Personal Erasmus Report Yannick van Oostrum (University of Valencia)

Personal Erasmus Report Yannick van Oostrum (University of Valencia) Yannick van Oostrum

y.h.van.oostrum@student.rug.nl European Languages and Cultures

Universitat de València/University of Valencia

Comunicació Audiovisual/Audiovisual Communication

Comunitat Valenciana, Espanya/Valencian Community, Spain

During the first semester of the academic year 2017/2018 I’ve been doing my Erasmus at the University of Valencia, Spain. For me, this was a mandatory part of my study program in Groningen.

My program consisted of four courses with a total amount of 24 ETCS (6 per course):

 Spanish dialectology and sociolinguistics

 Coloquial Spanish

 Spanish for foreigners (Didactic course)

 Oral and Written expression in academic and professional Spanish

Initially, I started my program with five courses, but due to schedule problems I had to leave one of the courses I was originally signed up to. I’ve earned all the credits of the above mentioned courses. All my courses have been taught in Spanish because this was one of the requirements of my degree in Groningen.

Generally, I’m satisfied with the quality of the education at the University of Valencia, although I think that the level of education there is considerably lower compared to that of the University of Groningen. There are way more hours of class and I’ve discovered that the work load is more extended and that the evaluation is principally based on the quantity of the work you do, more than the quality of the realised work.

Nevertheless, the fact that the courses were in Spanish has contributed to more linguistic competences in that language and for me that was one of the main goals of my Erasmus program.

The help provided by the host institution was satisfactory in all the situations I was depending on their services, as was the reception in the first week. At the University of Valencia the internationalization is an important part of their values and this is being translated to the services they offer you. Especially positive for me have been the organised activities in the context of internationalization, like Speed-Cafenet and Tastallengües in which both the Spanish and the international students were able to practice various languages and meet new people. The teachers were also really helpful and available to the international students. However, establishing contact with the Spanish fellow students has been more difficult. Many of them have their own groups of friends and generally they were not really open to international students.

This contact is also more difficult due to the system: in the majority of the courses there the teachers are talking all the time and therefore group work isn’t really encouraged.

1 Because of the existing bilateral contract between the University of Groningen and the University of Valencia

I’ve been signed up to the Audiovisual Communication degree. However, all my courses have been taken from

the Hispanic Studies degree since no any of the courses from the Audiovisual Communication program were

related to my program in Groningen.

The accommodation is quite easy to find in Valencia, especially in the summer period the supply of flats is huge and the prices are relatively low compared to the prices you can find in Groningen. During my stay, I lived in a shared flat with two Valencian students and another Erasmus student from Austria. This has been a really nice experience.

Moreover, life is also quite cheap in Valencia. As I said, the rent is relatively low and the living costs (groceries, travelling, etc.) is more cheaper than the Netherlands.

With the Erasmus Grant, the travel costs reimbursement and the money I borrowed from the Dutch government there was no any problem to finance my stay. Monthly I paid 200 euros for rent, 100 euros to live and another 100 euros to travel around Spain.

All in all, I’m really happy with my Erasmus period. I’ve made many new friends (both Spanish and internationals) and I’ve seen many things in Spain. I improved my Spanish a lot and I have also learned a bit of Catalan. As it was my first experience abroad, not everything has been easy and especially in the first months I had some problems, partly caused by my unfortunate time schedule at the university, which made it sometimes difficult to find an equilibrate pace of live. Besides of this, the experience has been really positive and I’ve been growing both as a student and as a person. It’s really recommendable to study a semester abroad and Valencia is a good place to do that. As I said, the level of education is maybe a bit lower but the general experience for me has been really positive. Choose a doable and realistic study program, participate in the international activities organised by the university and make use of the activities and (cheap) trips offered by the main international student organisation (ESN and Happy Erasmus) . If you’re considering to do your Erasmus at the University of Valencia, I’m open to answer your questions and to help you out with practical issues.

Kind regards, Yannick van Oostrum