Hansa-Berufskolleg Jahrbuch 2017/2018

62 Moreover, I wanted to improve my communication skills in English. I was convinced of speaking English all day long would help to improve my lan- guage skills. Before I could start the journey I had to write a letter of motiva- tion and a CV for the companies abroad. Then I had to take part in an Erasmus online test to rate my English level. So I am able to check if my skills have improved. The participants could choose between three destinations in Europe: Brighton in the UK, Malaga in Spain and Dublin in Ireland. I chose Dublin because it has an upcoming industry and I wanted to get to know the beautiful country with its history, culture and the really amazing landscape. With 84,421 square kilometers, Ireland is the third biggest European Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean next to the UK. The Irish people are very proud of their country and the in- dependence from the UK in 1921. So you might meet many Irish people with a negative bias towards the United Kingdom. The main language in Ire- land is English, sometimes with a very strong accent, besides there exists another official language as well, it is ´Irish`. About five percent of the Irish population can speak Irish fluently, alt- hough everyone has to learn the ba- sics at primary school. I was very excited when I arrived in Ireland because I had never been there before and I looked forward to getting to know my host family. My host family is a young family with two Abbildung 57: Hansa-Berufskolleg - Jan Moll präsentiert seine Auslandserfahrungen. Foto: HBK-LV.