Lisa Grinschgl, Reykjavik/Iceland, Summer 2022

From July 24th to 30th I had the great opportunity to do an English course in Reykjavik, Iceland via Erasmus+. It was the B2 intensive English intermediate course. Improving your level from B1 to B2” offered by the Spanish institution “PMSE+”. I chose the course to improve my English and to incorporate the knowledge I had acquired into my lessons, e.g. through CLILL, as my inhibitions about teaching in English were high.
After a rather turbulent journey with lost luggage and a 48-hour delay, we, Natascha Brunnhofer and I, finally reached Reykjavik and were at the same moment enthusiastic about the landscape, the lovely city and the long days: At the end of July it only gets dark for about two hours in Iceland.
The next morning we started our courses, we chose different ones. In my English course, I quickly noticed that there were a lot of participants for a language course, so the usual group sizes are 15 people, but we were 22. Nevertheless, we started the day with a round of introductions and the first presentations of our schools. It quickly became apparent that not only were a large number of people taking part in the course, but that there were also very different language levels. Due to the different language levels and the large number of people, our teacher could not quite implement their planned program, but made the best of it.
The participants came from different countries: Spain, France, Italy, Finland, Germany, Hungary and even Martinique. It was very interesting for me to get to know the school systems and school types in other EU countries and to exchange ideas with colleagues from so many different countries. Unfortunately, I was one of the few who teaches in a vocational school, so job shadowing in the respective schools would be quite difficult, mainly because the only school that could be considered would be in Hungary and my Hungarian course is still pending.

Even if the course content that was actually planned could only be worked out to a limited extent, I learned a lot from the course and took it with me. I have given up the shyness of spontaneously presenting content in English, adapting the level of my English to my counterpart, paraphrasing vocabulary if I can’t think of it instead of saying it in German or asking straight away, I also learned subject-specific vocabulary for schools and that it’s OK to make mistakes in a foreign language.
After the course, we added a private tour of the island. Thanks to the course, I was never afraid to talk to the locals in English on the trip, who all speak English very well. Apart from the breathtaking landscape of Iceland, the Nordic culture and way of life was incredibly exciting for me. I would do this Erasmus stay again at any time and can recommend it to everyone.