Student Profiles- Modern Languages Department

Sian Ediss - German and French

My year of study abroad in Germany was possibly one of the best experiences of my life so far. I met people from all over the world and some of which are my best friends today. Being surrounded by the language on a daily basis meant that I was able to achieve fluency with my spoken German which was a skill I have been striving for ever since I began studying the language. I knew that I had cracked it when I started dreaming in German and every morning when I woke up I had an overwhelming sense of accomplishment which made my confidence grow even further.

Upon my return to England I was excited to begin my final year of studies with my new found confidence. My academic achievements in this year were better than I could ever have imagined. One of the skills I learnt in Germany as a student was how to organise my study timetable successfully. I dedicated a substantial amount of time to my studies and with this and my enhanced grasp of the language I found that I was achieving First Class marks; I was over the moon! I achieved the 2011 University Award prize for German because of this academic success, an achievement which will certainly benefit me with future employment.

My overall degree qualification is First Class BA (Hons) with a Distinction in Spoken German, an achievement which my family and I are extremely proud about.  I am currently in the process of applying for graduate schemes which require language graduates, my dream job would be to work for the European Union which I will be sure to apply for when they start recruiting next year. Eventually I would also like to further my education with an MA in Translation Studies. I thoroughly enjoyed my Translation module in the final year and it is a skill which I would like to develop.

Sarah Lawless

I began my Spanish degree in September 2002 studying not only Spanish language but also social and cultural aspects relating to both Spain and Latin America.  In April 2004 I spent three months living in Albacete, studying at the University of Castilla la Mancha with an Erasmus grant.  I lived in a flat with 3 Spanish girls within student halls and my Spanish improved enormously.

In September that same year I went to work in Murcia as a teaching assistant in a secondary school.  Again I chose to live in a flat with 3 Spanish girls and constantly socialized with Spanish people.  After a year of living there my grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation were much improved and I was able to easily maintain conversations in Spanish.

I returned to Chester for my final year of University in October 2005 and graduated in July 2006.  I returned to Cádiz in the south west of Spain as a teaching assistant for another year to perfect my level of Spanish and finally returned to London in August 2007.  After a frustrating few months of searching for a job within which I would be able to use my language skills and being told that I lacked experience, I was offered an internship at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in London.  

There I gained a lot of office experience and was constantly dealing with Spanish professionals, visited commercial fairs, and helped organize various events and commercial missions.  After six months and as my internship was coming to an end I began to interview for jobs that involved using my language on a daily basis again and was much more successful.

In April 2008 I started my current job working as a Project Manager for an advertising consultancy in London.  I am employed as one of 8 people that form team Spain, the other 7 of whom are native Spanish speakers, and we work with the biggest Media Group in Spain, Cadena SER.  My job is to help organize mini publicity campaigns that are aimed at attracting new clients to begin advertising with the Media group.  

It involved me traveling to Spain for two weeks at a time at least once a month to different radio stations all over Spain.  It is the perfect job for me as I get to spend half of my time in Spain and half of my time in London.  I use my language skills everyday and even now my Spanish continues to improve. 

Rachel McKee

I finished studying for my degree in French and International Development Studies at the University of Chester in June 2007.  I spent my year abroad in the French speaking island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean and, from there, visited Madagascar.

After graduation I started working for West Sussex County Council and during this time decided to volunteer with an NGO in Madagascar starting January 2008. I raised money through selling Lemur Christmas Cards, and gained support from a couple of local organisations. I managed to raise the £2500+ for the trip and left early to visit my friends in Reunion Island for New Year.

In Madagascar  we were a small team of volunteers and our first project was in the bush in a village called Mandromondromotra. We built a latrine for the local community hospital and upgraded and fixed the village well.

The second project was in town, again building a toilet for a primary school, we also did some tree nursery work.  We planted more than 4500 trees here as part of a reforestation project. During this time I received an email from NGO Tearfund in England asking me to lead the team in the summer of 2008, I agreed.

After another few months back in England working for the Council again in order to raise money I set off to lead the team in the North of Madagascar with a community health team who work out of Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly (Good News Hospital) in the remote region of Mandritsara. I did a lot of translating  as I was the only French speaker.  

We taught English, helped make anti-mosquito oil, and high-nutrition baby flour to be given to malnourished children in the villages where we did vaccination programmes. I gave many babies their polio drops. The local team also did health and hygiene education in Malagasy.

I have now found a third year course at an Ecology Centre in Fort Dauphin which I am following as an independent student for one year. I have some ideas for the next step but whatever happens this experience is invaluable. It is wonderful to study next to Malagasy students, to be taught by local NGO professionals and to better grasp the complexities, challenges and realities in South Madagascar, particularly in the rural regions. 

Becky Smith

I studied French and Tourism at Chester from 2003 to 2007, and spent my 3rd year as an English Language Assistant in France. After this fantastic experience, I realised I enjoyed teaching and decided to pursue this after I graduated. 

I've now spent two summers teaching English as a Foreign Language at International Summer Schools, and due to the tourism part of my degree, I developed an urge to travel further afield, and fulfil my dream of going to South America. I worked for 6 months in a call centre to raise the funds to go, and once there I travelled for 5 months, 6 weeks of which I volunteered in 2 orphanages in Peru and an animal refuge in Bolivia.

I am currently teaching ESOL to adults but have applied for a Primary PGCE with French specialism course for 2009/10. This is the ideal course for me, as I have discovered a love of working with children and will also be able to keep practising my French. I want to encourage other young children to enjoy language learning and hopefully continue to study languages in the future. 

When I applied for University I never thought for a second that I would be a teacher, it shows that what you learn along the way is so important to your ultimate career destination...