Hi there, my name is Hurria and as part of my year abroad I chose to take part in an internship program at BeSoccer in Malaga, Spain. As a football enthusiast, spending nine months being a sports journalist and translator felt like an absolute dream. Not only did I get to cover the latest football news from around the world, but I was also handed the responsibility of providing live coverages of Premier League and Champions League fixtures. That said, I faced various challenges and difficulties during my time working for the company, the main one being with language.
As a modern language student, one of my main goals was to improve my Spanish, though I found that difficult at first given that the office setting did not allow for much in-person interaction. The majority of the communication was carried out via emails, meaning I struggled to see improvement in my spoken Spanish. My task of speaking as much Spanish as possible was also made harder by the fact that I wasn’t able to connect with a lot of people at work given that they were much older than me. Thankfully, I was able to make up for these barriers at home as I lived with two Spanish girls around my age.
While verbal communication was somewhat limited at BeSoccer, I felt that my literacy skills have grown massively. Working for the English department meant that all my work at to be done in English, however, a big part of my sources were Spanish and also French. This meant that I was constantly reading in the target language and translating into English. I went from reading and translating one article in one hour, to doing three or four within the same time.
Outside of work, I enhanced my social life by playing football with a group of Spanish girls once a week, which was also a good way to keep active after sitting at a desk for eight hours straight. In terms of travelling, I visited most of Malaga within my first few months in the city, but stopped during the latter stages as I found that solo travelling was not something really I enjoyed. I had friends and family members visiting me throughout my nine months in Spain, so I was able to manage the feelings of homesickness.
Perhaps my year abroad was not the most exhilarating one, but I have gained many valuable lessons and insights from it that I am still grateful and proud of it. I was able to learn so much about myself and my career aspirations during these. Every time someone would ask be about my future, I would feel lost and a grey cloud would obscure my mind. Now, I finally see something, a vision that gives me a sense of hope and direction. I now look to carry these experiences with me throughout the coming years and use them to turn my vision into reality.
My experience working for BeSoccer in Malaga, Spain