The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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Vol/53 No/2 2014 APRIL/MAY The Linguist 19 FEATURES Marzia grew in confidence and believes that ESN helped her to become a 'richer person from a personal perspective'. By making English friends at ESN events, she found out more about what it would be like to live and study permanently in the UK, and started to consider the possibility of staying in her host country. She now has ambitions to study a Masters in the UK, with a view to becoming a professional translator. According to Hélène Duranton, Language Director of French at the University of Bristol, ESN helps students to return from their year abroad with more confidence and maturity, as well as a greater capacity for communication. 'Schemes like the tandem language exchange programme are incredibly useful,' she says. 'As language teachers, we would really be encouraging that type of programme. It takes students away from the academic input into a more personal relationship with their peers.' Life after Erasmus When they return from an Erasmus placement, students often find it hard to accept that the incredible experience is over. One proactive way of dealing with these emotions is to get involved with running their local ESN section to give something back to the organisation that helped them. Emma Long, a final year Chemistry student at the University of Bristol, spent her Erasmus year in Spain, and is now Treasurer of ESN Bristol. This role has helped her to acquire skills, such as money management and persuasive interpersonal skills, which will benefit her in the job market. The work involves attending national and international ESN events. 'Through sending an ESN Bristol representative to these events, we are able to network and gain new ideas for social events and trips from other members of ESN. This means our members constantly benefit from new, fresh ideas,' she says. I have also represented ESN Bristol at these biannual national platforms, which allow local boards to gather information from longer- established sections about what kind of trips and activities we could be running and how to organise them. Representatives can vote on national issues, such as new member sections, National Board members and ESN UK trips for all ESN Erasmus students in the UK (the most recent one to Amsterdam in March). We are also working on implementing international ESN projects, such as SocialErasmus – a scheme that encourages exchange students to engage in charity initiatives. These kinds of international projects increase the visibility of incoming Erasmus students in the local community and show how they are contributing to society. ESN Bristol also promotes national sponsorship deals with partner companies, who provide us with discounts and incentives for incoming students, such as free places on nationally-organised trips. Such initiatives also enable ESN boards to gain experience of how a business works. The future looks bright ESN UK now hopes to expand to cover more universities. The rightfully ambitious aim is to have 50 sections by 2016. Plans to extend ESN UK's interaction with other European WORK AND PLAY Infomarket at the ESN AGM 2013 in Maribor ( far left) and ESN sections in Belgium organise a 'responsible party' (left) Moving to another country can be intimidating, especially as exchange students often arrive without anywhere to live. When Luisa Celentano began an Erasmus placement at the Université de Genève, Switzerland in 2012, as part of a degree in Modern Languages at the University of Bristol, she faced the added obstacle of the Geneva housing crisis. 'ESN Genève helped by posting ads and booking appointments to see landlords. I found my accommodation through ESN and was very happy with the house I ended up in,' she explains. 'I participated in all of ESN's tandem events, city tours and educational tours to places such as CERN [the European Organization for Nuclear Research]. They made it possible to meet other Erasmus but also local students. Once a month, ESN would organise a Geneva Interns Association evening where we could make contact with interns from Geneva's most important organisations, such as the UN. This inspired many students to pursue a career in such institutions and ultimately to return to Switzerland. I would definitely consider living and working abroad as a result of my interaction with ESN.' STUDENT VIEW ESN sections are also in the pipeline. ESN UK National Representative Matt Clemo hopes to host ESN's biggest meeting of the year – the AGM – in the UK. 'This will be a meeting with over 700 participants from more than 36 countries. It's something we're definitely looking towards,' he explains. ESN shows that British students are increasingly willing to shed the UK's monolingual, monocultural stereotype. By informing ourselves about how people from other countries live, we will not only make the British economy more competitive and improve relations within Europe, but we will also enrich our lives and the lives of people who have made the brave step of leaving their home to pursue a life abroad. For more information about the work of ESN see http://esn.org. SOCIAL INTEGRATION A training session for the SocialErasmus initiative (left); and the project in action (above)