EF Stories: Laurens from Belgium at EF Berlin
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At my school, a project was organized where students from Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Belgium were allowed to go on an exchange abroad. My exchange went to Poland. There I met another exchange student, Kuba, who turned out to be more experienced in discovering a new language and culture because he had already been on a trip with EF. So he told me about his EF trip with great enthusiasm. After the international exchange, I wanted another such cool experience and was definitely interested in going on a language trip abroad with EF.
The prospect of learning the language not only during class but also outside of it attracted me greatly. I was really going to "live" the language and it was certain that I was going to make progress. So I left for Berlin for 4 weeks to improve my German.
Improving my German
The reason I had started my EF trip was to improve my German. And... I definitely succeeded! Besides my confidence while speaking German, my grade at school & my teacher can attest to that! Still, this was not the best part of my trip to Berlin. That was the amazing friends I made there. I now literally know people from Colombia to Russia. In fact, we are still in daily contact! I also sent a card to a friend in Poland the other day.
Excursion to Dresden
In addition to learning German during classes, I also participated in a number of fun activities. The activity that helped me the most with improving my language level was the trip to Dresden. The three-hour bus ride was a perfect opportunity to meet new people and talk an awful lot. I don't think I have ever spoken as much German as I did then. During the tour in Dresden, everything was explained in German. Other than that, after being in Berlin for two weeks, it was a nice change to discover a new city!
Fantastic roommate
I still had a whole list of things I wanted to see in Berlin and my roommate, Piotr, was eager to join me. So days spent walking through half of Berlin and discovering beautiful places and parks.