At the start of October, I enrolled in The Tandem Project. It is an opportunity given by the KU Leuven for students who want to improve their language knowledge of one particular language by doing 10 activities with an Erasmus student from abroad. A language exchange programme thus. For me, the Tandem Project would be very helpful to improve my German since I had chosen that language to study for my master’s degree in Corporate Communication without having a bachelor’s degree in German. In other words, my knowledge of German was not what it was supposed to be, especially not to take a master course about it. Nonetheless, I took this course (“fake it until you make it” is my motto) but I also enrolled in the Tandem Project. I already participated in the Tandem Project 2 years ago but that was for an English course. Back then, I did not have much luck with my tandem partner.
I met Leonie at the Tandem Kick-off, we both immediately clicked and did not really talk to the other participants. Leonie comes from Würzburg, Germany and studied a semester here at the KU Leuven. On that day, my German knowledge was very basic but we managed to talk about … the basics. We soon discovered our shared love for photography and guess what? We both have the same camera! I was on cloud nine.
From that day, we met up almost weekly, talking about university life, our courses (we did have one course together) and our interests. We had many conversations about books but also about Belgian culture, dialects and typical dishes. I discovered the German tradition called Zwiebelfeste (Onion festival), little words in the Türinger dialect and differences between Frankish and Bayerish culture. Most people only know about the typical Oktoberfeste in München but there is so much more than that.
At the beginning of our Tandem Project, we set ourselves goals, mine as it comes to German skills and Leonie about her Dutch knowlegde. We mainly spoke in German but we both helped each other. Leonie helped me a lot with my pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and I too helped her with these aspects but then for Dutch. Furthermore, we decided to do one bigger tandem activity. I suggested visiting Brugge since I know the city quite well because I played there as a street musician a few years ago. Besides, Brugge is a beautiful city and it would be a shame not to have seen it. Peak Belgian culture if you ask me. This trip was not mandatory but I am so glad we went since we had a lot of fun. It even snowed when we were there. We were so cold that in order the stay warm we had no choice but to eat Liège waffles.
Our little trip to Brugge
Over the course of those months, we became friends. The tandem meetings or “Aktivitäten” did not feel compulsory, on the contrary, they were a break from the busy university stress we both felt. When the tandem project was finished, we were sad it was over so we decided to keep meeting up until Leonie went back to Germany. After our exams, we went to De Haan by the Belgian coast. It was a very cold day and we spent little time outside walking along the shore and taking pictures in the dunes. We spent double time talking in a warm and cozy tearoom in De Haan. The inevitable came: saying goodbye. I am really bad at it, so we decided to meet one last time the day after we went to De Haan.
Today, Leonie goes back to Germany and I am immensely grateful for this one-in-a-lifetime experience. Not only have my German skills improved, I also gained a very good friend. That, I value most.
Day trip to De Haan
Hello,
Thank you for reading this blog. Do you remember I mentioned in the last blog I had a lot of beautiful moments last term at university? Well, a lot of them I experienced in the Tandem Project together with Leonie.
I initially hesitated to write a blog about our project but since we both love photography, it seemed suitable to do so. I hope the future will bring us numerous other opportunities to photograph together!
Stay warm and until the next blog 👋
Laura
Laura van Cutsem 