Moi eem! That’s a little Gronings greeting for you. In case you don’t already know, that’s the language of the Northern most city in the Netherlands, namely Groningen, and that is where I undertook a semester abroad from September 2023-January 2024.
By Hannah Bilsby (BAMLC Dutch, German, French)
For some reason, I had no doubts about where I would choose to do my year abroad. I knew that I wanted to split my time between the Netherlands and Germany, and the choice for Dutch was then narrowed down to Ghent and Brussels in Belgium, and Utrecht, Nijmegen and Groningen in the Netherlands. I briefly thought about Utrecht, and let me tell you, if choosing again, I may have considered it because it is a gorgeous city and almost as good as Gro, however for a really studenty Dutch city, I was left with Groningen.
Click here for a montage of Hannah's time in Groningen
Opportunities
It has a reputation for having loads of students, and being welcoming to internationals… not everyone’s idea of a nightmare, but in a way it was something that I feared. If you’ve studied Dutch from first year, like me, you may feel that your Dutch is definitely not fluent yet, but I was determined to make the most out of being abroad, and be fully immersed in the language and culture. Dutchies are known for being better at English than even us Brits, so it felt daunting at first wondering whether I’d even practice my Dutch; spoiler alert, I did! Although many of the opportunities I had to seek out for myself – which left me with a huge sense of success – and I found that at every opportunity where I did speak Dutch, I could choose what pace we spoke at, and how much I wanted to challenge myself.
Friends for life
I know everyone says this, but I really did make friends for life! I met the most amazing people just by putting myself out there, whether this be by speaking to everyone I sat down next to in lectures, taking extra Dutch classes and a module for C2 speakers, joining societies, and my proudest moment: joining one of the committees at my running club, where there were only native speakers. Learning terms like “meeting adjourned” and “budgeting” in Dutch is now a great asset to me, and I really found a community.
My only regret now is that I couldn’t do the whole year in Groningen. It is a great city, similar to Sheffield, but somehow smaller! As someone who grew up in London, this seems like the tiniest town to me, but it had everything I needed. I rode my bike to uni everyday, carried my groceries in it, cycled to the athletics track 3 times a week, cycled home from the club at 3am on it, went out to the windmill and the lake on it, and even took my cabin-sized suitcase on it when I went away for the weekend (not everyone is that extreme I promise… my friends all made fun of me for that), but my bike became my best friend, and I already miss her bright orange frame!
All in all, I had the best experience, and have friends all over the world, a lot who are still in Groningen completing their bachelor degrees. Luckily for me, I’ll always have a place to stay there. If you’re thinking about choices for your year abroad in the Netherlands, definitely keep Groningen in mind. And with that being said, veel succes met je keuzes, en vergeet niet "er gaat niets boven Groningen”.
Hannah Bilsby, March 2024