There is this old saying: If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain.
I have worked a few summers at the University of Hull as an EAP Tutor. I have taught there speaking and listening and absolutely love it. My connection to Hull and its university goes back a few years to when I was a student. I was living and studying in Italy many years ago, but the course there was very disorganised and one of my lecturers, an American, pushed and helped me to leave Bologna and go to England to start a degree there. So I went to the local British Council, opened the several hundred pages thick catalogue and read through it. As I was pondering what to study, I discovered that you could do Scandinavian Studies. Back then, I had a huge interest in Scandinavia and especially in Sweden. I was listening to Swedish music, my favourite band was and still is Bo Kaspers Orkester (Jazz/Pop), had some Swedish friends and dreamt of going to Sweden for holidays and possibly moving there.
Since I was born and bred in Germany, I grew up with all the fairy tales from Scandinavia and those countries seemed to me like something magical, something fairytale like, something out of this world. That's why and how I decided to do Scandinavian Studies. I sent my application to UCAS, had an interview with a university in London and with Hull and decided to go to Hull, simply because London is massive and expensive. I didn't know anything about Hull, neither did the few Brits I knew in Bologna. I went to a bookshop and looked up some travel guide books. The only info I found about Hull, was a quote by the singer of The Beautiful South, saying: The only nice thing about Hull are the surroundings where you can cycle around. That didn't sound great.
It took me two days to travel by my old red and rusty Ford Fiesta from Munich to Hull. I crossed The Channel through the immigrant route Calais - Dover. It was after midnight and it was stormy, that's why it took a while to reach the island. It was a sunny and warm morning when I arrived in Hull and I liked it from the very first moment. I saw treelined streets, beautiful buildings, flowers everywhere, only the people spoke an incomprehensible sort of English, which made it difficult when asking for directions.
However, I managed to find the university and the accommodation office, and they directed me to Needler Hall in Cottingham, where I would live the first year. I was given a map, but the student hall wasn't on it, but I followed the instructions and found it. There I was welcomed by some second year students who helped me unload the car and take all my belongings into my room. Later that day they brought some sandwiches to eat and I went to bed quite early, as I was up for two days.
When I woke up the following morning by the noise in the corridor, I saw that moving in of the 160+ students was in full swing.
I did my first degree at Hull, went for my year abroad to Uppsala in Sweden, and did a masters in translation in Hull. The four years I spent in Hull as a student weren't all rosy and fantastic, but nevertheless, I fell in love with the city, its people, its vibe. I met many people there, I met my first big love, found a job at a market research company to finance my studies, went to several absolutely insane parties, and had tears in my eyes when I had to leave. I still remember how I was standing at the main entrance of the uni, my fully packed Mercedes SE behind me and tears rolling down my cheeks. Even though Hull has a bad reputation, most students love it and miss it when they're gone.
I returned a year later with my mum for the graduation ceremony and noticed the many changes in the city. It was nice to meet many old friends, but sad at the same time when all the memories came up and knowing that I'd had to leave a few days later made it all worse. I was very sad when we had to leave after a week. It took me eight long years until I was able to return. This time I came back as a tutor.
I was in Greece on holidays. After a night out, I switched on my computer and browsed the web for jobs. That was when I discovered that many universities were looking for tutors for their summer study programmes. I applied at Hull, had an interview and got a place on the eight weeks programme. My joy was huge! I packed my Yamaha FJR 1300 and travelled across Europe. This time I didn't take the classical immigrant route, but chose to take the ferry from Rotterdam to Hull. The border control looked at me as always with suspicion, but I'm used to it. When I was a student, they found it weird to see me in a huge Mercedes SE, now it was the combination of a Greek passport and a German number plate. I had some explaining to do and showed them a letter by the uni and said something about European spirit, living without borders, etc. Eventually they let me enter the country.
Boy, was I happy as I rode my big machine through the streets of Hull. I knew my way round, I had a big smile on my face and my heart was jumping up and down.
That was the beginning of a great summer and a fantastic return. I met the very few friends who are still there, strolled down the avenues and streets, played the tour guide for my students and colleagues, went out to the pubs I used to go when I was a student, discovered some new places, met new people and enjoyed my eight weeks to the fullest. I worked some more summers at the university, but this year I decided not to apply, because it's a far and expensive journey from China. To my fortune, my beloved university started a collaboration with SISU in Shanghai and needed tutors. I was contacted and asked if I wanted to do it. I wanted.
This was my first time in Shanghai and even though it was hot and humid and a pain to walk around, it was a great experience. The city is beautiful and very European and working at a Chinese public university was quite interesting. I'll be happy to do it next year too. It was only two of us from Hull uni, Howard who is a permanent member of staff and me. Towards the end of the course, our programme leader Andrew came to help us with the exams and other admin work and we used the little time off we had to spend time together and do various things. More about it in a later post.
At the end of the programme, the Chinese people from the department organised a closing ceremony. The three of us were there, a dozen students and some people from the SISU language department were there too. Photos were taken, some emotional speeches made, there was a Q&A session, one of the students made me one of the best compliments ever. He said that I'm more of a poet than a teacher. He must have referred to my looks I guess.
Two days later, a former student from Hull uni found the following article on the internet and passed it on to me. Now we're famous across China.
If you want to read more about Hull, please click here. (opens in a new window)
You can click here to read the article online (opens in a new window)
I have worked a few summers at the University of Hull as an EAP Tutor. I have taught there speaking and listening and absolutely love it. My connection to Hull and its university goes back a few years to when I was a student. I was living and studying in Italy many years ago, but the course there was very disorganised and one of my lecturers, an American, pushed and helped me to leave Bologna and go to England to start a degree there. So I went to the local British Council, opened the several hundred pages thick catalogue and read through it. As I was pondering what to study, I discovered that you could do Scandinavian Studies. Back then, I had a huge interest in Scandinavia and especially in Sweden. I was listening to Swedish music, my favourite band was and still is Bo Kaspers Orkester (Jazz/Pop), had some Swedish friends and dreamt of going to Sweden for holidays and possibly moving there.
Since I was born and bred in Germany, I grew up with all the fairy tales from Scandinavia and those countries seemed to me like something magical, something fairytale like, something out of this world. That's why and how I decided to do Scandinavian Studies. I sent my application to UCAS, had an interview with a university in London and with Hull and decided to go to Hull, simply because London is massive and expensive. I didn't know anything about Hull, neither did the few Brits I knew in Bologna. I went to a bookshop and looked up some travel guide books. The only info I found about Hull, was a quote by the singer of The Beautiful South, saying: The only nice thing about Hull are the surroundings where you can cycle around. That didn't sound great.
It took me two days to travel by my old red and rusty Ford Fiesta from Munich to Hull. I crossed The Channel through the immigrant route Calais - Dover. It was after midnight and it was stormy, that's why it took a while to reach the island. It was a sunny and warm morning when I arrived in Hull and I liked it from the very first moment. I saw treelined streets, beautiful buildings, flowers everywhere, only the people spoke an incomprehensible sort of English, which made it difficult when asking for directions.
However, I managed to find the university and the accommodation office, and they directed me to Needler Hall in Cottingham, where I would live the first year. I was given a map, but the student hall wasn't on it, but I followed the instructions and found it. There I was welcomed by some second year students who helped me unload the car and take all my belongings into my room. Later that day they brought some sandwiches to eat and I went to bed quite early, as I was up for two days.
When I woke up the following morning by the noise in the corridor, I saw that moving in of the 160+ students was in full swing.
I did my first degree at Hull, went for my year abroad to Uppsala in Sweden, and did a masters in translation in Hull. The four years I spent in Hull as a student weren't all rosy and fantastic, but nevertheless, I fell in love with the city, its people, its vibe. I met many people there, I met my first big love, found a job at a market research company to finance my studies, went to several absolutely insane parties, and had tears in my eyes when I had to leave. I still remember how I was standing at the main entrance of the uni, my fully packed Mercedes SE behind me and tears rolling down my cheeks. Even though Hull has a bad reputation, most students love it and miss it when they're gone.
I returned a year later with my mum for the graduation ceremony and noticed the many changes in the city. It was nice to meet many old friends, but sad at the same time when all the memories came up and knowing that I'd had to leave a few days later made it all worse. I was very sad when we had to leave after a week. It took me eight long years until I was able to return. This time I came back as a tutor.
I was in Greece on holidays. After a night out, I switched on my computer and browsed the web for jobs. That was when I discovered that many universities were looking for tutors for their summer study programmes. I applied at Hull, had an interview and got a place on the eight weeks programme. My joy was huge! I packed my Yamaha FJR 1300 and travelled across Europe. This time I didn't take the classical immigrant route, but chose to take the ferry from Rotterdam to Hull. The border control looked at me as always with suspicion, but I'm used to it. When I was a student, they found it weird to see me in a huge Mercedes SE, now it was the combination of a Greek passport and a German number plate. I had some explaining to do and showed them a letter by the uni and said something about European spirit, living without borders, etc. Eventually they let me enter the country.
Boy, was I happy as I rode my big machine through the streets of Hull. I knew my way round, I had a big smile on my face and my heart was jumping up and down.
That was the beginning of a great summer and a fantastic return. I met the very few friends who are still there, strolled down the avenues and streets, played the tour guide for my students and colleagues, went out to the pubs I used to go when I was a student, discovered some new places, met new people and enjoyed my eight weeks to the fullest. I worked some more summers at the university, but this year I decided not to apply, because it's a far and expensive journey from China. To my fortune, my beloved university started a collaboration with SISU in Shanghai and needed tutors. I was contacted and asked if I wanted to do it. I wanted.
This was my first time in Shanghai and even though it was hot and humid and a pain to walk around, it was a great experience. The city is beautiful and very European and working at a Chinese public university was quite interesting. I'll be happy to do it next year too. It was only two of us from Hull uni, Howard who is a permanent member of staff and me. Towards the end of the course, our programme leader Andrew came to help us with the exams and other admin work and we used the little time off we had to spend time together and do various things. More about it in a later post.
At the end of the programme, the Chinese people from the department organised a closing ceremony. The three of us were there, a dozen students and some people from the SISU language department were there too. Photos were taken, some emotional speeches made, there was a Q&A session, one of the students made me one of the best compliments ever. He said that I'm more of a poet than a teacher. He must have referred to my looks I guess.
Two days later, a former student from Hull uni found the following article on the internet and passed it on to me. Now we're famous across China.
If you want to read more about Hull, please click here. (opens in a new window)
You can click here to read the article online (opens in a new window)
Or you can view the article here:
I'm in the centre, next to me is Howard, next to him some departmental members of staff, on the other side are two ladies from the department and Andrew. Behind us are the students.
From left to right: Chloe from the SISU language department, Howard, Andrew and me.
A student being interviewed.
Another student being interviewed.
And Andrew, our programme learder hihihihi
If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.
