July 2005
I started my two-week work experience at the TU Darmstadt Language Resource Center on Monday, July 11, 2005. The reason why I chose the Language Resource Center is that I love learning and working with foreign languages, especially English, and hoped to get an impression of how the Sprachenzentrum works.
Right after my arrival on the first day Mrs Hufeisen took me to one of her German courses, “Intonation I”, in which the students learn how to pronounce the German language. As German is my mother tongue, I’d never been to a German course for non-native speakers before, and it was very interesting to see how difficult the pronunciation is for foreign students. After having had lunch at the Mensa (I ate there every day) Mrs Hufeisen allowed me to be present at some oral examinations of the “Intonation I” course. The rest of the day I spent with helping the secretaries Pia Herold and Dorothee Kraus in the office. I wrote several certificates for students who successfully completed one of the language courses and stamped the certificates after the lecturers had signed them. In the afternoon, I attended “Italienisch I”, a beginner Italian course, by Mr Scapaticci.
The next day I spent a few hours in the multimedia room where I was able to take several language tests and test my hearing and reading comprehension. Afterwards I worked in the office again and listened to more oral examinations with Mrs Hufeisen.
On Wednesday I helped in the office as well, as I did every day. As well as for writing and stamping certificates I also gave them out to students. As it was the last week before the semester break, a lot of lecturers handed their marks in, and also a lot of students asked for their certificates. In the afternoon, Mrs Mosnier took me to her French course “Französisch Grundkurs II” and let me take a test with the students. As I’ve been learning French for three years now, the test was relatively easy and I managed to get a 1,4.
I attended a course called “Job Applications, Interviews and Assessment Centres” by Mrs Vietor-Engländer on Thursday morning. One of the students did a presentation about how to act during a job interview, and afterwards the other students and Mrs Vietor-Engländer discussed his mark together. As it was the last week of term-time, this was the last course I attended, and it was very interesting to get a glimpse of “university life”. In general, I noticed that the courses here were much more casual than what I was used to from school. I also spent some time in the library where you can find textbooks as well as normal literature in different languages.
Friday was mostly spent in the office.
The next week started with what proved to be a very busy Monday. From 10 a.m. on, the students were able to register for next semester’s Spanish courses, and when I arrived at 9 a.m. there were already five people waiting. Shortly before the registration time the queue of waiting students had reached almost ten metres, and when the office opened, all of the students wanted to sign up for their courses as fast as possible. Half an hour later, the first courses were already full. Around 11 a.m., the main run was over. After handing out a few certificates, I was definitely ready for lunch-time. Afterwards I did my usual work in the office and read up on UNIcert, a certain university language certificate system.
On Tuesday I spent some time in another part of the Language Resource Center which is connected with the Summerschool. With Mrs Caspar-Terizakis and Mrs Schmitt, I discussed the mark for a presentation a student made after being informed about its positive and negative aspects. Afterwards I helped Mrs Fleischhauer by checking the certificates for the participants of the Summerschool. The rest of the time I worked in the office.
I mainly worked in the office on Wednesday.
Thursday, July 21, 2005 was the last day of my work experience here. In the office I wrote several UNIcert certificates and did my usual work. Also I spent some more time in the multimedia room. Mrs Herold invited me for lunch and I had the chance to talk with several other employees while we were in the Mensa. With Mrs Caspar-Terizakis I talked about which jobs could suit me considering my interest in languages. Afterwards I worked in the office again.
On the whole I am very content with my work experience at the TUD Language Resource Center. I didn’t know much about “university life” before and I have learned a lot about the way courses are organized here. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend more courses because my work experience started when just one week of term-time was left. Nevertheless I was in four courses, took a test and observed several oral examinations, and therefore got a good impression of being a university student. My time in the office showed me how many different tasks the secretaries had to do.
I’m glad I did my work experience here, and I’d like to give my thanks to everyone who worked with me and explained their daily routine to me while I was here. I had a good time here and learned a lot. Thank you!