Ollie Merriman (MML (Spanish and German) 2021) found his year abroad to be challenging yet life-changing, allowing him to return to Cambridge with new outlooks and perspectives.
Ollie spent the first half of his year abroad working for a boutique private law firm in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Barcelona, then studied German and Spanish at the Humboldt-University of Berlin for the second half. His time in Spain and Germany allowed him to put into practice the language skills he developed across the first two years of his course – especially his German, which he has learned ab initio (‘from the beginning’) from his first year.
“A lot of people who do MML are interested in the literature or philosophy or history, and while I am certainly interested in those, what I enjoy most is the core language-learning,” he says. “Being able to go from having never spoken a word of German in my life to studying at a German university in less than three years has been a really rewarding and enjoyable experience.”
Working for a Spanish law firm also proved to be particularly rewarding for Ollie. He says: “For humanities students at Cambridge, it’s quite rare to get the chance to do extended work experience during your degree. For me, the opportunity to do full-time, meaningful work whilst also learning a language and living in a fantastic city was really valuable.”
As a keen member of The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Ollie was thrilled to be able to join several choirs abroad. While in Barcelona, he sang with the Cor Jove of the Orfeó Català, one of Catalonia’s main youth choirs, and in Berlin he sang with both the Kammerchor (chamber choir) of the Humboldt-University and another choir, Vokalsystem. He found this enriching, “not only musically, but also for my languages through speaking to people”. He adds: “In Germany, it was probably while doing extracurricular activities that I managed to speak the most German and improve colloquially with people my age.”
Ollie admits that the year abroad was not without its challenges, including the stresses that come with sourcing accommodation and applying for a visa – his visa came late, delaying his departure to Spain – as well as occasional feelings of isolation. He recommends that anyone starting their year abroad should build connections quickly. “If there are Erasmus student networks or other British students you know there, go and meet them a lot,” he says. “You want to make friends who can then become your in-person support network while you’re there.
“Anyone who tells you that they had a perfect year abroad, felt great the whole time and had no problems is lying! It’s really hard, but the skills you learn, the growth you experience as a person, the independent living, the language learning, the cultural experience and in my case the work experience all make it worth it. There’s no one who says it wasn’t one of the best things they’ve done.”
Returning to Cambridge, Ollie feels that his year abroad has put the challenges of a Cambridge term into perspective. While many of his closest friends from other courses have now graduated, he has forged new friendships with others in his MML cohort whom he met while abroad. He has also found that the year has sparked new academic interests: this year he will write his optional dissertation on a controversial museum he encountered in Berlin, exploring the implications of a reconstruction of an imperial palace for German people’s perception of their collective identity.
