erasmus: Germany or Austria

Pinzette

Hi I've applied for erasmus but I would love to hear from anyone who has studied abroad, preferably Germany or Austria. Or nearer still, Tüebingen or Vienna? I am dying to know what the two places are like for everything! Studying, accommodation, German language classes at start, living there, food, living and costs.

Any tips you've learned while you have been there...


thanks for any info,

overexcitedaj

Just saw your comment on the main page. Now i only know of Vienna and am moving over there myself to study perminantly this summer. It is a beutiful city with beutiful archetecture and life in gerneal is fantastic. Its quite dear but still in comparrison to Ireland its still cheap. The Underground system makes it very easy to get round. general food shopping is quite generous on the pockets also but the one thing ive heard is that acc is very hard to come by over there. Maybe it will be available through the college but if not you might have a hard time getting something nice.

Pinzette

thanks for that. I'm only a beginner with regards to learning German, would you know how different the dialects are between the two countries? I'm still wondering would it be a bad thing to learn German in Austria as opposed to Germany?

overexcitedaj

its like the difference between English english and American English
Just a few words are diff and a different accent. to my knoledge anyway.
It would be harder to learn in Austria though as they seem to use alot of "slang" . Not to major though but those are the big differences.

banquo

Friend of mine was doing German here and ****in loves her erasmus year in Munich.

Wish I'd done it tbh.

Holsten

How do you apply? Need to be a certian year/course?

chatquidanse

I studied in Tuebingen on my year abroad and loved it, it was best year of my life! the town itself is quite small (for example, only clothes shop is H&M) but youre less than an hour from Stuttgart- be warned, German trains are not too cheap though! I lived in student accom in Fichtenweg, it was 250e a month inc all bills for a room with an en suite. German housemates were a bit crazy and not v friendly (something all us foreign students noticed) but you never see them and theres lots of other foreigners there. The town is very studenty (80,000 people there, and 20,000 of them are students) and its really really safe, i never heard of anyone having problems. The uni is fine, theres classes for foreigners and I'd only done german for 2 years but i got all my ECTS there. French was a bitch though, so if thats your other subject, be warned, the level is very very different. The local dialect is hard but theres hardly any locals so you should be fine! Went to Austria for a weekend and couldnt understand anyone! haha!
oh it is very cheap to live there- milk was 50c, a pint of beer was 3e and your semester bus ticket (which covers you for some trains too) was 45e.
anyway i totally recommend it, its in a great place, france, switzerland and austria arent too far away and you'll meet people from literally every country! and the parties are FANTASTIC!!

chatquidanse

oh and if you pick Tuebingen, i really recommend one of those pre-semester 2 week courses. it really gets your confidence up with German and youll meet other people at the same level as you. and another thing is, Germans love 'Tandems' - its like a language exchange,so youd speak english together for an hour and then switch to german. i was too lazy to do it and i really regret it, my friends who did them said they really helped. Plus its a good way to meet Germans who actually want to talk to foreigners

Cool_CM

chatquidanse wrote: »

oh and if you pick Tuebingen, i really recommend one of those pre-semester 2 week courses.

Don't forget about the extra credits you get for them too, you'll be needing them at the end of the year

Pinzette

what am I supposed to do with this blooming learning agreement? it says put in your choice of courses and codes and ECTS, can't find them and Tüb Uni website says they won't be out till summer? how'd you get by that one? thanks P

chatquidanse

emmm from what i remember (and i did my erasmus in 2006/07) i filled out the learning agreement when i was in Tuebingen and sent it back then- can u not do that anymore? call into Jeff Morrison and explain, they know how the system works. Dont be afraid to argue with International Office, they were completely useless when we all went!
oh when youre regstering for classes there do it as early as possible (keep and eye on website over the summer and email the lecturers the minute the classes are posted) cos the places for the 'real' classes (as opposed to the foreigner classes) are taken quickly...and when the Germans say there are 30 places available, that means 30!
and the other thing i meant to say (and the Int Office were beyond useless about this) is that you dont need to take out health insurance for when youre there. the year i went there was loads of scary stuff on the website about having your residence permit revoked if you didnt have it, but i got there, strolled into AOK insurance in the Mensa on wilhelmstrasse, showed them my EHIC card and they gave me a letter to say i was covered by them. i assume that hasnt changed...

Cool_CM

chatquidanse wrote: »

Dont be afraid to argue with International Office, they were completely useless when we all went!

How exactly were they beyond useless? What problems did you have that they didn't sort out?

They are the people who have facilitated you being able to study at a foreign university by taking care of all the paperwork and red tape. During and before our erasmus year we experienced numerous major problems which could have resulted in us either not being able to go to the University of our choice or to Germany in the first place(a new learning agreement had to be set up as it was the first year that people from our course had gone abroad leading to many problems with module choices etc..), or in us giving up completely and coming home midway through the year. When the International office in Germany were of no help whatsoever (terrible opening hours and little or no advice offered) Maynooth's International Office were there to help us iron out all of our problems as well as providing support and answering questions when needed.

If it hadn't been for the people working in the office, who knew us all by name and face at the end of the year, we would have probably given up and come home. I'm sure you have seen the size of their office and how many people are working there, taking care of not only every individual who goes abroad but every individual who comes to Maynooth. You have probably noticed all the paperwork that has to be handed in, with multiple copies, that they then have to deal with. They are not psychic, if you experience a problem, you have to tell them what this problem is. Only then can they try to sort this problem out.

The International Office , who facilitated your study abroad, went above and beyond the call of duty in sorting out all the problems we experienced and to label them "beyond useless" is grossly misrepresentative and unfair.

chatquidanse

well maybe you had different experience but i know several people who went on Erasmus the same year as me and all had big problems. for exmaple, when i emailed them asking about health insurance, they didnt know if i needed private health insurance or if an ehic card would do, which is ridiculous, i cant be the only person who ever asked this. they insisted we give them our accom forms to be sent off and then didnt send/lost my friends so she had to try find her own accom, which is not easy when u dotn really speak German. they lost another friends transcripts when we got back and she had big problems with her departments trying to get a pass, as it wasnt easy to get more Scheins from her uni in germany. the final straw for me was they were supposed to transfer our erasmus grant into our back accs, managed to lose my bank details and didnt bother posting out the cheque to my house for a month (this also happened to another friend of mine). in fairness, i think there is different people in it now, but the vast majority of people in my year were really unhappy with that office- in fact, we all meant to write a letter of complaint to the guy in charge but never got round to it. i know theyre not psychic but they either ignored emails or just wrote back saying 'contact someone else about this', so in the end we all gave up...

Teabag!

I've been thinking about this for a while, it seems like something really worth while doin,

so i have loads of questions mainly to do with practical stuff like-

whats a good amount of money to have before i go? (i dont drink)

is it possible to work if you do erasmus (i heard a rumour that its not)

are there anygood websites to look into for this stuff as the Int office is all very very drawn out and complex

where would people reccomend to go, i was thinking of Holland as i have been twice and loved it (not much of a fan of Amsterdam though) and possibly Belgium,

any ideas or advice is really appreciated!

Effluo

I would pick Germany just for the fact that Austria nearly elected a right-wing communist party last year....

funnily enough One of the parties main objectives was to rid the country of those good for nothing foreigners....
Also they were anti-gay and such.

Then mad things happened after they very very very narrowly lose the election the party leader dies in a car crash and his gay lover, yes you heard me! His gay lover who also happened to be the second man in command of the political party, second man in command of the political party!!! :O

Like need i say more??

chatquidanse

Well when it comes to money, it really depends where you are. for example, i was earning 770e a month in france doing the english assistantship but that was nowhere near enough to live off (i was in Paris though). However, that amount would be loads for Germany. It really depends on the country and whether or not youre in a major city.
As for where to go, it also depends on what languages you speak and if theres lectures in english in the host uni. what i would do is go to your depatments and ask what unis theyre linked with (for example, if you go on erasmus to germany and your other subject is spanish, you usually go to Aachen.) Or else call over to Int Office and see if they can help you out...

chatquidanse

and as for the working thing, it also depends on what country you are in- the Germans dont really like you doing it (from what i remember) but i think if youre an eu national you can. however, bear in mind that you need to speak the host language really well to get a job- though you could try giving english grinds if you wanted to.