DSD trainees

What´s the best way to start?

 

Perhaps a short introduction would help. I'm Chris Heckmann, 21 years old and doing a training as an industrial manager at Druckguss Service Deutschland GmbH.

 

As part of my training I had the opportunity to do an internship in Bristol. For three weeks I'll be living in a host family and working for a company located in England. "This will be a great chance for me,“ I thought, and it has been!

 

I’m working for an online magazine dedicated to students who are interested in studying abroad. The contributors write stories about universities, their courses, arrangements for living, accommodation and some important facts and information about student life. It is based in the beautiful city of Bristol and has its office in the buildings of Aardman Studios, producer of, "Shawn the Sheep,“ and, „Wallace and Gromit." Bristol is just 90 minutes away from London by train and some of my group and I visited London last weekend, but I do like Bristol more than, ’The Big Smoke’, as they call London here. There are so many people wandering around the whole day that you can’t find much peace and quiet, but the monuments are gorgeous. The nightlife of London is very interesting too, due to the fact that so many different cultures and peoples live in there. 

 

My journey here was a little haphazard, because we had no information about our host family, or the host company at all. Just two days before starting, we got the information. But now I am in my second week of this internship and I am really happy to be here. I’ve already gained so much experience for my future life, and speaking the English language is getting easier day by day. My colleagues at my company are lovely and they help me everyday to improve my English, working on presentations, smalltalk in the canteen at lunch and also filling the website with content, which is very helpful for me. Even to read articles on their website is great to enhance my English language skills

 

The daily dinner together with my host family is also very useful to master the English language. My 'host mum' is very welcoming, and wants to talk with me all the time when I am at home. She received me at the coach station with the words, "let’s go home and get you some food." She was enormously understanding towards me from the first minute and is still.

 

It isn’t really difficult to find opportunities to communicate in England with people here, because no one speaks a word of German, so I have to speak English to survive.

 

All in all I’m really thankful for those people who allowed me the opportunity to gain this experience, but I’m also looking forward to being at home again and  seeing some familiar faces.

 

I’m excited for my last week - we’ll see what happens next.

 

Internship in Bristol? Go for it!