Taaiaba Rahim

What was your overseas opportunity?

I participated in an overseas opportunity in the University of Jaen as part of this year’s summer programme. I took part in the course on Spanish language and culture offered by the Centre for Higher Studies in Modern Languages at the Universidad de Jaén (UJA), which was a linguistic and cultural immersion program specifically designed for Edge Hill students. The Academic program included 80 teaching hours along with free time to explore the city and the university also arranged a trip to Granada and Cordoba, which were one of the main highlights of the programme.

What interested you in an overseas opportunity?

This overseas opportunity was honestly, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was really interested in learning Spanish and there was no better way to start this new hobby than to be taught by qualified native teachers with a wide experience in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in a university context in Spain itself.

How did you find out about the opportunity?

I found out about the opportunity through friends and my personal tutor played a huge part in persuading me to take this opportunity of a lifetime.

What did you gain from your experience?

Through this program, I gained a lot from being able to develop my communicative competences through immersion to obtaining the knowledge and skills necessary to communicate with other speakers of Spanish both in everyday situations and in social and academic contexts. I made friends that I will stay in contact with forever and definitely gained confidence and an insight of what it is like to live abroad.

Where there educational elements to your opportunity, what did you learn?

After taking on this programme of an intensive course of Spanish language and culture at level A1, according to the European framework of reference for languages I got a certified rating of remarkable on this course. The program included classroom learning, and outside the classroom immersion activities such as a guided visit to the city of Cordoba in the mosque/cathedral monumental site and also a guided visit to the city of Granada to the Alhambra monumental site, exploring local culture and traditional markets.

What has been the most memorable moment of your experience?

The most memorable moment would definitely have to be the guided tour visits as I love to learn about the history of places and being able to explore such a beautiful place with amazing friends that were made during the trip was an amazing achievement! I also loved the Spanish classes we would have five days a week as due to the intensity of how fast we were learning Spanish, I feel it allowed us to engage in the lessons more and enjoy every minute.

Has this experience enhanced your employability?
This experience has definitely enhanced my employability as the skills I have gained included public speaking and presentation skills, as well as developing my leadership qualities. It also improved my interpersonal skills by giving me confidence in dealing with meeting new students, who were in the same language course as me.

Has this experience led to further opportunities for you?

This experience will definitely make me stand out from others on my CV as it was an opportunity that has enabled me to learn new things enhancing my knowledge and understanding of what it’s like to speak, other languages and how useful this can be in a foreign country.

What do you hope to do when you graduate?

I have now graduated as a Secondary school English teacher and will be doing my master’s this year in MA Education Leadership (2023/2024) alongside my Staff job as part of the inclusion team (LF).

Would you recommend this experience to other students and what advice would you give?

I would definitely recommend this experience to other students as they will hugely benefit from this opportunity to study abroad for a month. There is nothing to lose out on.