In fact, the Catalan boy goes to study in Belgium, but he doesn’t make any local friends. They are speaking Flemish among themselves and he has no idea what they are talking about. [...]
Yet, the boy befriends other Erasmus students just as eager for company as he is. Italians, Greeks, Lithuanians. He falls in love with a Polish girl, marries her and they settle in Berlin together and speak English at home.
Most places have student organizations run by locals who help foreign student get situated, including socially. Generally this is a local chapter of the ESN.
My understanding is that the helpfulness of these organizations vary wildly from place to place, but those in Belgium seemed pretty popular among both locals and foreigners, not least of which because this was known to be a great dating scene.
Also, many students choose to study in a country with which they already share a language. In French-speaking Belgium, some classes are made entirely or almost entirely of French students, or at least that was the case 10 years ago.
Not-unrelatedly, my wife is French, and out of the 7 couples I’m closest to from back in our university days, 4 include one ‘foreigner’ - though they hardly feel like that : one other French, one Portuguese, one Czech, one German.
Most places have student organizations run by locals who help foreign student get situated, including socially. Generally this is a local chapter of the ESN.
My understanding is that the helpfulness of these organizations vary wildly from place to place, but those in Belgium seemed pretty popular among both locals and foreigners, not least of which because this was known to be a great dating scene.
Also, many students choose to study in a country with which they already share a language. In French-speaking Belgium, some classes are made entirely or almost entirely of French students, or at least that was the case 10 years ago.
Not-unrelatedly, my wife is French, and out of the 7 couples I’m closest to from back in our university days, 4 include one ‘foreigner’ - though they hardly feel like that : one other French, one Portuguese, one Czech, one German.
Fair enough. I am 50, so may anectodes are from several decades ago and are probably badly outdated.