How Anne’s experience abroad shaped the rest of her life!
Meet Anne Wytzes, one of our proud alumni from the Netherlands. When she was 18, she decided to go on an English gap year in Australia. Her time abroad has shaped her into the person she is today: confident, brave, multilingual, and working in an international environment! Here is her full story:
What made you decide to go on a gap year?
I really wanted to go on an adventure. I think it was something that was always in my head since I was younger, to travel and go to a place far from home. I wasn’t ready to immediately start studying after high school, and I said: “I’m going to take my time, I’m going to take some rest — let’s take a gap year.”
When I booked, ESL were super handy, they really helped me along the process and with my stay, and it gave me some stability, which helped even though I went to a place far away from home.
What did you like the most about travelling alone to study English?
I always recommend people go alone. Even though it might be nice to share this experience with people that you know. If you go by yourself, you’re kind of challenged a bit more, you will talk to people, and it goes naturally.
If you’re on your own, you’re going to ask more questions, and you’re going to approach others in the most random places, and, for me, that’s where most of my connections grew.
Can you describe a typical day or week during a gap year?
We would wake up, go to school, and have our English course. I think school was until the beginning of the afternoon, and then I took some supplementary business English courses.
Normally, when we finished our day of school, we would make plans with the people around us. I studied on the Gold Coast: Surfers Paradise! So, often this meant that we would go to the beach, or it was super well connected to some other beautiful coastal towns, which made for a nice day trip.
On a personal note, I also remember my farewell from the language school; everybody wrote down sweet messages, and I thought, “Wow, this place really became my home in such a short period of time.”
What other skills do you think you built during your language?
I grew my interpersonal skills a lot, I think, because it was my first experience of meeting people from other cultures. I learned a lot. I was the only Dutch person in the school, and I met so many people from different cultures. Like just simple things, for example, in my hostel from ESL, I was sleeping in the same room as a Brazilian girl, and she became my best friend and introduced me to a whole new Brazilian community!
At home, you’re always living in your own bubble, but this kind of breaks you out of it. The things I always learned about other cultures were from books, and this brought it to life!
Why did you book with ESL?
Booking my course through an agency gave me the stability that I needed at the beginning of my trip.
Since I was young and since it was far away from home, it was my first ever experience abroad. This gave me assurance and the possibility to ask questions if I wanted to, but also to compare places, because the offer of these kinds of courses is huge!
It also gave me security because I also booked my stay for the first period through ESL. At the time, it also gave stability not only to me but to my parents. That I was going to end up in a trusted place—I was going to be fine!
Would you say the gap year changed you in any way?
It made me grow. I was 18, and when I look back, I see that it helped me grow a lot. It gave me challenges, it gave me joy, but I also loved it!
I got inspired and I made my decision to do my bachelor’s in English, which was a no-brainer after my gap year, but I don’t know if I would have even tried it if I didn’t go abroad.
It was the start of my international journey, and in my life now, I speak more English than Dutch, and I want to take the opportunities that I can get to go abroad again and to see if I can explore more places.
Why did you choose Australia, and what did you love about it?
I specifically chose Australia because I wanted to improve my English and go as far away as possible, to the other side of the world and challenge myself!
My favourite part was the people; the people I met made my experience unique and memorable. I loved it, the way of living I had over there was something I had never done before. I love the way Australians take life, it’s a little slower, in the sense that “we take more time for the things we love”, and since I lived in Surfers Paradise, it was often things like surfing, going to the beach and having barbeques in the park!
What would you say to someone thinking about taking a gap year?
Go, go, go! If you have the possibility to go, then do it, don’t doubt it. The life you’re going to leave behind is something you already know, so it can be hard to leave it behind, but even if the step you’re going to take is something that you might not know yet, just take the leap!
Are you ready to live an experience just like Anne’s? Get in contact with our advisors and start your gap year today!
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