Staff exchange – Karolinska Institutet

Anna Gustafsson

In July I finally had the opportunity to participate in a one-week English language course in Galway, Ireland, within the Erasmus+ staff training framework. Finally, I say, since a pandemic and other obstacles came in my way before I could realise my plans.

I was able to bring my teenager since the school also provided an English course for his age group the same week. (However, having returned home we learned that they will not continue with their youth programme, but only focus on courses for adults).

The course I took was English for Professional Communication, provided by the Atlantic Language School in Galway, and it included spoken and written communication, both formal and informal, as well as communication and presentation skills.

We were a group of ten, representing seven countries, with the common factor that we all are active in universities – as administrators, teachers, researchers or doctoral students. This common ground I felt was a great benefit and base for our discussions – and discussed and talked we did a lot (and laughed!), as the teacher, the programme and the atmosphere strongly encouraged that. The study material was shared on Padlet where we also could interact with each other and upload the tasks we had done. The Padlet is accessible also after the course, enabling us to go back to repeat or study further.

Prior to the course we had been asked to do a level test. However, I felt that the group still was mixed in terms of level. My expectations on level and study pace were thus a bit higher than what it later turned out to be. Still, I felt that I was challenged in some areas and, above all, benefited from being surrounded by the language and encouraged to talk and interact a lot. One personal aim I had was to improve my presentation skills by learning some “bridges”, i e phrases you use to keep the presentation together with smooth transitions and an ending that wraps it all up neatly. This was covered in the course, to my satisfaction, both in theory and practice. There was also time for me to raise some language questions I had been struggling with and have those answered.

Culture was a recurring theme during the course (not the least since there was an arts festival going on in the city at the time), both through a guided tour with historical as well as current aspects and through our group discussions on various themes. And how could one be in Ireland without taking advantage of the cultural opportunities?

My son and I combined the course week with a holiday to follow, to do a couple of day tours in county Galway and then spend a few days with friends in Dublin, thus extending our language learning and getting the most out of our travel and stay.

I highly recommend taking the opportunity of a language course to boost your level and become more confident in the use of the language!