Ireland

St. Patrick’s College, Dublin

A letter from St Patrick´s College - Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland 

by Lenka Lašáková (2012) 

Dear all, In my opinion, the Erasmus program is a great opportunity to gain new skills and obtain new experiences and useful knowledge. I find very motivating the fact that Ireland is a European country with different culture, habits and language from than we are used to in Central Europe.

At St Patrick’s College there are two courses meant only for the international students. Irish Language, Literature and Culture where you have a chance to learn the Irish language at least at the basic level and get to know Ireland as well as its culture and traditions in detail. Fieldtrip is the second one and I really recommend enrolling in this course because of two trips (one is always outside Dublin city) organized by the college. This semester a day trip to Boyne Valley was organized and we are looking forward to exploring Dublin city which is held next week. This course looks at modern Irish civilization from the perspectives of geography, history, sustainable development, heritage and culture with an emphasis on images of Ireland.

While studying at St Patrick´s College, Erasmus students are allowed to choose a wide range of intriguing courses proposed for a semester of your stay. The University offers educational courses as well as those in humanities. This semester, I am taking Preparation for Teaching Practice course as well as Psychology of Education. Digital Learning course is very useful for your future career because you learn to work with digital media (camera, interactive white board, sound) when teaching. Another interesting course, which explores different kinds of novels and investigates the variety of ways in which the form represents reality, is “What´s Novel about the Novel?”. The texts are selected from novels such as Robinson Crusoe, Emma, Hard Times, The Great Gatsby, The Color Purple.  All of the courses mentioned above are selected from St Patrick´s university webpage, which I recommend you to browse before applying for your stay.

I think, studying for the summer semester in such a multi-cultural, diverse and inspirational atmosphere, which Dublin definitely is, would bring a great benefit to your academic education as it is so far bringing all this to me. Although every stay abroad has its pros and cons, experience here is breathtaking and, honestly, I am really charmed with Dublin itself and mainly Irish nature. I am thankful for this great opportunity to study abroad, especially on this green island.

Last but not least, I must admit that other Erasmus students are very kind and trust me you will make friends here easily. Such students want to travel, meet new interesting people, enjoy their stay in a foreign country and of course obtain useful experience for their further life. And this is exactly what I was looking for – academic work together with meeting new people and living abroad.  I also hope that your dream to study abroad will come true! J Crossing fingers for all of you!

XXX LENKA 

If you have any questions do not hesitate and write me an email: lenka.lasakova@gmail.com

Photos by Lenka Lašáková

(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Lenka Lašáková. Some rights reserved.