Assessment 1 (Part 1): Plan of action

Plan of Action: setting you expectations and challenges (500-600 words) – 10%

The Plan of Action will reflect and discuss what your objectives are and what challenges you expect to face when studying and living abroad.




My main objective is to improve my language skills. To do so, I plan to practise the language as much as possible and only speak Spanish, without being afraid of making errors. Moreover, I will join clubs or societies and spend as much time as possible with Spaniards, rather than with international students. Also listening to Spanish songs, reading books and articles written in Spanish, and watching movies in Spanish will help me achieve this objective. I also plan to take Spanish as a foreign language as one of my modules, and, possibly, to live with Spaniards. The resources I will need to reach my goal will therefore be time, effort, and maybe money, in the case I will need to pay for a club/society membership fee. My target is to achieve this goal by the end of the first semester. I will know I will have reached success once I will be able to understand an entire lecture, or an entire movie or article, and once I will think in Spanish and not in Italian or English anymore, and when I will be comfortable speaking it, which will be a challenge for me.

Another target is to find a flat by the first week of university. I will start researching and looking online from May. I will join Facebook groups, and have a look at the university accommodation resources. I will also have a look at letting agencies and I will ask advice to previous students. Time, money and effort will be needed, and I will be successful when I have a confirmation of the flat or room, or when I pay its deposit. There is a risk that I will not feel at ease with the flatmate, or that there will be problems in the flat or with the landlord/agency. If that is the case, I will do my best to solve these problems, or I will move to another flat. 

I also think it is important to get to know the city, knowing places and be comfortable to give directions to others. In order to achieve this goal, I will need a map, time and effort. I plan to do some research in advance and see where the university campus, main facilities, supermarkets, libraries, and shops are. I will also see which ways are easier or faster to go to campus from the flat and so on. Once there, I will hang out with local people and go explore the city, so that I will know my way by the end of September.

Another important objective for me is to make friends, not feeling lonely and having someone I could count on. I will need a lot of time and effort, and I hope I will succeed on this by the end of the first semester at the latest. I plan to open myself to other students and local people, looking for a room in a shared flat and join a club or a society. I know it is not easy to make friends with the natives, as they already have their group of friends, so this will be challenging, but I will do my best to be successful.

I also want to learn more about the culture by the end of the first semester. Therefore, I plan to spend as much time as possible with local people, attend local events and celebrations, do some research, and to visit the rest of Spain. I will need both time and money to do so, but the outcome will be thinking like a Spaniard, being involved in ceremonies and understand why local people behave in certain ways.
 


Submission date: to be uploaded to your blog by week 7

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