Ich wählte den Kurs „Verbesserung der englischen Sprachkenntnisse“, um meinen Wortschatz zu erweitern, meine Aussprache zu verbessern und vor allem meine Scheu vor dem Sprechen und Anwenden der englischen Sprache abzubauen. Daher war es ein sehr gutes Training alleine zum Kurs zu reisen, da ich damit vom ersten Tag an gezwungen war, englisch zu sprechen, um mich verständigen zu können. Das umfasste nicht nur die einzelnen Unterichtseinheiten sondern auch, die Organisation der Reise, die Gespräche mit dem Vermieter der Ferienwohnung als auch die Konversa-tion im Alltag. Ebenfalls habe ich in der Zeit mit meinen Schülern, Kollegen und mit meiner Familie zu Hause ausschließlich englische Nachrichten ausgetauscht.

Das war ein intensives Training, von dem ich sehr profitiert habe. Deswegen möchte ich von einigen Erlebnissen meiner Mobilität auf Englisch berichten:

The apartment owner was exceptionally friendly. I was welcomed with many additional amenities in the apartment. Especially awesome was the owner pick me up from the airport, because my flight arrived very late.

On the first day:

The participants were about 30 teachers from 10 different countries. Most of them came from Sweden. From Germany were only 3 participants.

The courses were demanding and stressful for me. But all of them were very interesting and sometimes very funny:

Our leader told us something about the church of Split. Many people come to this church to pray. And then a participant from Sweden asked, how we have to dress in the church, with a cloth over our shoulders and so on. Then the leader was amazed and laughed: „The ‘Church of Split‘ is the Hajduk football stadion and the people pray for goals!“.

On the following days:

I was very pleased because I thought, with so many participants I wouldn’t have to speak English often. But since the second day I had individually lessons with only one more participant from Finland. It was tiring but very effective.

The course covered the following topics:

– Introduction to the course,

– Tracking challenges in the 21st Century Classroom,

– Icebreaking games and activities conversational competencies and making small talk,

– grammar review I – III (Present, Past, Future),

– Waht makes a good teacher great,

– experiential learning: Split heritage and Dalamtian culture,

– Let’s get creative forming and telling a story,

– creative writing,

– critical thinking and softskills exercises – a step closer to holistic education,

– formal and informal writing learn how to write a E-Mail,

– Learn to agree and disagree conversational topics,

– let’s revisit what we’ve learned

Some lessons took place outside, for example in the amphitheater in Marjan Park, in the old town of Split or near the port of Split. But the lessons mainly took place in the classrooms of a technical school.

The exchange with over 30 teachers from 10 European countries about the country-specific challenges was very interesting. Together we were able to find that there were great similarities and present individual solutions or approaches.

I have lost some inhibitions to speak in a foreign language. I found self-confidence to speak englisch. I was forced to communicate in English and was surprised at how quickly I was able to communicate. I was able to expand my vocabulary.

One day we had our course in a park and were given the creative task of writing our own story in English. I never thought I’d be able to do this. In the end, an A4 page was created in a relatively short time, which was also understood by the other participants. That was great.

The residents of Split made us laugh because they have now(!) winterized their pools. None of them go swimming anymore. The water had a temperature of 22 °C. The participant from Finland swam in the sea every morning. Our instructor couldn’t understand it. J

On the flight back I chose the New York Times newspaper and read a few articles. It took a little longer and I didn’t understand all the words. But I understood the content of the articles. This is a great experience.

During the mobility, I wrote messages exclusively in English to my students, my colleagues and my family at home in order to stay in training.

Finally: I have fewer inhibitions, have more self-confidence, understand more and can speak a little better. In my opinion, when learning a foreign language it is very important that you are forced to communicate in English. It was good that there were no other German participants in my individually courses. So I had no choice but to understand and speak English.

Thank your very much for this experience.