Ireland Study Abroad Question..?

Question

Hello everybody :) I am an American(and with that, I presume comes a stupid jolly fat ignorant American stereotype), however, my entire family history resides in Ireland, Cork (Cork City) to be exact. I was born and raised in America, but ever since I was a child I've been aching to visit and maybe end up in Ireland for good.

My question is I am looking into study abroad options at my current university and am wondering what county would be best to study in. I know everyone says Dublin, but if its anything like I imagine major cities, its more polluted and dirty than country-esque alternatives. I have been doing some research and have looked into Counties of Cork, Kerry, Galway. Obviously I'd have to find a university to allow my study abroad, but I was wondering if anyone could help me out as to where to look into looking?

My second question is if Irish language is able to be learned in Ireland's many universities? Is it offered, as Spanish or Italian would be?

Answer 1

If I had relatives there I would sureley choose University college Cork, depending of course,on what you'd like to study. You can certainly take Irish classes there.

But if you have an Irish born grandparent, it would be much better if you first got your Irish passport. This will reduce your school fees by about %90.

Also;when I went from the states;they made me do prep school first. So be prepared for that.

Answer 2

Look for UCC or CIT in Cork, they are pretty good for international students and most colleges do give Irish as a language, but as most Irish children learn Irish at the age of 5, you may be a little behind. You should contact the college about getting as in Ireland we get into college based on a points system. If you visit the website:

http://www.ucc.ie/en/ProspectiveStudents... you should find a good bit of information

Answer 3

As you are born outside of Ireland, you would be exempt from the Irish language requirement.

In Cork city there is UCC (which part of the National University of Ireland) and Cork Institute of Technology, and I think UCC might be your particular best bet.

Irish is probably available for adult beginners, but I'm not sure if it's done by the university itself. I would suggest contacting the Arts (Humanities) faculty directly and asking them about learning it.

Also, you  need to be aware that universities in Europe are an entirely different playing field to American universities. The system is set up differently, and it's also marked differently, and it's very very hard. Just so you know.

Answer 4

hi i hope this helps there are two university's in Dublin they are trinity college Dublin University College Dublin there is one in cork University College Cork one in Limerick University College Limerick one in galway University college Galway look up there websites to see what course they offer

limerick gets bad image through dublin based media it is not as bad as it is painted we like americans i dont think anyone will think your stupid may be some anti americanism in media that just talking about your administration i am not sure if irish is offered it may be in one  of them if you do decide to come dont be offended if your called a yank it is meant in a friendly fashion the people will wonder why your offended i did not realise ye did not like it until cousin came to stay the industrial revolution passed us by so we have not as much problems with pollution as other countries i think in usa dublin would be considered a town has a population of one million cork is second biggest limerick is third i suppose galway would come next i am sure you will get more information from american students studying here on the websites

Answer 5

http://www.campus.ie/user?cmd=item-detai...

check this out!! yea u can learn irish at most colleges....

Answer 6

Dublin (with UCD and Trinity) is a great city, but since youre "from" Cork, id recommend UCC (University College Cork)

UCC has a great reputation, it a little quieter than the colleges in Dublin, but the facilities (and nightlife!) are great there

Cork is less expensive than Dublin too

To answer your second question, depending on your choice of course, you could study Irish

However, Irish at university level is really really hard (even for us and we begin studying it at 4/5 years old!). At this level its based on literature and "old irish".

You cant take "beginners" irish in university, you need a very good  of the language before you even start.

To be honest I think youd find it pretty much impossible to study Irish from scratch, and i very much doubt theyd  even let you....

but dont worry about it because unless you go to a designated "gaeltacht" area, you wont need anything but english

Good Luck and message me if you want to know anything else

;)