It’s Hogmanay, and as it has become a tradition, I’m recapping the linguistic adventures I have been on this year! It has been a pretty big year for me, and truth be told, I feel like I started uni in March rather than last October because my uni life only genuinely started after I attended an event at the end of March! Overall, this year has been quite successful in German and uni. Let’s look back at what I have done in 2024!
I started the year on a high by winning my second award for my skills in the German language. I had to go to Manchester for the ceremony. This was an adventure in itself because I had never been to Manchester before. The ceremony was my first black-tie event, so I had the opportunity to be as glamorous as I wanted to be! I was only told that I had been nominated for the award, so when I was invited up to accept the award along with all the other candidates from my category, it was a very proud moment, even if I did lose track of my trophy during the evening!
In March, I had my first opportunity to show off my impressive German skills to the OU community by attending the German Day School held at Edinburgh Napier University. I almost didn’t go because of shyness. In hindsight, I am delighted that I did, in fact, go because not only did I end up meeting my now best friend Chloe, but I also found out that I could study all the German modules first instead of alternating between German and the other language that I choose to study! This wasn’t even the best part of the Day School! As well as Chloe, I met two other delightful people. Firstly, I met a lovely lady who has supported and championed me ever since. She even fixed a problem I was having with the module I was studying at the time! Because of Sylvia, I have had many more opportunities this year than I had last year. The second person who I met was the lady who would become my tutor for the module I’m studying now. Kim was instantly excited by my gift from the moment she heard me speak German and we got on well at the Day school so it was arranged that I would be put in her tutor group this year. I have noticed that she really wants to get things right for me, and being in her group has made me more confident. Not with German, I was always confident with that, but socially. I have been going to tutorials and posting on the tutor group forum, none of which I did last year!
In July my 4 year dream came true when I finally got to go to Germany! Studying in Jena was absolutely awesome! Not only did I get to study German for a week in a real classroom but I also got a lot of opportunity to practice my German in the wild! I was the youngest in the group by several decades and it wasn’t absolutely accessible but I had such a great time that neither of these things particularly bothered me and in January I am going to sign up to go again! Studying a foreign language in a country where the language is actually spoken is an amazing opportunity for any language student and the German landscape is very pretty so I’m very keen to go back! The majority of the access issues were because I signed up about 6 weeks before the trip so if I sign up next month, when applications open, then it should be better.
I can’t remember most of September and October due to personal issues but at some point during this time, the university made me a poster girl by writing an article about me and my German skills! This was the second time an educational institution had written about me. In the first half of secondary school, I had a maths teacher who called me a “trailblazer”. This was before I had discovered my gift, but I guess she saw the remarkability in me early.
I ended the year with a bang by being asked to contribute to a meeting next month. At first, I was a bit concerned because the thought of speaking in front of not just tutors but also important people in the university’s school of languages, but now I am very excited about this opportunity because not every 21-year-old gets to do something as high fallooting as this?!
Next year is going to be the start of my final German module. I am very sad about this but I still have 10 months before I have to face this depressing reality so I plan to enjoy the rest of my current module and just play dumb regarding this. I have already booked myself onto next year’s Day School because I found it really fun this year. Also, I am looking forward to going back to Jena! Perhaps I will also be able to explore a different area of Germany while I am there. I might also ask Chloe to do some Spanish revision with me ahead of me starting beginners’ Spanish in 2026. However, I do believe that German will forever be my favourite language!
The Non Verbal Linguist 