My Irish Experience

Thanks to our school Erasmus+ project "Keeping alive a bilingual project" last summer, I had the opportunity to go to Dublin to take an English course. 

I travelled with my husband who did a course too. We stayed at a family house which was situated in Castleknock, an amazing neighbourhood near Dublin. At home, there was a Japanese student too.

We got up very early everyday because we had to catch the bus at 7:45 a.m. In our academy "Centre of English Studies" we had classes from 9:00 to 1:00 pm. Our teachers, Saoirse and Olga, were very friendly and they explained very clearly. In my class there were fourteen students from different countries: France, Korea, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil and Spain with a common goal: improving our English skills. The classes were dynamic, funny and very interesting, with a playful approach; I think I learned a lot and I met many people. In that moment I realised the importance of speaking English.

At 1:00 pm we had lunch, frequently by Temple Bar zone, where there were many restaurants and

pubs. Then, in the afternoon we visited interesting places, like St. Patrick´s Cathedral, Guinness Storehouse, Trinity College, Castle of Dublin…  Also, we visited Malahide with its beautiful castle, and Howth, where we could see seals swimming among the boats in the harbour.

About 6:30 pm, we went back home for dinner, which I must say is very early for Spanish people. At first, it was strange for me, but, finally I got used to. During dinner, we talked about a lot of things:  Japanese culture, Spanish food and weather, Irish customs, our jobs and families; it was a pleasant moment, perhaps, the better moment of the day. After dinner I enjoyed going for a walk around the neighbourhood. We were very lucky because our host mother and Rei (Japanese student) were very nice, so that we felt comfortable, like home. 

At the weekend we travelled to west Ireland. We visited The Cliffs of Moher which we enjoyed a lot, although the weather was awful. Then, we stopped in Galway and we could go for a walk along the crowded streets. We finished exhausted but we were happy. 

Finally I would like to say that Irish people are friendly and lovely, we met people helpful who helped us in difficult situations. 

In conclusion, it was a fantastic experience, I recommend people who want to improve their English skills to travel to Ireland. It is a marvellous country. In fact, I will go next year again. 

Toñi Menéndez

Dublin 2015