Iván and Natalia are a lovely couple from Spain who are just coming to the end of a 3 month English Language stay with us. They are staying in a double room with a lovely host family. The host mother’s name is Alaine and she is very happy with the students. They all get along very well. They are very active students and took part in nearly all the excursions and afternoon social activities. We will be sad to see Iván and Natalia  leaving this Friday!

Here is what Natalia has to say about her language holiday: 

I finished studying a major in Spain just before coming to Ireland. I wanted to study abroad to improve my English.

I had been in England a view years ago and wanted somewhere different to visit so I chose Ireland. I heard that Cork was a small city so it seemed the perfect choice for me.

Cork is a really nice place with lovely people and I am enjoying living here a lot. Furthermore, I have traveled around Ireland and it is gorgeous. I really like it!

I have gone to Dublin, to Galway, to Kinsale,  to Youghal ,to Killarney and to the Ring of Kerry… Ireland is very nice.

The school has very good teachers and staff and I am learning a lot of English.  The school offers lots of social activities. My favourites are Book Club, Pronunciation Class, Conversation class and another very interesting one is the City Orientation Walk on the first day.

In addition the school has a lot of board games,books and DVDs to borrow.

Nowadays I am a member of the Book Club and I enjoy reading new books and sharing my opinions with other members.

In Ireland I am living with a host family with Iván my boyfriend. The family are so nice and they take really good care of us.  The house is big . I share a bedroom with my boyfriend and we share a bathroom with just one other student. There is lots of room for all of us. The food is delicious and our host family also allows us use the kitchen to cook at extra times if we like. We sometimes cook Spanish food for the family.

I have met many people in Cork:  French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and of course Irish.

I used to drink coffee before coming to Ireland and now I drink tea with milk like an Irish person! I love tea with milk, I like the flavour so much!

Here is what Iván has to say about his language holiday: 

Before coming I was working in a company and I took a break for three months in my job.I chose Ireland because a friend came to Ireland last year and he advised me to come here.

I prefer towns to cities so I chose Cork over Dublin and I also knew there would be less Spanish people in Cork. Cork is a beautiful place and the people are lovely.

I have travelled around Ireland from Cork and visiting Galway, Limerick and Dublin. Each place was beautiful.

The school has  a lot of activities after lunch for students. My favorite social activity is the Book Club because I think it is the best social activity to improve your English.

I’m living in a host family with my girlfriend and the family are really lovely.The food is delicious because my host mother loves cooking.I have been very lucky. I like it a lot.In conclusion, I think going to a host family is a good chance to improve your English.

My favourite thing in Ireland is the rugby environment and also Ireland is so green and the views very beautiful.

I recommend Ireland as a study destination over other countries as the people are very friendly, the views are amazing and there are lots of places to visit!

Thank you to Ivan and Natalia for being such engaging, active and out going students. We wish you both all the best for your future.

We at Cork English Academy were delighted to welcome Laia , Eva and Ferran ,a lovely family from Spain,on our Summer Family Package in 2012 and in 2013.  They love Cork and we hope to welcome them back in 2014 again!

Q. Why did you choose Ireland as your holiday destination? 

We find Irish people are very friendly, polite and patient with foreign English speakers as us.

Q. What made you chose Cork city as our study destination? 

We live in Tarragona and there is a direct fly . It’s very comfortable.

Q. Do you have any comments with regards the staff at Cork English Academy and Kids Camp?

We got great support from our teachers at Cork English Academy and from Nora the manager of the kids Camp. The kids Camp leaders are very helpful also.

Q. What did you think about the distances between schools,camps and accommodation?

The distances are short so you can manage to combine the Activity Camp and Academy without problems .

Q.What is your favourite thing about Cork?

No doubt , the strongest point in Cork are the people.

Q. Would you suggest friends coming here and why?

We have suggested to our friends to take the family package because it’s a good way to learn for all the family . Not only teachers/staff in the academy are fantastic , even on the street  , going shopping is a genuine in English language experience .

Thank you for your feedback. We hope to see you all again soon!

Our lovely student Kwon from Korea undertook 25 weeks General English tuition as part of her Academic Year programme and successfully worked her way up two English language levels from Pre-Intermediate (CEF A2) to  Upper-Intermediate (CEF B2)!

Kwon studied with us for a 6 month study period from March until August and she is now enjoying a 6 month holiday period and has found a job in a city center cafe where she is using her English everyday.

Here are Kwon’s thoughts on her language stay in Cork:

Hello, my name is Kwon. I am Korean and I studied Hospitality at my university before I came to Ireland. I took a year off and came here in order to improve my English, especially my speaking skills, because I would like to work in Tourism so learning foreign languages is essential for me.

I had planned studying abroad for a long time. First, I chose the country and city for studying. I would like to go in Europe because I wanted to travel loads of countries while I stay abroad. But there are a lot of Koreans in England already. So I tried to find a country which has very few Korean. At that time, I watched the films ‘ps. I love you’ and ‘Leap year’ which is set in Ireland. And I was fascinated by Ireland. Since then, I searched lots of information about Ireland and decided to come to Cork.

I came here through a Language Agency called ABC. As far as I know, ABC is the only Korean agent that has an office in Cork and that is the number one reason why I chose to book with Kim from ABC. Before and after I arrived here, she was so kind as to help me. When I was worried about choosing school, I told her I would like to go school which is kind of family. She recommended me Cork English Academy. So I registered at CEA for 25 weeks and I’ve been very satisfied with the result!

I started from an A2 level and got a B2 certification after 6 months. I think my English has improved a lot. At the beginning of school, I was very nervous whenever I spoke English. But now I’m not nervous as much as I was. And I can understand more than before. And for me the most difficult one was pronunciations. So I went to the free pronunciation class every Tuesday. It was really helpful. Also I watched loads of American/English TV shows and movies. And I recorded new vocabularies and useful expressions. I did of course homework and review as much as I could.

To be honest, I have only positive comments to say about my school. All staffs and teachers were really, really great. I had periodic meeting with teachers and they always took good care of me. The facilities are also fine with big and clean class rooms, student room and bathrooms. The only bad thing I experienced was sometimes Wifi didn’t work well.

When I had a problem in my house, they helped me to find temporary accommodation with their accommodation provider. I lived there for 2 weeks. I thought the location and housemates were good.

About living Cork, I have never regretted coming here. While I have been living here for 6 months, at the start sometimes I was bored and a little bit lonely but I made a lot of good friends, learned something new and enjoyed living in a new place as well. As far as I am concerned, the people are really kind and Cork city gives a friendly and cozy feeling. Of course, as you know, the weather is strange. (But at the moment, we have a nice “summer”:>)

Usually I had a farewell party every weekend in the pub. The atmosphere is a bit different to pubs in Korea. I spent a lot of nice nights in pub with a pint. Also I used to travel around Ireland on weekends and bank holidays. I visited Kinsale, Cobh, Dublin, Dingle and so on. In my opinion, the best place I’ve visited in Ireland was Dingle. I hired a car with my friends and drove along the shore. It was awesome! You can get there by tourist bus as well, but I strongly recommend driving to get there.

Now I finished my long race in school and I am working in Gloria Jean’s coffee. Sometimes I face a difficult problem when I take the order I am getting better. I think it is another opportunity to improve my English.

I would like to recommend my friends to come here and study English, for me, it’s the best place to study English.