Case Study B - Xia Chen

Name: Xia Chen
Country: China
College: The Joyce English Language School

Students come to Ireland to learn English for many reasons: to improve their level of English for a course or career in their home country, to gain entry to a college in Ireland, or as is the case with Xia, to start a career in Ireland.

A practising nurse back in China, Xia is currently undergoing a preparation course for the IELTS exam in Dublin’s Joyce English Language School. She requires an overall score of 7.0 in order to register with An Bord Altranais (the Irish professional nursing body) and begin her exciting new career and life in Ireland. And judging by the clarity with which she spoke to this interviewer, things are going very well indeed.

Xia finds the course to be challenging, but useful. The various sections that make up the IELTS exam – reading, writing, speaking, listening – all combine to help her engage in ‘real’ conversations; an essential skill for nursing, where clear communication with every patient is vital.

Aside from the course itself, Xia is full of praise for her school, which allows her the freedom on any given day to attend a morning or evening class. ‘This is suitable for our jobs,’ she explains. ‘As part time students we need the flexibility in order to work part time and support our lives.’

Xia also appreciates the opportunity to socialise with other nationalities, of which there are many in her school – Mauritian, Italian, and Russian to name just a few. And they surely appreciate her too, as one of Xia’s favourite pastimes is to cook for her friends and classmates.

She finds the cost of living and rent in Dublin City Centre quite high, but one of the few advantages of the current recession is that these costs, and rent in particular, have begun to fall at a steady rate.

So what advice does Xia have for fellow English language students thinking of making their way to Ireland? ‘I recommend living with other foreign students,’ she says, ‘because you get to practice your English all the time and learn about other cultures.’