The craic was mighty! - Erasmus+ Staff Mobility in Galway
Every year, LMU offers its employees an English language course including a trip to Ireland. Stephan Pflaum took part this year and came back with many positive impressions.
I am Stephan. As an employee of the LMU Career Service, I recently took advantage of the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Program and embarked on a linguistic and intercultural adventure to Ireland.
The "Englisch-Kombiangebot" is aimed at employees who wish to further improve their advanced language skills. English is becoming more and more important for the work I do: our courses are increasingly aimed at international as well as domestic students. Furthermore, we work with more and more companies from all over the world - this also motivated me to take part.
And I have to say, my expectations were more than exceeded. Before our trip to Galway, our teacher, Kim, gave us an online course to prepare us for our stay.
On 27 March 2025, the time had finally come. I was on a plane to Dublin where I spent a few days before and after my course at the Atlantic Language School in Galway. It is highly recommendable to combine a staff mobility stay with additional free days in the respective country.
I explored Dublin on several walks. Ireland's capital is a vibrant high-tech metropolis which, despite the difference in size, is on a par with London in terms of its attractiveness.
After the weekend in Dublin, we continued to the Atlantic coast by bus. Galway is a beautiful student city, where the heart of the international med-tech industry beats. Many well-known global players have their European headquarters there. And, just like in Munich, two well-known universities compete for the top places.
Monday to Friday I attended my language course at the Atlantic Language School in a group of six people - what a learning luxury! In the mornings, we had interactive and very educational classes in General English (language level C1-C2). In the afternoon, we were a more mixed group of learners with different language levels (A2-C1), which I personally found very good. This was effective training in dealing with different accents and language skills, which is useful at work as you need to be able to communicate with non-native as well as native speakers of English.
I came back from Ireland with lots of new and inspiring impressions, drawings (I do urban sketching), ideas and newly acquired intercultural skills. It's fitting that Irish people are pleasant masters of small talk. They are always interested in strangers and a "short chit chat about the craic without overstaying its welcome."
In short: a fantastic offer that I, as a convinced European, can only recommend to everyone these days - to physically and emotionally feel how important it is to cultivate intercultural exchange and collaboration across borders. Oh yes - and "craic" is a typically Irish term for fun and a good, sociable time.
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