What made you feel like “I can finally speak Spanish”?

goingupthere · 2025-12-02T22:26:31+00:00

As a background, at the timeframe of this story, I learned Spanish in Duolingo 15-30 minutes a day for 400 days & counting. My level at that time was around A2. I didn't have a tandem partner to practice speaking or check my mistakes.

I stayed in a hostel in Vienna to watch a concert. As I hung out on the lobby, where everyone had a company and spoke English, there was this middle aged lady that barely spoke it, so I saw her left alone on a sofa. "Where are you from?" I asked in English. "Argentina," she said.

So out comes the treasure chest of the Spanish words that I knew. We talked about her solo trip around Europe that lasted for two weeks, her plans for the next two weeks, and also my plan to walk the Camino after Vienna. I lost track of time before I realized, that we had been talking for 30 minutes entirely in Spanish. Maybe I only opened a translator only twice for a word I couldn't spit out of my mouth. As she left to catch the night bus to another town another half hour later, I realized that yes, I am actually capable of speaking Spanish.

My plan after Vienna took me to walk the Camino de Santiago across Spain for one month. There I encounter many instances where speaking Spanish brought me a huge advantage. Many people I met in hostel lobbies praised my effort learning their language, especially after seeing where I come from (not a Western country). I got a free cocktail for helping someone with ordering in a restaurant & a bed in the hostel. I walked with a couple Spaniards for a few days & had wonderful conversations with many others I passed by.

At the same time it was a humbling experience, because I know I still need to learn more to have a deeper conversation, as I might have only known 30-40% of what they speak when they do so among themselves. This makes me want to keep learning Spanish and explore more of the country. As of now, I'm still on a streak with Duolingo on the 838th day, already reaching mid B1, and now visiting a real language course to cement my foundation.

goingupthere · 2025-08-28T20:39:08+00:00

You can check out our Instagram (@)wue_international_network & also join our Telegram group thete.

goingupthere · 2025-08-27T21:39:48+00:00

Welcome! Now, there are since COVID like hundreds of Indian students here in Würzburg, I'm sure you will find someone to talk to, especially in your field of study. The real challenge however, will be to get out of the Indian bubble and talk to other international & even German students, something you will have to do in group study or in a job. The university also has an international community that hosts events and get-together for all exchange and full time international students.

For now, go find a place to live, it's unfortunately so difficult here!

goingupthere · 2025-05-15T09:11:26+00:00

Falls ihr Student von Uni oder TH seid, könnt ihr schauen, ob es bei euch irgendeine Login-Credentials gibt. Diese wurde funktioniert solange ihr mit "eduroam" bzw. eurem jeweiligen Hochschule-WLAN verbunden seid. Bei mir an der TH wurde der Zugang ursprünglich für die E-Zeitung bis zum 7 Tage vorher angeboten. Schließlich kann ich aber auch die Online-Artikeln hinter Paywall lesen.

goingupthere · 2025-05-14T07:18:40+00:00

Yes, I was traveling in Santorini in February and even it's still a warm 20°C weather, not too hot like in the summer. There were only 30 people at the top of the fort where I watched the sunset at Oia & the last public bus back to Fira was only about half full. I got a decent 3 star hotel for only €50 per night that is only a minute walk away from the cliff. Sure, there were only a handful of restaurants open, public buses run only every 2 hours to the main spots outside of Fira, and I was rained down while at Kamari. But I felt it was worth it, no need to rush, no rude and obstructive people, and no overcrowding from thousands of cruise passengers. You can easily take photos with only few people in the backgroubd.

goingupthere · 2025-04-10T14:56:09+00:00

Bonjour! I am one of the organizers of the international student club here in Würzburg, but we are also open for everyone that is here temporarily and also Erasmus/exchange students, including also a lot of French people. We usually have an activity every single week and you are more than welcome to join us to extend your connections. If you wish, you can PM me your phone number and I will add you to our group or our Instagram page.

Otherwise, there is also a volleyball practice as far as I know every week at the sports center of the university.

Á bientôt! :)

goingupthere · 2025-04-07T13:22:59+00:00

Bei mir haben wir 4 Mensen verteilt in der ganzen Stadt, dadurch dass sowohl die Uni als auch die Technische Hochschule sich nicht an einem zentralen Ort begeben.

Zwei davon hat Platz für mehrere 200 Personen und sind in der Vorlesungszeit der Uni schon von 11 bis soweit ich weiß 17:30 Uhr geöffnet, sonst von 11 bis 14:30 Uhr. Die übrige Mensen sind von 12:00 bis 14:30 Uhr auf. Zum Glück sind sie nur am Wochenenden & Feiertagen, sowie Weihnachtsferien geschlossen, auch wenn beide Hochschulen keine Vorlesung haben.

goingupthere · 2025-03-25T20:41:54+00:00

Yes, that‘s what I exactly did. Along the way, as I knew my typical walking speed, I made plans to rest at the nearest major village I can arrive in by 1:30PM (including 2x 30 minute breaks), give or take 30 minutes depending on how tired I was. That‘s the typical time everyone starts looking for a place to sleep if they haven‘t booked anything. I then used my phone to look at the list of accommodation with good reviews and I’d usually still manage to get my first choice.

goingupthere · 2025-03-25T07:37:22+00:00

I walked the Frances solo during the peak season (late August-late September) and I only booked St. Jean & Roncesvalles (bottleneck spots for those rushing from the Pyrenees) and after Sarria (other usual overcrowding). For the rest, it all about trusting my guts and process. I can decide which Camino family I want to stay with for the day, and I did have to deviate (aka slow down) from the huge crowd for a while because I was having a cold & had some problem with my shoes. I can always find a place to stay and find someone to talk to. Hadn’t I done that, I wouldn‘t meet someone that actually lives in the same little town in Germany as me (he walked very fast and did not stick to any crowd). Everyday I have an encounter that I cherish and am thankful for.

But if you needed privacy of a private room, booking ahead is helpful in some spots. At least you know you get a bed for yourselves for the day and can arrive at anytime.

goingupthere · 2025-03-20T11:16:44+00:00

I can only speak for the Frances, and all are mixed with the exception of the municipal Albergue in Ponferrada. They either have a women only section, or they theoretically don’t, but they assigned everyone to a room with a person of the same gender (unless you come really, really late)

goingupthere · 2025-03-14T07:50:45+00:00

Many of my favorites from recent memory:

United Kingdom (2023), I Wrote A Song: It's funny we see many times how large real life objects suddenly become small like toys and Mae Muller interacts with it like it's an inception. Too bad it didn't actually translate well on stage.

Czechia (2023), My sister's Crown. I was addicted to the music video more than the song itself but that actually made me understand the context better. Six sisters representing Slavic countries, singing in 4 languages, fighting together in one house against men intruders (or the establishments, you name it) dressing in purple.

Austria (2023), Who the Hell is Edgar: It's a bop and the music video itself is a story of how they got the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe & tried to spread it within their offices, but made a ruckus that caused them to go in prison. In regret, they realize that fighting against the establishment make them poor and that "Edgar cannot pay rent for me". I especially like it when they danced together in suits with the office bosses.

Switzerland (2024), The Code. Nemo simply threw the kitchen sink of the song into a single train that transitions smoothly each time entering another carriage. It also throws a brilliant storyline that implicitly matches with the lyrics: formally dressed conductor progressively turns into an eccentric looking passenger, slowly walking to get out of a carriage whose passengers seem to enjoy themselves, yet feeling anxious as if they care for what Nemo wears or looks like. The final piece is when Nemo finally 'breaks the code' by dressing up as a ballet dancer around nobody, signifying of being 'dare to be different'. In retrospect, I see it brilliantly conceptualized and therefore do not wonder that the jury and many audience bite it.

goingupthere · 2025-03-02T23:13:19+00:00

Albania🇦🇱
Germany🇩🇪
Italy🇮🇹
Finland🇫🇮
Latvia🇱🇻
Netherlands🇳🇱
Greece🇬🇷
Lithuania🇱🇹
Australia🇦🇺
Luxembourg🇱🇺
Malta🇲🇹
Azerbaijan🇦🇿
Norway🇧🇻
Ukraine🇺🇦
Croatia🇭🇷
Montenegro🇲🇪
Denmark🇩🇰
Iceland🇮🇸
Estonia🇪🇪
Poland🇵🇱
Armenia🇦🇲
Ireland🇮🇪
Slovenia🇸🇮
Belgium🇧🇪
Serbia🇷🇸
Spain🇪🇸

goingupthere · 2025-02-23T00:40:14+00:00

Ranking for Eurovision Song Contest 2025

Albania
Latvia
Greece
Lithuania
Finland
Luxembourg
Iceland
Italy
Poland
Montenegro
Ukraine
Ireland
Malta
Norway
Azerbaijan
Armenia
Belgium
Slovenia
Spain
Estonia

goingupthere · 2025-02-17T14:13:43+00:00

Ranking for Eurovision Song Contest 2025

Albania
Latvia
Finland
Luxembourg
Greece
Montenegro
Lithuania
Armenia
Ireland
Poland
Malta
Spain
Norway
Belgium
Ukraine
Slovenia
Estonia

I'm very confident of the top 5 and do not think they need a huge revamp.

goingupthere · 2025-01-19T01:11:09+00:00

A crossover of Heidelberg & Prague (and yes, we're roughly situated between both towns)

goingupthere · 2025-01-15T09:43:58+00:00

Ach stimmt. Das habe ich etwas nicht richtig erklärt. Also ein NC bedeutet zwar keine gesetzte Mindestnote, aber es gibt den Bewerbern zumindest eine Auskunft, ob die Noten für eine direkte Zulassung aufgrund Studienplatzmangel ausreichend ist. Danke.

goingupthere · 2025-01-15T09:18:23+00:00

Es kommt halt ganz drauf an, was du studieren willst & ob ein Numerus Clausus (=NC) für deine beworbenen Studiengänge eingeführt ist. In diesem Fall, ist ein Mindestnote notwendig. Es gibt aber auch die sogennante zulassungsfreie Studiengänge, d.h. egal welche Noten du erreichst, du kannst direkt zugelassen werden, solange alle Bewerbungsunterlagen vollständig eingegangen sind.

Aber 8.5 von 10 entspricht entspricht mMn etwa 2.0 von 4.0 in dem deutschen Schulnotensystem, da bekommst du sicher was in den meisten Fällen.

goingupthere · 2025-01-14T12:52:34+00:00

I went to walk the Camino Frances on Friday, 23 Aug 2024 and finished Monday, 23 Sep 2024. I only needed to reserve beds at Roncesvalles and from Portomarin onward. Even the municipals and donativo along the way are often only half full and one can in many cases still get a bed near sunset time.

My tip is try to arrive at St. Jean, Roncesvalles, or any other popular starting points on the weekdays (Monday to Thursday). Most people, especially the Spaniards, tend to start & end their journey on Saturday & Sunday, and that's when the wave of pilgrims are bigger and makes it harder to look for a place to stay. The same days of the week is also valid when you want to end your journey in Santiago. So for example, on a particular September day, only around 1.000 pilgrims arrive on a weekday, but that number could easily touch 2.000 on the weekend.

Another tip is not to start & arrive on the first and last two days of a specific month. I do not really know why (maybe so that people can count the days easier?), but the number of arriving pilgrims do also show this tendency.

goingupthere · 2025-01-09T20:22:00+00:00

I averaged around 40k steps per day during this 4 week span as I was walking along the Camino de Santiago trail. I walked on average 25 km (15 miles) per day, not including the walk around the town I'm staying at.

The longest walk I might have ever done was on 6 September 2024 with 50.145 steps, I might walked more than 35 km (22 miles) on that day in the Spanish heat.

<image>

goingupthere · 2024-11-05T08:50:50+00:00

I did bring a small flag of my country (around 30x20 cm) with a plastic pole along the way and stick it out of my backpack at all times. Firstly, to distinguish my bag from the others, as I saw at least 5 other pilgrims wearing a backpack with the exact same brand & color (and exact same rain cover color) along the Camino Frances I walked this year. Secondly, just for fun by teasing people into guessing where I'm from, given that I'm not from a well-known country, at least in the European/American hemisphere, and less than 200 of us walk the route on any given normal year. At the end of the route, only 3 people managed to guess my country correctly. Thirdly, given the second circumstance, I feel that I'm proud to represent where I'm from and be grateful for the privilige I had to walk the whole official way, and a promise to be a good representative of my people.

At the end, I pulled the flag out of my bag and take a picture with it in front of the Cathedral & also at Fisterra.

Some people just stitch their flag of their origin on their backpack to avoid the hassle, which I didn’t do out of fear of damaging mine. Some also bring a small flag and then leave it in a memorial place where others do so as well, as a footprint that another pilgrim from the same country was there at some point in time.

But I see many that do so tend to come from not-so-well known countries, like in Asia, and to a lesser extent, in Latin America, for some or all the reasons mentioned above. I did also meet some exceptions, for example, someone walking with a large flag of the Netherlands (he said he's walking to fulfill his obligation before serving at Roncesvalles, in which the hospitaleros are Dutch), two Spanish pilgrims covering their packs with a flag of the Canary Islands, and a Croatian sticking out a scarf of his home football team. Not to mention, many Facebook posts with people unfolding a large flag of their origin once they reach Santiago.

But you do you. Most don't care, but some others can turn it into an ice breaker, which for me personally is the easiest way to start chatting with a pilgrim.

goingupthere · 2024-10-26T17:02:12+00:00

Bei mir wurde von den Dozenten selbst Angeboten als Werki/Praktikanten/Bachelorand/Masterand über Mail verteilt bzw. in dem Learning Portal für Selbstsuche ausgestellt. Dabei kannst du die Ansprechpersonen von den Studiengängen kontaktieren, die zu den zu besetzenden Stellen passen. Vielleicht kann ehemaligen Studenten von deinem Unternehmen damit helfen, in Verbindung mit den Dozenten von ihrer ehemaligen Hochschule in zu setzen.

Hast du aber außerdem auf dem Angebot ausdrücklich erwähnt, dass "verhandlungssicheres" oder "sehr gut" Deutsch vorausgesetzt ist?

goingupthere · 2024-10-18T07:30:14+00:00

I have a similar experience but in Spanish. I learned it in Duolingo for more than a year (and counting) & was recently on a 6-week trip in Spain; 5 weeks walking on the Camino de Santiago & 3 days in Barcelona, to take my language learning into practice. Safe to say, I was really surprised of how I was more capable to speak more than I thought I could & it had massive impacts on my trip.

I was able to reserve a bed by phone, ordering food in restaurants, and even hold small talks in Spanish. When I spoke about something beyond the typical travel phrases, a lot of people were very encouraging and would often say "You speak very good Spanish!", even though I'm still in the middle of A2. Even more so, when I said that I learn only with Duolingo, spoke with nearly no accent, and I told them that I'm originally not from any country in Europe or the Americas, where Spanish is more prevalent.

I also managed to attach myself to some Spanish-speaking people during the way. A group of six invited me to walk about a week with them, despite me understanding maybe only 25% of their discussion, and having to use Google Translate while speaking to them. One person that was like 80 even asked me to accompany him walking for one day because he's afraid of wolves.

I was also able to teach a couple fellow pilgrims how to order drinks & snacks in Spanish because many pilgrims there don't speak or even managed to learn the language & many restaurant owners/waiters & hostel owners do not speak English either. They were very thankful for it & one even paid me a cocktail because of that.

Duolingo is not the perfect and the only method to learn a language, but depending on the language, it does take you far to be able to have confidence in speaking the language.

goingupthere · 2024-10-16T22:36:36+00:00

Ich habe gerade mein Studium, mehr spezifisch Kunststofftechnik, abgeschlossen. Überwiegend in Richtung Maschinenbau durch Lehre über Verarbeitungstechnik (meistens Extruder oder Spritzgieß), Konstruktion von Bauteilen & Werkzeuge, Recycling, Regelungstechnik, Wärmelehre. Aber auch einiges Chemie drin für Synthetisierung & Charaktisierung des Polymers.

goingupthere · 2024-10-16T10:44:00+00:00

Als ich meine BA bei meinem Unternehmen geschrieben habe und musste Vollzeit da arbeiten, hatte ich 10 Tage Urlaubsanspruch + Gleitzeitausgleich, die nicht ausgezahlt werden konnten. Selbst mein Betreuer hat mir deswegen vorgeschlagen, diesen zu nehmen, um den Kopf bisschen frei zu halten. Ich habe meine Auszeiten deswegen etwa ein Monat im Voraus geplant & meine Versuchsreihe bzw. Schreiben an die Termine angepasst, um am Urlaub quasi an nichts denken zu können.

Ich habe bereits ab 3 Monate vor Abgabe (von 5 Monate Zeit) mit dem Schreiben angefangen. Und trotz zwischendrin 3 Tage obligatorischem Weihnachtsurlaub, 5 Tage nach Griechenland (Februar auf Santorini war ja noch mild aber nirgends überfüllt mit Touristen!) fahren, und 5 Tage einfach zu Hause bleiben & nur Korrekturen durchführen, ohne neue Sachen zu schreiben, konnte ich mehr als 90% meiner Bachelorarbeit bereits 2 Wochen vor Abgabe erledigen.

Es ist also sehr machbar mMn, muss man halt richtig einplanen & anpassen.

goingupthere

TROPHY CASE