycles, flowers, AH, canals. Typical Dutch cities are not Dutch if there are no canals, bikes, flower markets or Albert Heijn. Under the category ‘way of life’ falls the food as well. Bring Belgian food as much as possible … This is all I have to say, except for two Dutch specialties: cheese and stroopwafels.

Flower market in Utrecht

Canals at night in Leiden

The Netherlands is a very close country and we may think people are the same as the Flemish people, or the Belgian people in general. After a few weeks, you will see that we are totally different and this a good reason to try as much as possible to meet Dutch people and to have a chat and a cup of coffee with them. Once you come back in Belgium, you feel proud to have improved you ability to understand the Dutch accent … and to imitate it as well! One thing you have to know – but you probably already do – is that Dutch people often switch to English. It happens after 3 seconds when they have detected that your pronunciation was not a Dutch one. And then comes what you wanted to hear from them: “jij spreekt Vlaams!” Do not hesitate to emphasize that you are not a Flemish but a French-speaking Belgian! They will be impressed by your language skills and just laugh a bit at your “lief” accent. Carry on with your conversation in Dutch, even if they still answer you in English.

Your daily contact with the English language will be enough especially if you sign up for courses taught in English or if you rent a SSH room and live with international students. Living with international students is a good opportunity to discover other cultures, but you are in the Netherlands to discover the Dutch culture and not the Spanish, Australian or Chinese one. You will often meet these people at the faculty or at parties for international students that are organized at Poema and during which you will share with them your experience as an international student. To find an accommodation shared with Dutch students has to be a priority when you are on Erasmus in Utrecht and that you want to be in contact with the Dutch language. If not, try to have enough courses in Dutch. You will notice that your Dutch and your English may have improved when you come back in Belgium, but the most important and striking improvement is, according to me and other Erasmus students, the self-confidence and the fluency you acquire when you speak in Dutch or English.
Such an experience offered me the opportunity to attend very interresting classes, to meet Dutch and international students and to discover their culture.
Mission accomplished :-)

Emmanuel
Erasmus student in Utrecht

Sedes sapientiae

- Hi! Welcome in Leuven! Are you an Erasmus student?

- Well yes, I answered.

- And where do you come from?

- Try to guess…

- USA? England? Germany? France? … I don’t know!

- Belgium.

- What??!! Is that possible??

I think I have answered this question 8576 times since I first came to Leuven on September the 10th. Students seemed not to understand why I had chosen to stay in Belgium. Even if Leuven is still in Belgium, it is completely different from Namur.

The first reason why I chose Leuven instead of Nijmegen – which was for a long time my first choice – is that I really wanted to be able to understand dialects in Dutch. However, I must confess it is still hard to understand West-Vlaams or any other dialect. The second reason is that I wanted to be sure to speak Dutch, and not English. As we all know, the Flemish people are proud of their language, which is why they do not switch to English (like in the Netherlands) if they see that Dutch is not your mother tongue. The third reason why Leuven was my first choice is simply because of the university’s status. The K.U. Leuven is the largest university in Belgium with roughly 40 000 students. Bart De Moor, the vice rector of the International Office, told us that there had never been so many students studying at the K.U.L. since its establishment in 1425. Moreover, in the 2011-2012 university ranking, Leuven is ranked 17^th in Europe and 67^th in the world!

> Grote Markt (Google)

In order to make sure I would speak Dutch, I lived for five months in a house with four other Flemish students. I spoke Dutch every single day! Nevertheless, I also spoke English with Erasmus students (and even Spanish and Turkish!). English was the Lingua Franca in parties. And there were a lot of parties everyday all over the city! The funny thing is that parties in Leuven are totally different from parties in Namur. Whereas in Namur you have to wear a “space suit” in order not to be too dirty in the bunker, you can go to parties in Leuven (TD) with your most beautiful suit! And once you leave the party, you do not have to run or to ask somebody to walk you back home because you feel unsafe. Leuven is one of the safest cities in Belgium. I have never seen such a safe city! That is why the only dangerous things in town after a party are the pigeons (even if it’s really scary for some people ;-) ) and drunk bike riders (erm…).

> Grote Markt (Google)

The city itself is picturesque with its Old City Hall on the Grote Markt next to the Sint-Pieterskerk and its MANY bars and pubs on the Oude Markt, and the Central Library on the Ladeuzeplein. I could compare Leuven with Brussels: indeed, Leuven is a much smaller version of Brussels with a very old centre (the Grote Markt) and a ring road (de Leuvense ring).

> Leuven (Do not mind the cursor :-P, Google map)

Let us now discuss my courses in Leuven. Of course, I was in the Faculty of Arts (Faculteit Letteren). We had a huge list of courses, but I took only 5 of them : Populaire genres (Dutch), Engelse literatuur II: Engelstalige literatuur van 1800 tot heden (English), Engelse taalkunde III: grondige vraagstukken: diachroon – theoretisch (English), Sociolinguïstiek (Dutch) en Nederlandse literatuur III: 20ste eeuw (Dutch). All of them were really interesting. However, I have the duty to tell you that the Sociolinguïstiek exam was very difficult but the course was one of the most interesting. Each professor was friendly (but not as friendly as our teachers in Namur) and answered our e-mails very quickly.

For those interested in studying at the K.U. Leuven next year, I would say three things:

1. Take your time to look for the courses available in the university. Some courses are not taught every year.

2. Try to find a student room where there are Flemish students and not only Erasmus students, otherwise you will not speak Dutch at all!

3. Do not be afraid of the Flemish people! They will not speak spontaneously to you as we do in Wallonia, but once you begin to talk with them, there are as crazy and friendly as we are. :-)

Now that I am back in Namur, I see that I have progressed a lot (namely in Dutch). Choosing Leuven was definitely the right decision. The "Erasmus experience" helped me to gain more self-confidence, and the K.U. Leuven more general knowledge and open-mindedness. Next year, I will have to choose a university for my master, and Leuven has definitely a place in the list.

> The Central Library at Christmas. (Google)

Martin