Hi, Caroline! Could you tell us a bit about yourself, for example where are you from and what do you study? What languages do you speak?
My name is Caroline Lonneux, I come from Belgium where I study at the University of Liège. I study translation in English and Spanish. I’m here at University CEU Cardenal Herrera as an intern: I wasn’t obliged to go abroad for my internship, but I chose to come here and improve my Spanish!
In addition to English and Spanish I speak French, and a little little little bit of Finnish! I would also like to learn Dutch because in Belgium you need Dutch to make your job search much easier.
What kind of challenges have you faced during your language studies? How have you overcome them?
At first when I was in the secondary school I hated studying languages. But then I went to Finland for a year as an exchange student, and there I started to like it. I understood that it’s not so hard if you really try to speak: in the end you will manage to say what you want. And when I told my parents that I wanted to study translation they laughed at me: “You hate languages, it’s impossible!” But in the end I managed, and now I’m here! If you try hard you’ll always manage.
In the university my first challenge was that I had to start Spanish from the beginning, but I had a great teacher so that helped. The worst part was to learn linguistics, but I just had to face it and I had to have my friends helping me and to pass the exams again and again.
Do you have a fun language anecdote to share with us?
During my stay in Finland I wanted to say to somebody in Finnish that I was happy to meet her (tavata), but I ended up saying that I want to kill her (tappaa)! Everybody got quiet and just looked at me, and my host family had to explain what I had tried to say. In the end everybody laughed, so it ended up being funny.
You are just starting your work with our Language Service at The Hub 101. What are your work tasks like so far, and what expectations do you have for your internship?
My main task will be translating texts, mainly to French but also to English and Spanish. I also have to make the weekly plannings for The Hub, answer emails, help students, and find new activities and promote them.
As for my expectations… I only hope that I will have a lot of translations to do and that I’ll get good feedback! I have a really nice team with which I enjoy to work.
This week there will be an intensive French course and a Chinese basic course starting at the Language Service. Now, tell us why everybody should join these courses offered at the University and study languages!
The students should join the language courses as they will have the chance to meet foreign students and to have foreign teachers, so they will have a chance to learn the language with native speakers. They also have the chance to come and talk with us, just to train. They should do so because it will help them improve a lot, and through the activities at The Hub they can also meet new people.
Learning languages is really important nowadays: it helps you when you are traveling and making new friends, and you will understand the world better.
