Here's what Shannon, our language assistant in the current school year, thinks of living in Germany and working at FLB.

Working as an English Language assistant at Friedrich-List Berufskolleg in Herford definitely surpassed all my expectations. When I first arrived, I was surprised and a little frightened by the large size of the school. But thanks to the very welcoming and friendly staff, I was always pointed in the right direction.

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to work with and get to know students from different cultures and backgrounds. It was also interesting to see the different teaching techniques compared to that of English schools, for example I found the lessons here are more relaxed and each class is more cooperative as a whole, rather that one or two students doing most the work.

I think that the biggest shock for me in comparison to a school in England was the layout of each day. A 15-minute break after every two lessons, in comparison to a long 45-minute lunch. I however preferred the former, as I feel it made the day go faster and I believe it makes the students more productive (most of the time).  One thing I will miss the most when I return to England is Deutsche Bahn, although its renowned for its delays, you can catch a train or tram from almost anywhere and it makes travelling rather fun. I’d definitely recommend getting a Semester Ticket as this really saves money on travel costs and it allowed me to travel all around NRW for free.

I think that doing an internship abroad is very useful for your career, and I would recommend it to anyone that’s thinking of doing something similar in the future. Any advice I would give is to get your accommodation sorted as soon as you can, rather than when you get there as this makes the moving process a lot less stressful.