My experience here in Graz has been incredible so far. The biggest factors that contribute to this, however, would be the friends made, the language/dialect and culture of Austria, as well as classes and university in general. I signed up for the Erasmus Buddy Program before I arrived and was paired with an Austrian student, Daniel, who at this point has become a great friend of mine and has introduced me to tons of people from all over Europe and beyond (Austrians, Germans, Slovenians, Mexicans, and people of Scandinavia, just to name a few). Even after only a few months into this journey, it was, and is, unbelievable the cultural perspective I have gained from meeting all of these people. Daniel, as well as many other Austrians I have met have been trying since day one to help improve my German and to help with the dialect which has been quite difficult to learn to understand.
Even after a while here now, the dialect can be quite difficult, but I can certainly see a huge improvement in my comprehension and speaking skills in German nevertheless. The culture of Austria in general has also been something to get used to, and it has been eye opening. Daniel, his other buddy (another American named Rickie), and I all went to Daniel’s hometown to spend Christmas with his family, for example, and it was a very culturally and linguistically stimulating. For one, his family was very welcoming and happy to show us how they celebrate, which was very generous of them. It really said a lot about Austrians as a people considering I am not too sure how open others would be on such a family-oriented holiday.
Linguistically speaking, it was very interesting to try to get used to his family’s Corinthian dialect having begun to get used to the Styrian dialect at the time. They were also very insistent and helpful in trying to better my german throughout the course of the time we stayed there. Moving forward, as previously mentioned, university has been a very different experience as well. Being that most of my classes were taught in German this past semester, it was quite difficult. Not every teacher spoke clearly which certainly proved to be a challenge, but it has probably been the number one contributing factor to my listening comprehension improvement. The structure of classes also took a bit to get used to. For example, it happened to be that all of my classes were lectures which I did not even realize until my schedule was finished. It has really been different since the teachers typically do not give any direction as far as what one should know for the tests and other assignments. Overall, however, it has not been too bad and I am looking forward to the next semester for sure. (February 2016)