The Non Verbal Linguist

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My Journey

I have a disability called cerebral palsy which affects my ability to speak, however I have a real talent for foreign languages. I have been speaking French since the age of ten but in February 2020 my life changed when I hired a new personal assistant who had just come over from her homeland in Germany.

I have always thought it respectful to know some of a person’s mother tongue so I took the time to learn basic German and by the time she started I knew how to do basic greetings . My new employee was quite impressed by my efforts and within two weeks of her starting, she had taught me basic commands in German such as “put the brakes on” and by that time I had to choose my subjects for my final year of high school and despite many people’s skepticism due to my lack of experience, I chose nothing but languages- Higher French, National 5 English German and Spanish….

….and then lockdown happened the very next day …

At first I was thought to be “clinically vulnerable” so apart from my personal assistant visiting three times a week, I just stayed home and didn’t go out at all for the first three weeks which was unbelievably boring until my dad recommended Rosetta Stone for me to practice my German with. Gradually, with a combination of daily Rosetta Stone lessons and frequent conversations with my German personal assistant, my German skills steadily improved and by the time I returned to school in august I almost knew as much as my classmates, most of whom had been studying German since the age of 11! The first few months I was in the middle of the class but by Christmas I was correcting my teacher and by the spring I was reading German novels as if they were in in English and frequently scoring extremely high in tests so I decided to apply to the Goethe Institut.

unfortunately the Goethe Institut is shockingly ableist and informed me that because I use a communication device, I could not participate in their classes! Even although I was extremely infuriated by the blatant ableism of the institution that I had just fallen victim to, instead of emailing the Goethe Institut a long essay on disability rights and inclusion as was suggested by a number of people that I do, I decided that my time would be much better spent applying to study higher German at college so I went onto the Edinburgh College website and filled in the application form and within 24 hours I received a conditional offer saying that if I got a B in national 5 German I would be enrolled in the course in august.

after having left school with B’s in French and Spanish and a whopping A-band-1 in German, I had truly met my condition for college but now I had two long months to wait until my course started . I soon remembered that I still had my Rosetta Stone subscription and decided to learn a bit of Italian just because I come from an Italian family and felt that learning Italian was a sensible thing to do. A few days into my Italian lessons I just happened to mention to my dance mentor I was learning Italian and just like that he offered me the mega opportunity of choreographing a warmup for his other students in Milan. I was unbelievably excited about the opportunity and immediately decided to write as I learn, after just 3 short weeks I seriously surprised myself with my talent because I had just finished a piece of proper choreography in a language that I was unable to speak the previous month!

I have genuinely no idea why someone like me is so gifted in language but I am human proof that disability is not a barrier and no matter who you are you can do anything you want to do and this blog is going to reinforce that message

e e m mcgrath

Zweittausendfünfundzwanzig

(2025)

2025 was my last full year of formal language studies! This might surprise you because I went to the Open University to study German and Spanish in order to become a modern language teacher… well, that dream wasn’t going to work because of the lack of opportunities for German teachers in Scotland so I have decided to trade my sombrero for a judicial wig and study law next year instead! (more on that later). My journey as a linguist this year has been quite interesting despite many challenges in my personal life. I have worked with totally awesome fellow linguists, advocated for the education of people with additional support needs and really upped my German study game! As per The Non Verbal Linguist Hogmanay tradition, I’m going to summarise my linguistic adventures of this year.

The year started off with the best point and the lowest point in the same day and looking back, I am very pleased that they happened in the same day because the best bit made the worst part survivable. I was invited to share my story as an OU student who has additional support needs with a selection of staff from the departments of Languages, Education and Health in my uni. This part of the day was really fun because I got to advocate for people like me while sitting next to my favourite OU person Sylvia. Unfortunately I also said my farewells to another non-verbal powerhouse on the same day 🌻 which totally broke my heart but despite the grief, I really enjoyed the roles being reversed and me teaching the lecturers for a change…and of course sitting next to the nicest German ever for 2 hours added to the enjoyment. For some years now I have been doing something similar in the world of dance so perhaps teaching inclusive teaching could be something that I do as my main job in the future.

In March I went to my penultimate OU Language and Culture Day (although at the time I just thought it was my penultimate OU German Language and Culture Day). Last year I had basically met all of my OU people at the event so it was like a big happy reunion! Moreover, I had so much more confidence compared to last year so I was able to really express my passion for the German language without fear of being seen as “too enthusiastic”, ìn fact Chloe and I sat in our matching EAT SLEEP DEUTSCH REPEAT tops and were adored and admired by everyone! I have reached the conclusion that such events are my favourite time of the whole uni year because not only do you get to speak your favourite language all day but you also get to hang out with totally awesome people like Chloe, Kim, Sylvia and Lilian!

After Language and Culture Day I had a lot of personal stuff going on and I was struggling to process everything so I decided to read the PhD work of my then tutor Kim to take my mind off everything. Kim’s first reaction when I told her what I was going to do was to tell me to go ahead but that her work wasn’t particularly interesting…I have known Kim for almost 3 years and this was the first instance since meeting her where she was totally wrong! Although the work was based around the rather dark theme of East German prisons, it was fascinating. Reading this made me think about writing my own phd someday because since I met her, Kim has really reminded me of myself (another Scottish curly-haired sarcastic German superfan) so if she can do it ‚ why can’t I put in the same effort and work and achieve the same thing?!

With this new dream in mind, I set off to Germany for the second time! First of all, I spent a few days in Berlin taking in the sights and the culture. My Sylvia used to live in this beautiful city so I felt really connected to her while I was there! Despite the cold, wet weather, I really enjoyed getting to know more about the history and culture of Germany through my extensive museum and monument visits and also discovering my passion for Wiener Schnitzel! After spending 3 days in the beautiful capital city, I then returned south to my “German home town” of Jena to take part in the same course that I took part in last year… and, as it happened, to eat MORE Schnitzel!! Even though the trip was awesome last year, I joined last minute so it wasn’t really geared up for wheelchair users. This year however, I signed up when applications opened which meant that the week was designed with wheelchair users in mind so I could participate fully in the activities. I enjoyed the whole thing but one day stood out for me. I don’t know if Germany is just a really small world or if some kind of fate is making me retrace her footsteps but for the field trip this year was to a town called Halle where, rather unbelievably, Sylvia studied! The thing is – I had known about her connection with Berlin pretty much since I met her but I only found out about her connection with Halle when I told her about the field trip so it was a huge coincidence that not only allowed me to walk where she had walked but even find out about another chapter in my treasured friend’s life!

One Friday night in late August I had a bit of an opithany! I had been feeling sad and uncomfortable about starting the Spanish part of my degree pretty much since Language and Culture Day because I love German so much and didn’t think Spanish would give me the same feeling. As I stood at the bus stop on my way back from swimming, I overheard a couple speaking Spanish and – as Angelica Schyler says in the musical Hamilton – realised 3 fundamental truths at the exact same time! #1 as I have gotten older, my extensive interest in foreign languages has been streamlined into an intensive interest in German. #2 if I were to become a traditional modern language teacher, my life would be very frustrating because I would have to teach Spanish forever as German lessons are dying out of the Scottish school system! Last and by no means least, #3 if I’m going to write a Ph.D. I will be more “valuable” anyway with or without a formal teaching license, so my studies don’t have to be restricted to just languages. At first, I was dithering between History and Law while leaning slightly towards Law (I had seen the German and Law course 3 years ago when I first joined the OU family and was VERY tempted!) but it was overhearing my aunt stressing over my grandma’s will that made me realise that the family could benefit from someone who has a little legal knowledge and ultimately pushed me over the edge and convinced me to change my degree to German and Law! If I have learned anything from the death of my friend, it is that life is short so although being a lawyer would be very cool, I am focusing on the journey instead of the destination and just going to enjoy my studies (especially telling everyone that I am a law student😀) and just see where they take me! Sometimes a lack of a plan is the best plan!

On August 26th my grandma unfortunately passed away. Ella as she was known was the only other linguist in the family and she shared my particular interest in the German language. The funeral was held on the day before the new uni year started. Although this was the first funeral that I had been to since the wee girl in January and was therefore quite triggering, I learned a couple of new things about my grandma! The first thing I found out was that she did a German degree at Edinburgh University… I found this a bit funny because as my long-term readers may know, I actually applied to do German at Edinburgh three years ago before I came to OU instead! In the last few years of her life, Ella’s health was very poor so we never got to discuss this and therefore I had absolutely no idea that I almost followed in her exact footsteps! The other very cool thing that I found out was that she used to work as something called a dramatourg. The job description of a dramatourg, as I understand it, is very cool – when a play goes to a country with a different language from the one that the one which the original play was written in, it is the job of a dramatourg to translate the script! Once again I wish I had known about this when Ella was actually alive because this sounds like one of the most interesting jobs ever!

Even though the events of the previous 9 months had left me truly worse for wear, I started my last year of German on September 5. It had been previously arranged that I would be working with Lilian (who I still maintain is the smiliest person ever) but what I hadn’t planned for was basically meeting another one of my kind! People say that I have a unique passion for language, that I describe things really poetically, that my mind works in a different way to everyone else and I get very upset if I witness someone make a mistake in German! I am very proud of these quirks but it turns out that I’m not the only one in Lillian’s group who fìts this description!

This year I joined my uni’s “German Club” to increase my exposure to the German language and culture and to mix a bit more with the OU community. Along with Chloe and a few people who I knew from my studies in Jena, there was one member who stood out to me. Right from the beginning, I could tell that Pascal was special! He regularly contributed such interesting things to the group and sparked many intelligent and often amusing discussions! We interacted a lot in this club in the month leading up to the start of term but I was too shy to ask him what module he was taking this year. It was therefore such a lovely surprise when the website for my module opened and his unique way of speaking appeared on the main module forum and even better when we got allocated our tutors and that brilliant mind of his popped up in my group!

At the start of the year, we interacted a lot on the tutor group forum but then we both became too mentally exhausted to post. I started to miss my new friend, when, just as if he had read my mind, he found my academic email address and sent me a message asking if I was still on the module. Even though he started his note by apologising for intruding, I was absolutely delighted to hear from him! Since then we have had quite the pen friendship and -we have both noticed this- it often feels like we are writing to ourselves because not only have we got a very similar writing style but we have also gone through similar things this year which have affected us similarly! I can’t believe that both of us have landed in the same tutor group!

Compared to my previous modules, I have taken a much more in-depth approach to my current module. Not only do I do almost all of the exercises but I also take notes! While I have been working on this module I have also mastered skills that I have never been able to master in English such as paraphrasing and language analysis and I often catch myself thinking in fluentGerman! My notebook is definitely the thickest it has been at this point in the year compared to both my previous years at OU. Studying has been like a haven or a respite for me this year so even though it is only halfway through the academic year, I’m already 80% through the module!

Although my language study time is mostly taken up by German, I have also started learning Russian on Duolingo! I have no concrete reason for this other than wanting to experiment to see if I can learn a language with a different alphabet (people have experimented with worse things at uni 😀). Even though the Russian lessons are few and far between, when I do practice, I regularly achieve perfect scores and I’m getting to grips with reading the new alphabet!

So what are my linguistic hopes for 2026? Well, the first thing that I would like to do is get my third OU distinction for my final German module and leave the language department on a high. It would also be cool to go back to Germany again at some point over the years and also perhaps delve deeper into the Russian language. However, I have a few other things that are going to take precedence next year so my focus is going to be less on the linguistic side of things and more on the persoal side.

In conclusion, 2025 has been a year of big decisions. I have realised that a more streamlined path is better than trying to copy Isobel exactly! I have realised more of what I want from my academic and professional life and I have done that with a bunch of lovely, supportive people surrounding me. It is no secret that I have had better years (understatement of the century) but despite that, I feel much more relaxed about my linguistic journey, whatever shape it’s going to take… it is the journey not the destination!

dedicated to Ella Wildrige

Jena 2- My German Adventure

I have just spent 2 weeks in my Geistheimatsland (spiritual home country) of Germany! I went mainly to fulfil my strong wish of studying at Friedrich Schiller University at their summer school for the second time, but I went via Berlin for a few days beforehand. Despite some drama with the infamous Deutsche Bahn, it was terrific, being immersed in German for that long, and I even acquired a new uni friend!

Although the Scots seemingly stole the warm German weather and replaced it with the cold, wet Scottish weather, Berlin was a big adventure! Firstly, we were staying at a youth hostel, which I had never done before. The first night was a bit cramped because our accessible room wasn’t available, but it was fine for what we needed once we got the correct room! Unfortunately, the same can not be said for Google Maps! For example, I wanted to go to the Brandenburg Gate on our first full day, but Google Maps led us away from it instead of to the thing!!!

In between getting incredibly lost, I learned so much about the country’s history! We went to a selection of museums, including a rather jarring exhibition called ROADS NOT TAKEN, which detailed what could have happened if different decisions had been made in German history (thank goodness other choices were made).

On our second last night in Berlin, we went to the opera! I had never been to the opera, but my old singing teacher is an opera singer, so I have been around opera people before! The opera was called Cassandra, and it was sung in English with captions in both English and German, so I kept one eye on the performance and the other on the German subtitles. The beginning was a bit scary as it was a very realistic mass death scene! However, there was a really interesting moment towards the end…

In my life, I am lucky enough to have three maternal figures- my amazing mum Sonia, Sylvia, whom I affectionately call “Uni Mutti” (uni mum) and my stepmother. The names Sonia and Sylvia can be spelt in different ways. There are people called Sonia, Sonja, and Sonya; the name Sylvia can also be spelt Silvia. In the opera, one of the characters was pregnant and was trying to think of baby girl names. I thought my eyes and ears were deceiving me when she sang “Sonia,” and the name appeared on the caption monitor, which is exactly how my mum spells it! Just as I was getting over this coincidence, the character sang “Sylvia”, and again, the familiar spelling popped up on the monitor! An opera featuring the names of two of my maternal figures being performed in my spiritual home country?! It was almost like the universe was trying to tell me something!

However, my two most “oh my goodness” moments happened at wall memorials.

One day, we went to the main wall memorial. I have been reading a lot about the wall and East Germany lately, so I know a lot about the subject. Seeing the concrete for myself and reading the plaques on the ground dedicated to the people who died made it real to me!! I have always known that Sylvia grew up in East Berlin, but seeing this has made me appreciate what she lived through!

My other poignant moment happened after visiting a more secluded wall memorial in the grounds of the Bundestag called The Parliament Of Trees. I was staying on the city’s east side and crossed a bridge into the west to investigate the curious thing I had noticed a few days ago. Half an hour later, it started to rain, so we decided to return to the hostel, only to find that history had seemingly repeated itself! Police blocked off all of the bridges back to the east, and I could not get onto the other side! As my mum sweet-talked a rather handsome policeman into letting us across the bridge, I couldn’t help but smirk at the ridiculous parallel to the history of Berlin!

The day after this rather ridiculous reenactment of German history, it was time to go to Jena! The small city made a big Impression on me last year, so I was excited to return! The train ride was a few hours, but time seemed to fly, and before I knew it, I was there! Like my home village of North Queensferry, the train station in Jena is on top of a big hill, and my hotel was at the bottom of this hill and on the other side of the city! Nobody from the course was available to help me with my suitcase, so I ended up having to push the suitcase while my mum pushed me in my wheelchair! This was quite hard work, and the muscles in my left arm ached and burned as I stopped the case from flying down the hill! To my relief, when I got onto the road on which the hotel was, a nice local student (who slightly reminded me of Lisa in a way) helped us the rest of the way!

The following morning, I arrived at the university and was welcomed by many excited students who were pleased to see me. Last year, I was the new person on the course, so it took people a while to warm up to me. Hence, it was so nice to receive such a lovely welcome back, as people told me that having my outstanding level of German in the classroom was very useful and joked with me about why I wasn’t in the top group yet! This year, a lady from my own uni called Christine would support me in class. Christine was there last year and was also in the meeting I spoke at in January, so we knew each other quite well. She is also a good colleague of my Sylvia, which I think perhaps contributed to why she took care of me so well! My lecturer this year was a lady called Regina. She was around last year, but I was not in her class, so we didn’t really interàct.

The first thing I learned in class was that Regina had quite a sense of humour!! She would come up with these one-liners, which were often accompanied by body language, which just made it funnier! She also seemed really curious about the way I communicated. She appeared impressed with the way I could type with my nose and speak it in perfect German! However, before long, I noticed someone else…

Across the room was a blonde who seemed as interested in East Germany as I was! My best friend Chloe often talks about how she knew she had to speak to me the moment she saw my silk scarf. I experienced the same feeling when I heard this woman talk so passionately about a subject I had also read widely about! At that moment, I told myself I had to make friends with this woman by the end of the holiday!!

As luck would have it, there was a spare seat next to her at dinner that night, so I got the chance to get to know her! It turns out that she used to be a language teacher just like I want to be one day! I also realised that she has the same sense of humour as I do, so we basically sat giggling over our schnitzels all evening!!

On Wednesday morning, there was a pronunciation workshop, and it was agreed that this wouldn’t be useful for me because of the way I communicate, so I got to have a one-to-one with Christine, like I did ìn the afternoons last year. The previous evening, my mum had spotted a poster about a hunger strike to free a theology student who had been studying in Jena and was arrested in Hungary for their ties with an extremist group. For this session, Christine brought along a newspaper with an article about the student. We discussed them along with a few other things. In class, I often felt a bit self-conscious speaking out loud (I don’t really know why) so it was nice to have the freedom to speak out loud without worrying about anything!

That evening me, my mum, Christine and two guys from my class whom I got to know last year went out for an impromptu meal! At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to join because the restaurant was a Vietnamese place, and I wasn’t sure if the food would be too spicy. Also, in my heart, I was in Germany, and I wanted German food. Despite my initial doubts, it was a delightful evening, and I’m thrilled I went! Last year, maybe because I was new, I didn’t get invited to anything outside the formal school timetable, meaning that I ate dinner with the entire school or on my own with no happy medium. Therefore, it was very nice just to relax and bond with a few friendly people without being absolutely surrounded by colleagues!

The next day felt quite special to me. We went on a trip to a city called Halle, and the night before, I wrote to Sylvia about this trip because I had learned that the town was in the same state as the city where she was born. To my absolute delight, I discovered she studied in this city! It felt so cool to visit another city that meant something to her! Although this was a big part of why it was special, there is another reason. A few years ago, I choreographed a dance film called Too Good For The SQA, which ended with me dancing to a Händel piece, and Halle was the birthplace of Friedrich Händel!!!

Although I have been studying and speaking German for five and a half years now, my mum has never really picked up any German words before. However, she did pìck up a few phrases in Halle. First of all, we went on a guided tour, and Julia and another woman from our class were talking and got ahead of the group, and Christine shouted “nicht so schnell!” (not so fast). Mum had learned that schnell meant fast in Berlin, so she understood what this exclamation meant! The other thing she learned is one of my favourite German phrases – “genau!” which means “exactly!’. Kim says genau a lot, so since working with her, I’ve wanted to say it every time I agree with mum, but I have had to hold back because of mum’s lack of German knowledge, so I am genuinely so pleased that she has mastered this word!

After a Czech lunch, we went to the house where Händel was born! There was some doubt as to how much of the house I would be able to access in my wheelchair but like always I proved everyone wrong and I could go into all the rooms! My favourite room was the beautiful collection of old musical instruments! The tour guide gave a demonstration of a selection of the instruments along with a very technical explanation in German of how it works. I was really surprised at how much I could actually understand!

In Halle is the world’s oldest chocolate factory which makes the famous Halloren Kügel (Halloren bullets) which are chocolate balls filled with nougat type stuff. After we went to the Händel house, we had a free hour so mum and I decided to visit the factory outlet shop. I was literally a kid in a sweet shop! There were shelves and shelves of all kinds of Kügel! For a second, I just sat there and admired the different coloured boxes, feeling like I had just been transported to Wonka’s chocolate factory, before I spotted the flavour that jumped out at me the most- salted caramel! My favourite flavour of pretty much anything!

The walk from the shop to the train station was a very wet and cold voyage, I was wearing one of Chloe’s thin summer dresses and no tights so the cold was beginning to go deep into my legs and feet! Despite being chilled to the bone, I was determined to take a picture of myself ìn the city where my dear friend had studied so that I could make Sylvia’s day! As I drew nearer and nearer to Halle Hauptbahnhof where I would meet my colleagues to get on the train, I became worried that the picture would have to be of me and the sign on the platform that said Halle! Luckily it was at this moment that my mum spotted something so curious that it was worth taking a photo of- an ice cream vending machine! I removed my hood, allowing my dark pigtails to get soaked and took a picture… the things I do for the people I love!!!

On the train back to Jena, everyone was cold and wet! I got a glimpse of Julia and her normally perfect long straight platinum hair hung in wet, stringy curls around her face as if she was just out of the shower! At this point, everything below my knee was completely numb from the cold and I was completely exhausted! Despite this, the journey was quite fun. People shared Kügel and just chatted. Last year I couldn’t do the excursion because it wasn’t wheelchair accessible and even though I enjoyed my day away from people, I’m really glad that I got to go on this year’s field trip!

The next morning I couldn’t open my eyes when my alarm went! I was completely knackered and still slightly cold from Halle! As I lay there practically unconscious for an extra hour, little did I know that I would make another step towards independence that evening!

Germany has always been good for my independence! I get to order food, organise train assistance and speak to people who mum would normally deal with in the UK. However, up until now, my mum has always accompanied me to every evening activity. On this evening we would go to the cinema on the market square to watch a German-language film. Since the start of the week, it was clear that the film would have subtitles but it wasn’t clear what language the subtitles would be in until Friday. Upon hearing at lunchtime that the subtitles would be in German, mum asked me if I would be comfortable just getting dropped off at the cinema and just watching the movie with my colleagues and her coming to pick me up at the end of the film. My heart soared! I’m 22 now and I want more independence but I have never been trusted like THIS! I said that it would be absolutely fine as long as she let Christine know and I started to really look forward to my little bit of independence!!!

That afternoon Julia and I were sitting in German poetry class, she asked me if I was going to the cinema later and laughed at how proudly I said “ja, aber Mama nicht!” (”yes but not mum!”). She could tell by the massive proud grin on my face that this was a big deal for me!

That night my mum left me with Christine and the leader of the course Polina. I was feeling really proud of myself for being so independent! I left the rest of the school to go down the stairs and Polina and I went to get the lift. In German the word for lift is “Aufzug” which literally translates to “up train” and given the state of German trains, it was hardly surprising when the lift did not work! The man who worked at the cinema kept pressing the call button but nothing was happening! Eventually, he figured out that it would work if he went downstairs and rode it up from there! Unfortunately for me and Polina, this was when we discovered that the light above us was motion-activated so every 2 minutes we had to take it in turns to jump so it went back on again!

Thankfully, Regina waited until I was downstairs before she played the film. It was a comedy about the week before the Ostmark was abolished. Even though the subtitles were in German, they didn’t quite match what the characters were saying which bugged me a lot! I did enjoy the film despite this mild annoyance. However, sitting in a dark room after a long busy week studying is not the best idea so I only saw three quarters of the movie before I fell fast asleep!!

I awoke confused and disoriented with Christine standing in front of me. The lights were on and it was time to go home! Groggily, I rubbed my eyes and sat myself up in my chair as Christine welcomed me back! Once I had my bearings back, she helped me out of the cinema room and into the foyer where my mum was waiting! Although I had fallen asleep, I was super proud of myself for managing this!

My final full day in my beloved Germany turned out to be extremely stressful! First of all, I was nearly late to class and only made it by a minute! I thought that this would be the drama for the day…oh how wrong I was…

At break time, my mum came in looking very worried! She told me that our train journey that we would take the train journey the following day had been cancelled! My mind raced, I was expected at a dance event on the Monday so I simply had to travel home within the proceeding 36 hours! Mum was trying to give me instructions but I couldn’t process them through my own racing thoughts! I didn’t hear anything that Regina said between break and lunch! My brain was trying to process all this stress!

Me, mum and Christine spent the lunch break sitting in my classroom on the phone. Christine was playing advocate for my mum because the English-speaking department of Deutsche Bahn was closed by this time. As Christine talked on the phone, I followed the conversation and every time it would start sounding like we were getting out of the country, a problem would be found and the journey would be scrapped! After a few cycles of this, we decided to try travelling that evening! In my heart, I didn’t want to do this because it would mean that I would miss the graduation evening and therefore not have the chance to say goodbye to Julia but I understood that this was potentially the only option so I didn’t protest!

After lunch, Christine disappeared to another room to continue her argument with Deutsche Bahn! My body was still in the classroom but my brain was trying to grapple with the very real possibility that I might just have to make a sudden exit without any proper goodbyes! At one point, I actually had to ask the Scottish guy next to me what we were meant to be doing! It was a mere five minutes later when Christine came in, gave me a thumbs up and whispered “ihr reist ganz früh morgen ab!” (”you are leaving really early tomorrow morning!”). I could have hugged that woman!

Right at the end of the day Regina presented me with a box of Halloren Kügel for being so inspiring! I didn’t quite know what to say but I was extremely touched! I had only known this woman for six days but I had managed to make an Impression on her! I sort of felt bad for my colleagues because they were watching me get this special treatment but I found this small gesture extremely sweet!

At the graduation evening, Julia and I sat together filling the room with hysterical laughter! I remember last year, I couldn’t sit with the friends that I had made at the graduation evening because I couldn’t access the table where they were sitting so it was so nice to be able to just eat with my friend! It was a buffet dinner and everyone just seemed to get on. Quite a few people asked me if I wanted to come back next year. Although last year was amazing, I feel like this year was even better so I concluded that yes, I would like to go back next year and every single year that I am able to!

In conclusion, my 2 weeks in Germany were very fun! I don’t know whether I learned more in or out of the classroom but I did obtain a lot of new knowledge about the German language and hist. It was my longest holiday and so it’s quite fitting that this is my longest article! I can’t wait to visit my geistheimatsland soon!

Eilidh Elizabeth Molly Mcgrath 💜

Uni 4

Wednesday was a very special day in my uni life. I decided to mark my 22nd birthday by submitting my final essay for the year! This means that I have now finished the second level of German and only have one year of German to go before I start my Spanish adventure! Level 2 German has been a blast, and I have grown so much as a person on the module!

This year has been fun despite my illness at the start of the year and the loss of a childhood friend in January. I got to work with a great tutor I met at last year’s German Conversation Day. I have really enjoyed working with Kim. It is pretty weird because she is, in many ways, quite similar to me. We are both from Scotland with dark curls and a love for swimming and the German language. On top of this, we have a similar sense of humour, which has made me feel comfortable in the module! This has encouraged me to put in 100% effort. Last year, I didn’t attend any of my German lectures or participate in forum discussions because I felt uncomfortable with my tutor. Yet, this year, I have been the loudest on the tutor group forum and have not scored below 82% in any assignment. I have gone to almost all of my lectures, including one on a lady called Elisabeth Graul, who was a prisoner in East Germany… this was not even part of my module; I just went because Kim was hosting it . It seemed interesting… this kind of led me down my own wee reading tangent on East Germany which has been really fun !

The one thing that I wasn’t really looking forward to this year was the compulsory online “Residential School” that I had to do in March. Since registering for the module, I had been a bit nervous and reluctant to do it because the thought of spending 3 days on video calls for 4-5 hours with someone who wasn’t even my own tutor seemed a bit overwhelming ! However, to my relief, I was assigned to Lilian who, if you have read my last article Day School 2- Conversation Day, you will remember as the smiley Austrian ! Having her for this intense weekend made it seem like less of an impossible task and even quite enjoyable ! It was still very tiring and so intense that I actually have no recollection of any dinner that my mum made me that weekend ! But I was able to participate in it without any major problems ! At the end of my last day, I actually had to send an email to Sylvia, apologising for being so dramatic about it !

This year I have had a whole team of great women behind me ! First of all, as well as the lovely Kim as my tutor, me and Sylvia have just grown closer and closer ! When I get a grade for an assignment, she is the first person I tell ! Also, I have invented a kind of pet name for her which I call her pretty much all the time (except in front of the bosses) and when she sees me in real life, she can’t help but hug and kiss me like crazy ! Next, I now have a proper older sister in Chloe! I am not the most graceful of eaters and this usually makes me a bit self conscious. However, when I eat with Chloe, I don’t feel even slightly insecure, the woman just takes me as I am ! At my birthday party on Sunday, she even got my eating equipment out for me so I could have my cake in the most dignified way possible ! None of my friends have helped me in this way before ! Also, She always makes me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world at all times and so I try to repay her by helping her with her German ! Finally my student mentor from last year, Aoife, has kept in touch ! Although her language-learning journey is going in a different direction from mine, she was a massive help when I lost my friend and we still keep each other entertained with pony videos. These women have become like family to me and there have been a few issues this year that I don’t know if I would have made it through if I didn’t have them !

I have mixed feelings about my next module. on one hand I am very much looking forward to Advanced German because I have felt a little bit bored in recent tutorials because I have basically mastered everything and so I haven’t been learning anything from them ! Also I’m going to be working with Lilian next year and although she will never be Kim, she seems like a really kind lady and she is from Vienna so I am going to have the advantage of a native speaker. On the other hand this is going to be my last year of studying my Geistmuttersprache (spiritual mother tongue) and I get through German work really quickly, so although I am going to still have Sylvia who I can speak to in German, by this time next year, this lovely era of studying German is going to have come to an end ! Although I know that Sylvia will keep my German oiled, I’m worried about forgetting my award-winning German that I have worked so hard on over the past 5 years !

Before I start the last chapter of my German adventure however, my summer revision is looking quite exciting ! I am going back to Jena to do the same course I did last year ! It’s going to be so good to be immersed in the language like that again ! Also, Jena is a very cute little city so I’m looking forward to seeing the views again. The only thing I am not so crazy about is the crazy population of wasps that reside in the city ! Last year I was really harassed by them ! On top of my Jena trip, Sylvia is talking about maybe meeting me for a drink at some point in the holidays and doing a really chilled German conversation session with me. I think that this is a very kind offer so if we find a date when we are both free, I would like to take her up on it !

On Tuesday morning I told my granny that in hindsight I was actually glad that I didn’t get into Edinburgh University ! Yes, Edinburgh may be a really prestigious uni, but I love my OU family and I don’t think that I would have people like that at EU. Also the OU are very good at adjusting stuff for my needs so that I can be the absolute linguistic unicorn that I am ! I know that I was technically rejected because I don’t have any English qualifications, but part of me thinks that my rejection from Edinburgh University was actually the universe sending me here ! For the first time in my life, I feel like I belong!

Day School 2- Conversation Day

On Saturday, I went to what I now call “Uni Christmas.” It was my second Day School of my university career! I absolutely love these events now, and I find it so strange when I think back to how shy, nervous, and reluctant to go I was last year!

I could hardly contain my excitement in the week leading up to it! For a whole week, I kept having to explain to my mum and my staff why I was giggling, excessively grinning, or even bouncing around! I’m sure my regular readers will not be surprised that the majority of my excitement was provoked by the opportunity to speak German all day. Still, there were a few other contributors to this wild excitement- First of all it would be the anniversary of me meeting my best friend Chloe who came into my life at the Day School last year and also the anniversary of my gift being discovered by the university which subsequently led to many different opportunities. The second factor of my excitement was that my tutor Kim would be there, and I planned to surprise her with a well-deserved thank-you gift! Much like a child on Christmas Eve, my excitement affected my sleep! Although I had gone to bed at half 10 the night before the Day School, I was still very much wide awake when I got an email at 5:20AM!

I am pretty famous for putting together nice colourful outfits, but an extra level of thought went into my outfit on Saturday. Last year, I was wearing my favourite shirt- a loose dark green tee with the words EAT SLEEP DEUTSCH REPEAT on it- when I met Chloe, and she rather shamelessly bought the same one after meeting me, and this year we had decided to twin! I styled my shirt with a purple tartan skirt from my favourite brand, Snag, because purple is my favourite colour. This was paired with dark green tights also from Snag to reflect the green of my top, iridescent Doc Martin shoes because I had worn them last year when I was studying in Germany and a cute little lilac college jacket from Monsoon for 3 reasons, 1: unicorns are my favourite animal, 2: I needed something purple to go with my skirt and 3: I had put Kim’s present in a gift bag with a purple unicorn on it and thought that it would be cute to coordinate with it. However, the most interesting thing I wore was the unicat pin that Isobel gave me last year. I have worn this pìn to every significant event since m award ceremony in February last year, but this time, I was wearing it for a different reason. Until now, the pin has helped me with my shyness and has given me the confidence to talk to people. Yet, recently, I have noticed that I have sort of transformed! I’m no longer the shy, quiet girl who can’t look people in the eyes but a super-confident worshipped young linguist who can light up a room! Isobel has played a significant role in my linguistic journey, so I wore the pin out of respect as my little way of saying thank you!

I had woken up with very tangled hair after my night of jumping around my bed and as a result, brushing my long curly hair took almost double the amount of time that my mum had built into the morning schedule! Because of this, I couldn’t have any breakfast before I left! Despite originally running late, I arrived at the university an hour early so I had plenty of time to sit and eat the chocolately breakfast biscuits that I had grabbed on my way out the door! Over the past 8 or so months that we have been working together, Kim has interrupted many breakfasts with emails so it was not a surprise when the dark curls of the woman appeared in front of me when I had my mouth full! Super excited and trying my best not to get chocolate everywhere, I signalled to my mum to get the present out of the backpack! All I had told Kim about this was that I needed to have a quick word with her so she was so delighted and surprised that she almost cried! After she had gone upstairs and while mum was away trying to suss out where the lift was, Sylvia appeared from behind and gave me her usual passionate hug! This hug was so squishy that my scrunchy was knocked out! She then introduced me to her Swiss colleague Berbel, who knew exactly who I was and is apparently a big fan of The Non Verbal Linguist…. A few weeks ago, I was required to take part in an online intensìve weekend as part of my degree so although I recognized her name from that, she didn’t have her camera on so I was so confused before Sylvia explained who this woman was!!

I then turned towards the window so that I could see who was coming. I work as a student buddy for the level of German below me and until now I had strong doubts that anyone was actually reading my forum posts. So it was such a lovely rewarding surprise when all these people were saying “Hallo Äli” because they recognized me from the pictures that I had been posting on the buddy forum! It wasn’t too long before I saw a familiar sight coming up the drive! MY CHLOE!!!!!!! I hadn’t seen my beret-wearing bestie since December and thus as I was watching her draw nearer and nearer I started to go completely crazy like Animal from the Muppets!! That first hug after so long was like having that first cup of tea on a winter morning, indescribably lovely!!

My tutor for the day, another lady called Silvia came after a while to show me to the room that I would partly be working in that day. I chose my seat, front and centre! This was a stark contrast to the seat that I had tried to choose last year right at the back, which I feel is a good physical representation of my growth in confidence! However, the first session was in the main room where all the levels could learn together. Unsurprisingly, I chose to sit next to my Chloe, although still pretty much front and centre! As all the tutors were introducing themselves, I thought back to the previous year. All of these people at the front were total strangers, but because I made such an amazing impression at the event last year, I had great relationships with the majority of the line! Firstly, Kim was interested in me from the first German sentence that I had uttered at the last Day School and was now my beloved tutor with whom I had bonded with over our many similarities. A few people over stood Lilian, the really smiley Austrian who was ironically dressed in Ukrainian colours! Last year she had seemed so lovely! She is the kind of person who smiles with the eyes as well as the mouth and when I had my intensive weekend, I was lucky enough to be put in her group! Because of her good first impression that she had made at the Day School last year, upon discovering that I was working with her for the intensive weekend which I had previously been extremely anxious about, I felt much calmer and I was therefore able to participate in the weekend much more than I had expected and we have stayed in touch since then! On the other end of the line stood Sylvia. Although she was originally just in the background at last year’s Day School, since discovering my gift she has been really supportive of me and just generally looked after me at uni! As I reflected, I glanced over at Chloe and felt the strangest feeling! These 4 women – Chloe and the 3 ladies standing in the line – comprised most of my uni support network! I then remembered that last year, I almost didn’t go to the Day School! “Wow, I would be a completely different person!” I thought as I realised, I only had these women because I went last year and started to wonder what my life would look like now if my mum and Isobel hadn’t talked me into doing so!

My daydream was cut short by the beginning of the first task. We had to line up in alphabetical order. Although my English-speaking name is spelt E-I-L-I-D-H, German speakers tend to struggle with the pronunciation of this traditional Scottish spelling, so when in a German-speaking environment, I spell it Ä-L-I as this creates the same sound! This technicality put me right at the start of the line! So I just sat there looking pretty while everyone else fumbled around trying to remember the alphabet! After everyone had managed to achieve this, our last exercise for the morning, before we all went into our separate groups was a very special activity for me because it was during this activity last year that me and Chloe first met! Speed dating! For this activity, me and Chloe were allowed to stay together and be one unit. Because Lilian knows that I love purple, she adopted this adorable system of picking people in purple to come and work with us! This activity really took me back to talking to Chloe for the first time and so I started giving her a loving back rub while we were working!

Then it was time to go into our separate rooms. I am now in the more advanced end of the OU German program and Chloe is still in the earlier stages of her German journey which meant that we got separated as we were assigned to different rooms! I didn’t really mind the split because even though I love my uni big sister to the moon and back, I felt like time apart was healthy as it allowed us to be the awesome individuals we are! I didn’t know anyone in the group and I had never worked with Silvia or Berbel before! The lack of familiar faces would have, in previous years, been very daunting for me and I probably would have been too shy to say anything! However thanks to my newly found confidence, I spoke to my colleagues with nothing so much as a bat of an eyelid and wasn’t even distracted by Sylvia darting in and out of the room! I just carried on speaking with my group no matter what! At a couple of points, my sass even came out! The majority of the session was group work but, towards the end, Silvia and Berbel talked to the whole room about podcasts. I listened to Berbel speak. This was the first time I had heard (or more likely, paid attention to) Swiss German being spoken. It is beautiful! It has a slight tune to it like Italian but the words are still very much German! Best of both worlds!!

After lunch, I got to have a 1 to 1 with the lovely Kim! It seemed that she wasn’t even down for 1-1s this year but made an exception for me! I had prepared a talk about Pink Monkey, the precious cuddly monkey that I have had since I was a baby! Although it did take us a bit of time to get started because we got chatting about unrelated topics such as the struggles of curly hair and I lost the photo of Pink Monkey that I was going to use, when we eventually got started, it felt really nice giving another presentation to Kim because it was while doing the same last year I realized what a great team we would make! This was a beautiful full-circle moment that I wanted to freeze! However, before we knew it, a whole hour had passed and Kim had to go! I felt quite emotional when our session was over! I have already done all the work for my module and sadly, she doesn’t work on the next level of German. So although I technically have her as a tutor until the end of May and although I will hopefully see her at next year’s Conversation Day, this sort of felt like an end!

Sylvia then came into the room for a much-needed catch-up! Although I didn’t physically feel tired, the lack of sleep was starting to affect my German! At one point I was trying to ask if I could work with Lilian next year and even after deleting and retyping the German word for “next” three times, I still couldn’t write it properly! This was so frustrating and also a bit embarrassing because of my reputation for being a great Germanist! However, thankfully, Sylvia knows me well enough now that she could actually understand this stuttering chaos of a question without needing to finish and said that she would ask for me! Readers, This is proof that even very competent linguists sometimes make mistakes so if you are on your own language-learning journey please keep that in mind!

After a while, Berbel entered the room and sat down at the table where me and Sylvia were. She quickly began telling me how I was an impressive student I was! I have always believed that I am only the woman I am because of the people around me, so I quickly explained that my success at the OU was really thanks to Sylvia’s support… I think something must have been in the air on Saturday because just as Kim had been emotional in the morning and I had teared up half an hour before, now was apparently Sylvia’s turn! Upon hearing my comment her eyes filled with tears! Next year I am definitely bringing tissues!

Students began slowly meandering back into the room ready for the last part of the Day School. I tentatively watched the door for Chloe! Eventually my beautiful sister appeared! After she had sat herself down next to me, she filled me in on how she had befriended Berbel! My gosh, that girl could make friends with a wall! We spent the last session with 80% of our attention on the lesson and 20% on each other! It had been a whole year since we had met! I can’t actually believe how much we have done in the past year! It almost feels like I have known her for my whole life!

After Sylvia had given me another squishy hug and a small kiss on the forehead to bid me auf Wiedersehen, it was time to go! Ás I left, I began to ponder the logistics of spending a January weekend in London. Unfortunately, next year will be my last year studying my beloved German. Although there are also Spanish Conversation Days I plan to go to, I don’t expect to have the same experience at a Spanish Conversation Day as I have at a German one because German is my favourite language. Although Spanish is also a beautiful language, it doesn’t hold the same personal connection as German. Because of this, I would really like to attend next year’s London Conversation Day as well as the Edinburgh one so that I can make the most out of my last year of German studies! I don’t know how feasible this will be though because of many factors!

Due to budget cuts, Conversation Days are quite vulnerable to getting stopped! I have written this article to demonstrate how these events are not just great for speaking practice but also essential networking events! As students of a distance-learning uni, we don’t get the same opportunities to form the same friendships and relationships that students at traditional universities get. Face-to-face Conversation Days provide us with more opportunities to do that and my beautiful friendship with Chloe is hard evidence of that! Additionally, Kim and Lillian have been able to get to know my needs well due to Conversation Day which has given them the knowledge to be the best tutors to me as possible! I know that the university compiles information about the needs of students, however getting to spend a day with someone is far more valuable training than simply reading a file!

In conclusion, as a linguist, Conversation Day is almost just as an important date on the calendar as Eurovision! The anticipation and excitement of it has been a silver lining on the darkest days of this year! I have grown so much in confidence since last year and I can’t wait to see how I evolve from now to Conversation Day next year!

Eilidh Elizabeth Molly McGrath 💜

Presentation

This Tuesday was a day of mixed emotions. I had been invited in November to give a presentation as part of an inclusivity training seminar for staff across the departments of Languages, Education and Health and Social Care. However, on the morning of this engagement, I very sadly had to go and pay my respects to one of my fellow strong non-verbal girls 💛.

When I got the email from Sylvia after coming home from running a dance teacher training session on a cold November night inviting me to take part in this meeting, I practically jumped with excitement! Not only would it be a chance for me to live up to my reputation as a great language student, but it would also provide me with some really early training that I could take forward into my career as a language teacher! Therefore, I didn’t have to think about it too much before I agreed! Even though I got more and more nervous as the meeting drew nearer, I never once thought about changing my mind on participating in this engagement because I knew how valuable my personal experience would be to the academics and how appealing doing this would look on my CV!

When I arrived at the Open University office in Edinburgh, my brain was going at 200 miles an hour! Not only was I extremely nervous about facing a video conference full of important academics, but I was also reeling from the funeral that I had just come from. For some reason which I don’t know, on the mantelpiece in the reception room of the OU office sits a pink stuffed unicorn! As the readers who know me personally will know, unicorns are my favourite animal and pink is my second favourite colour (narrowly beaten by purple) so I tried to focus all my attention on this unicorn in an attempt to slow down my racing mind while I waited for Sylvia to meet me. I had arrived half an hour before I was due to meet Sylvia so I spent quite a lot of time staring meditatively at the unicorn! However, I only truly calmed down when Sylvia came and, after greeting me with a warm embrace, took me to the room where we would be joining the meeting.

I was kicking off the whole meeting! I was told that that was the least nerve-wracking position to be in because apparently, one can get one’s job done quickly and just relax and enjoy the experience, I however did not buy this! To me, going first was a lot of pressure as I would be setting the tone for the whole meeting and although Sylvia would be reading my presentation from a document that I had already prepared, my chest was tightening with nerves as more and more people joined the video call.

After introducing myself as a language student, student buddy and student mentor, I let Sylvia crack on with my presentation. As she read my words, I began to relax and as she detailed my adventures at uni, I felt a strong sense of admiration coming from the screen in front of me! When Sylvia had finished, I was asked a couple of questions before the next part of the meeting got underway to allow me time to type my answers. Even though I had been in tears just a matter of hours before, I began to smile! I smiled because I had gone through with it, because my presentation was very well received and because Prunella’s love of language was discussed at the funeral, so I felt like I had done it for her!

The rest of the meeting was very interesting! Even though I felt like I couldn’t contribute to the topics that especially interested me because I was just a student, I sat back and took everything in! As a student, it was so cool to see the inner workings of my university! Also, as a future language teacher, it was very useful to learn how to support different types of students in their learning. I have already updated my CV with this engagement, and I am really proud of myself and how much my confidence has grown over the recent years!

In conclusion, Prunella was a fully signed-up member of the Strong Girls Club so I feel like not letting her death discourage me from doing this was a fitting tribute to her. Also, I used to be so shy that I didn’t look people in the eye, so doing this was a good piece of evidence for how far I have come!

Eilidh Elizabeth Molly McGrath 💜

In memory of Prunella Kate Hay 💛

15.01.2009-11.01.2025

My Linguistic 2024

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!

Uni 3

So, this month was the start of my second year of university. After receiving a distinction in my first year of German, I decided to spend this year doing solely German. On top of my studies, I am also working as a student buddy for the German module I did last year and on top of the buddying job, I was also asked to volunteer as a peer mentor. Despite my busy schedule and a personal issue at the start of term, I have already completed the work for the first semester.

Straight away, I noticed that level 2 was more work than level 1. The chapters were longer, and more note-taking was required. Because of this, I decided to use one big Word document to record my notes this year instead of handwriting the notes like I did last year, as typing is faster for me and makes my notes more straightforward to read! If you have read my article Day School, you might remember me talking about a lovely lady from Inverness. Well, we got on so well that it was arranged for her to be my tutor for this year. Last year, I didn’t attend any of the German lectures because I didn’t feel comfortable with my first tutor, and by the time I got my second tutor, I was finished with the work for the year, so there was no point in going to any of her lectures. However, my tutor for level 2 German (L223) is much more welcoming and nicer that I have been going to her lectures, even though I am always weeks ahead of what is being discussed and I feel like they are helping me with my skills.

By some insane coincidence, my tutor is also on the team that manages peer mentors! I wasn’t planning on being a mentor, but after the day school in March, someone with influence in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics asked me to join the peer mentoring project. I have chosen only to be responsible for one person as I didn’t want to overwhelm myself by taking on too many people alongside my studies and the buddying job I am also doing. That and I feel like by having only one mentee I can focus on fully meeting her individual mentoring needs rather than having to divide my time equally between multiple people. I didn’t know if I would enjoy this role, but I have to say that it feels good being there for someone through the first year of their studies.

I am also a buddy, a paid role for which I had been waiting my entire first year to apply. I am responsible for the pastoral care of all students studying Level 1 intermediate German (L113). It entails sharing my own journey through the module, reminding the students about assignment deadlines and giving practical tips for life on the module, as well as answering any questions that students might post on the module forum. It is a bit of a thankless job because the amount of forum posts I write significantly outweighs the number of forum posts I have to answer, but it is my first German-related job, so I am proud of that!

Although I have not made any new friends on my own module yet, my friendships with Aoife and Chloe are still going strong. In fact, I believe that I hang out with Chloe more than I have ever hung out with a friend in my life! She has practically joined my band, Stride, and we have even written a song together! I’m at the point now where I can’t even imagine life without her! As for Aoife, even though she is focusing on her French this year, she still has time to crack me up with a hilarious video pretty much weekly!

In conclusion, even though I had a significant wobble at the start of term, I have now regained my German mojo, and I am back to enjoying German, and I’m having a great time again! The university has even written an article about my gift! I did find losing interest in the very thing that I had been studying for four years very disconcerting and this made it a huge relief when I found out that this was just caused by something medical! I have been The Non Verbal Linguist since 2021 and it is now part of my identity so I will be The Non Verbal Linguist forever!

Eilidh Elizabeth Molly McGrath 💜

Jena

Last week I finally got to go to Germany! Not only that, but I also got to study German at a German university! What an exciting experience!

At the beginning of June, I was scrolling through the uni forums when I saw the final call for sign-ups to go to somewhere called Jena for a 6-day-long summer course studying German at the city university. I remembered that when I was at the German day school in March, someone told my mum about the trip, so it was already on the family radar. I felt it would not be unreasonable to ask my mum if we could go. Mum agreed, so I emailed the tutor in charge of the trip and explained my needs. After consulting with her colleagues in Jena, it was decided that I could go, but I had to be in the beginner’s class because the level I had applied for was full. I decided that being in the bottom class in Jena was better than not being in Jena at all, so I accepted the compromise because it would be an excellent opportunity to practice my German teaching skills.

My mum does not speak German, so I had to take the lead on everything. When I am with my mum in Scotland, I tend to let her take the lead in most social situations, such as ordering food at a restaurant. In German, however, I was the strongest communicator, so I had to deal with every situation thrown my way, and as a result, I did many things for the first time. Not only did I order in many restaurants, but I also had to talk to our incredibly fast-speaking hotel receptionist about a complicated situation concerning an issue with our room. I was always able to get exactly what we needed! This series of “łittle wins” gave me a good sense of independence and pride in myself.

The class was from 9 am to 3 pm, from Sunday to the fridày, and there was a lunch break in the middle. On the first day, I stayed in the class the whole time and helped anyone who seemed stuck. Although I was ok with thìs and people were very grateful for my help, I didn’t feel like I was being challenged enough, so it was agreed that I would be in the class in the morning and after lunch, I would have 1-1 conversation sessions with the woman from my university so that I could really get pushed in my German. These sessions were beneficial because I could not only practice and get feedback on my German from a native speaker but also got to prevìew the websites for both of my future German modules, which were very exciting!

After class, all the students on the course had dinner together on most nights, which was always outside. Eating outside in Germany is something that you have to do at your own risk, as I learned the hard way – the country has a hell of a lot of wasps who are not shy about bugging you if you have something delicious! I am petrified of wasps, so unfortunately, dinners always featured me flinching and jumping around to avoid them!

I think the best moment of the trip has to be what was said to me on the walk to the final dinner. In my class, there was this lovely Geordie mother I had been helping throughout the week because she was less confident in her German than the rest. About halfway through the walk, she came and found me and said she would not have managed the week without me! A sense of success and joy filled my heart at that moment!

In conclusion, although I did experience some minor accessibility issues, I had the time of my life. I’m definitely doing it again, but next time, I will apply at the right time so that more stuff is accessible. My next German adventure, however, will probably be to the Köln Christmas market!

Eilidh Elizabeth Molly McGrath

Two weeks ago, I finished my first year of my degree at The Open University. I have my first uni trip next month, which I am really looking forward to, and I will get my module results on July 23rd! However, this year has been spontaneous. I have ended up not only a valued member of the student community but also a student mentor and a potential student buddy for the intermediate German module that I did this year.

As I mentioned in my previous article, UNI, I studied two modules this year: Intermediate German (L113) and a compulsory module about the science of languages and cultures. I had two very contrasting experiences with these modules regarding difficulty, motivation and anxiety.

L113 was SCQF7, so it was the same level of German as my Advanced Higher, which I had accomplished the year before at Edinburgh College. Because of this previous experience, I could get through the course material at an accelerated rate. I finished the coursework in February instead of May, which allowed me to have three months of revision before my final assignment in May and look very impressive when I attended the Day School in March. My significant impact at the day school made the staff do much more to help and support me in my German studies and professional development, but it also caused me to make a lovely new friend. I don’t think I have ever had multiple friends at any educational institution I have been in before. Still, as well as Aoife, I’m also excellent friends with an American woman called Chloe, and we have even met up outside of uni! This is practically unheard of for me!

Unfortunately, I did not have such a positive experience with L161. It was also SCQF7, and I had a lovely tutor. However, the module included a lot of reading, analytical thinking and writing, none of which I am good at in English! I also feel like the books for this module tried to include too much information in too few pages, so the information was not at all streamlined, as I prefer things that I have to study. This all made it extremely difficult for me to prepare assignments. The last essay was incredibly challenging as the question did not match up with any of the information in the books, but somehow, we were expected to reference information from at least 2 of these books! This final assignment was a source of great stress and anxiety for me and therefore I am delighted that this module is over!

Next year, I will study a module called L223, which is the next level of German. I know I previously wrote that I would study French, but I got an exception from someone higher up in the uni, allowing me to continue with my German. I have already compiled 23 pages of notes for the module out of my own research so that I can have a head start with the module. Studying German instead of French next year has also freed up my summer because I no longer have to do 19 million hours of French revision! Therefore, I have signed up for the summer German course my uni is co-hosting in Jena! I have wanted to go to Germany since I started learning German in 2020, so when I saw this opportunity, I simply had to go! It is quite remarkable when you consider how terrified I was about going to the Day School, which was 6 hours in Edinburgh, and how confident I am about a 5-day course in a foreign country! This shows growth and for that, I am very proud!

In conclusion, my first year of uni has been an overall fantastic experience and I can’t wait for year 2! I will have more responsibilities next year, but I’m really looking forward to being in a slightly higher role!

Eilidh Elizabeth Molly McGrath

Why We Shouldn’t Say “Auf Wiedersehen” To German Class

Today, I learned that my old high school is discontinuing higher German from its curriculum. This is precisely the opposite direction from where educational institutions should be going because German courses are already hard to find. I was 18 when I decided to study Higher German, which meant that even though my school did offer German up to Higher level at this time, I had to go to the next borough to study because Fife College did not provide it. In my case, this led to a great partnership and friendship, so I can’t complain. However, German is a beautiful language and with approximately 95 to 100 million native German speakers in Europe, more students should be offered German as a part of the main curriculum.

In education, romance languages like French and Spanish tend to be more widely available than German, perhaps because of the stigma surrounding the difficulty of German grammar. The reduced demand for German that this misconception creates means that more and more institutions are simply not offering the language to students! As a passionate Germanist myself, I believe that German is one of the more straightforward European languages. Compared to French and Polish, which are both languages I have studied, German has more grammatical and lexical similarities to English. This means that if more students had immediate access to German classes, the stigma would soon break as more people discover how logical the German language is for the native English-speaking population.

Due to this lack of availability, students who wish to study German are often forced to attend an additional institution on top of their own school to pursue their academic interests.

This presents inconveniences for both the German student and the educator. In my second year at Edinburgh College, the vast majority of my peers were high school students, and timetabling was an issue because they had to coordinate the lectures they attended at college with their free periods at school. Not only that, but the college lectures seldom fitted into one period, this meant that the students often had to miss the end of the lecture to get to their next class on time. Missing the end of lectures makes students susceptible to missing essential information and may harm their performance in the final exam.

Although this issue also affects educators in additional institutions, they face other problems when taking on students from different institutions. Firstly, they are often in charge of more students than their romance language-teaching colleagues because institutions frequently only employ one German teacher along with multiple French and Spanish teachers. This means that one person is solely responsible for all the German students at every level, not only in their institution but also in other schools. This puts pressure on the German teacher because not only are they responsible for sometimes 50+ students but the fact that they host students from other schools can mean that they have to travel out with their place of employment in order to carry out speaking exams. The demanding nature of this is not very healthy for the teacher, and it can be hard to maintain a work-life balance. If the same amount of German teachers as romance language teachers were employed in every school, then the quality of work conditions for German teachers and the quality of education for German students would be improved.

In conclusion, I do enjoy following the language department of my old school on X. However, I am disappointed that they have made this decision because it narrows people’s choices in an already narrow market. The number of German classes in Scotland should be increasing instead of decreasing! I believe that if more people had access to the language, it would grow in popularity.

Eilidh Elizabeth Molly McGrath 💜