University of Nottingham

For me, the most difficult was really the beginning. I knew this, that's why I decided to register for an English course (CELE Course) for one month before the beginning of the terms. It was really good because I practised academic, social and everyday English. It was during this course that I met many foreign studients.

It was hard at the beginning. I thought that my level of English is quite good when I studied at my home University. However, when I went to the UK I realised that there is still a lot of work to do. Firstly, you have to get used to the local accent. Secondly, speaking English every day puts pressure to broaden your vocabulary. (I guess, I learnt about 2000 new words in the first 12 weeks, but it calms down after few weeks.)

At the beggining Iwas worried because I was thinking not to be able to cope with lot of situation.Hopefully I discovered that also the othe students were like me. Little by little I improved my knowledge of words, slang expression and pronunciation. In the end I was speaking fluently wth local people and foreign students.

Find it difficult at first to understand local accent/slang. Make friends with local students to improve the language and avoid sticking around with friends from the same country as you won't get a chance to practice english.

What I have learned from this experience is how to deal with multiple situations during one period and how to overcome the obstacles caused by cultural differences.Therefore, it would be easier for me to be abroad.

In my home country, the official national language is English and so y proficiency in the use of the English was already good.In Ghana, the medium of instruction for all educational levels is English.Thus communication in English was not a problem at all in my graduate study in the UK.