Halyna Kachan in Leipzig University: to self-study in order to teach

     This year surprised me. I got a grant of the program “Erasmus” to train at Leipzig University (Germany). I know much about this university and its traditions as Minakov Vadym Vasylyovych, candidate of philological sciences who works at the department of foreign languages and translation studied there and told much about this university. It was founded in 1409 and is one of the oldest universities in Germany. Goethe and Leipzig studied here. Anhela Merkel is a graduate of this university too. That is why I was happy to stand a chance to train here for six months.

       And so I am in Leipzig. The university is in the centre of the city. It is rather a big and modern campus. More than 28, 000 students from all over the world study at 14 faculties. To train at this university is to experience students’ and postgraduate students’ life in Germany, to enlarge the knowledge of the German language, to develop teaching skills.

     The faculty of Philology is the largest faculty of Leipzig University. It consists of ten institutes. University classrooms are modern and well-equipped. Reading rooms of libraries are equipped with convenient study places. Every reader has a possibility to plug in their laptops, there is free WI-FI. The central library gives access to its books not only to students and faculty staff but to citizens of the city as well. I was surprised that the library works the entire clock round.

       Now I am doing my best to use the experience I got in this university to conduct high quality classes.

Halyna Kachan,
assistant of the department of foreign philology and translation