Learning Italian and studying in Italy

Corina Schmiedt in front of a car

Corina Schmiedt, Management student, spent one semester studying in Italian at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy.

I decided to study abroad to gain international experience and especially to improve my level of Italian. After 3 months, my Italian has definitely improved a lot, particularly because you cannot expect anyone in Italy to speak English!

The biggest challenge for me was getting used to the Italian bureaucracy and the Italian lectures. For example, it took me more than a week to get all the necessary documents to register myself in the registry hall and to enrol at the university. Lectures are completely different from ours at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences because there is almost no interaction with the students and the content is mainly taught theoretically.

However, beside university, life is really nice in Italy. The food is delicious, people are warm-hearted and helpful if you are able to talk Italian with them and the general attitude towards life is much more relaxed than in Austria, I would say.

So far, I have seen many cities in the North of Italy (Parma, Bologna, Verona, Mantua…) and I visited the Ligurian coast. I am looking forward to my trip to Naples and Capri. Travelling is a lot of fun here!

Vuol dire che in Italia si può fare conoscenza con la bella vita, si mangia molto bene, ma alla fine si può apprezzare il modo di studiare alla FH