• Student life

  • So, I study at ITT Dublin.

    The Institute of Technology Tallaght is a public college. This Institute was found in 1992. People can study in 3 schools (business and Humanities, Engineering, and Science and Computing). There are 7 different sections: accountancy, marketing, computing, engineering, humanities, culinary art and management.

    IIT Dublin

     

    This university is located around 12 km North-West of Dublin city center, from 40 minutes by the LUAS (tramway) or 30 minutes in bus. A little town called Tallaght, but very nice thanks to its view on mountains and its calm environment with a lot of parks.

     

    IIT Dublin

    Click on the picture, and discover Tallaght thanks to Google Maps.


    votre commentaire
  • Thursday 22nd of January, 10 o'clock:

    I am at ITT. It is my integration day. I go to the room number 023. There are all the Erasmus students, who are going to study for the second semester. We are about 40 from all over the world (Spain, Germany, Mexico, Hollande... and so many French). Tara, International Officer explain us the structure of the organisation, the academic system at ITT, the timetables, the exams... And finally, the can have a test called EFL to determine our English level.

    I eat with Petra (from Holland), Marion, Citlalmina (both are Mexican girls), Marlène and Miguel (a Spanish). It is very crazy to eat with people who are so different. It is interesting to be with them because sometimes, we also speak Spanish.

    Erasmus students look like nice. Everybody is talking, but there are lots of people who don't speak together English but French. Foreign persons speak very well English. I would like to speak like them. I hope so!

     

    Friday 23rd of January, 10 o'clock:

     I go to the college to another meeting with the ITT's staff. I meet new people, very nice. Then, we can take all the timetables and choose which courses we would like to study.  We have to take 6 courses (each 5 ECTS). It's very difficult to do our own timetables with courses clashs. Marlène and I would like to have the same courses in order to help each other during the revision period.

     

    Monday 26th of January, 10 o'clock:

    Lessons begin. We have 6 weeks to test courses and choose what courses are the best.


    votre commentaire
  • Student interaction, social life, sports, clubs

     

    ITT Dublin proposes 35 associations, called societies and clubs, in a different area organized around the Student Union (ITT SU).
    There are some sports like zumba, rugby, volleyball, football, badminton, basketball, archery...
    There are also some societies like radio society or International Cultural Society which organized events and trips for mainly Erasmus students.

    I decide to join the International cultural society and the badminton club. Trainings are on Tuesdays (2 to 4 pm) and on Fridays (6 to 8) near the college. It's only 3 euros a year for each club (so I pay €6). I like doing sport and I think I will meet other people.

     

    Student interaction, social life, sports, clubs

    Here, this is our coach.


    votre commentaire
  • There are so many differencies in the classroom in Irelande if you compair with France.

    First of all students call lecturers by their first name whereas in France we call them by their last name. And lecturers/staff want that you call them by their first name. They ask you. At the beggining it was difficult because I always wanted to call them "Miss or Mister", but at the end it was okay.

    However people here aren't punctual. It is horrible! Everybody is late. For example lecturers often begin their lesson 15-20 minutes late (in one hour of course) and they finish 5-10 minutes early. Students can come in the classroom when you would. If they arrive 5 minutes before the end of lesson it is not a problem and they don't appologize themselves.


    Computers at school and during lessons are forbidden. But all students use their mobile phone for sending text, going on the Internet, and sometimes calling!

    Students can leave classroom whenever they would without say something. It is very weird !

    Irish students don't take any notes about the lesson. They just listen to the lecturer because all lessons are uploaded on Moodle (the network of the university). Everybody is quiet, no one speak with their neighbours.

     

    By the way I have some stories to tell you!

    I did a CA (continuous assessment) in Hospitality Management, but the lecturer lost my paper. I received an e-mail to tell me my mark which was O%. Very confused, I didn't understand and I decided to go to see my lecturer because it was not my fault. After a conversation, my lecturer decided to give me the mark of my second CA (80%) and she cancelled the 0%. It is a weird comportment but it is a good point for me.

     

    Few days after, I received another e-mail from Elizabeth (Management's teacher) to tell me that my blog (a CA) didn't answer to the subject so she gave me 0% again. I was very hangry because I had already done the same suject in France, in Human Resources and I had a good mark. I asked her an appointment to explain the situation and try to change her opinion. I succeeded and she gave me the average mark (40%) because she told me that if I didn't write anything, I would have 0% as well. I was not happy but I respected her decision. But, at the end of semester, she sent us an email to resume all the mark that we had and for this blog I had 77%. So I really don't understand how teachers give the marks. 

     

    I had a report and an oral presentation in Management, in group of two. I was with Linda, an Irish student. On the one hand, it was a good experience to work with her to discover how Irish work, but on the other hand, it was horrible because they have a very different method to us. They begin to work just few days before the deadline. The rules to edit a report are not the same. Referencing and bibliography are very important. When you write something in your report, you have to give the reference in the text, just after the idea even if you reformulate it and then, at the end of the report. 

    Irish students aren't used to do presentation. It was so funny because they were shy and not comfortable. They just read the powerpoint which was very basic, they don't look at the audience and don't speak loud.


    votre commentaire
  • European Cultural Sociology:

    This lecture is actually divided in three other lectures: French culture, German culture and Spanish culture. We have a CA each 4 weeks and then, we study another country and its culture. Exams are related to the subject we discussed and to the movie that we saw.

    We study health care, school system, regions, sport, culture, press and current events.

     

    Marketing:

    This lecure is about the 4P, the definition of marketing, Maslow, PESTLE... It is quiet the same subject as we saw the last three semesters. However this is really interesting to see the difference between France and Ireland in marketing, and to discover another approach. We have to do a group project. I am with Marlène and Michal (an Erasmus from Slovaquia). We work on Haribo comapny. I choose a part which is about PESTLE analysis.

     

    Business Management:

    I  think it is the lesson where we learn the more of notions. She speaks clearly and asks us a lot of questions like "what about France? what do you think?". We have to write 4 essays about 4 notions. No final exam but we have a presentation in group about an entrepreneur. I am with Linda, an Irish and we work about Cara pharmacy.

    The lecture called Elizabeth teachs us some notions in

    • Entrepreneurship (business plans sources of finance, barriers to entrepreneurship, meaning and important of entrepreneurship, support for enterprise, feasibility studies...),
    • Business ethics (definitions, identification of the importance of business ethics, how companies can create an ethical business, the benefits of being an ethical business...)
    • HRM (HR planning, recruitment, selection, training, compensation, performance appraisal, benefits...),
    • Industrial relation (nature of industrial relation and collective bargaining in Ireland, trade unions, employer

     

    Introduction Information System:

    In this course, we are in a lab and we use Word, Excel and Powerpoint. We learn how to make a good presentation on word and powerpoint and how to use these tools quickier and easier. We also learn some formulas like IF on Excel. It is a different approach than we saw at ESDES for the first semester. The lecturer speaks a lot so it is very interesting to learn IT's words in English.

    We haven't got any final exam. But we have to upload our work on Moodle (like Claroline) each week and we have to make a report/journal. 

     

    Principes of Hospitality Management:

     This course is a mix between marketing and organisation lessons at ESDES. We learn the nature of management (what managers do, their process, roles, skills and functions), the evolution of management theory the motivations and leadership, the organisation of structure and design and finally the business environment.

    It is not an interactive lesson, we write a lot of things so, we can improve our English. There are assessements and a final exam in May.

     

    Spanish:

    I decide to choose Spanish course because it is important to speak several languages. Even if I am in Ireland and I improve my English, I would like to improve my Spanish too. Lessons are easy for us. The level in grammar is under than the French level but we can review some grammar's points. It is not so bad. And I especially like one of the course because during one hour we translate a text inEnglish but the text is written in Spanish. So we learn a lot of vocabulary and structures. The teacher is very nice!

    We have assessements about Grammar and a final exam which is an interview in Spanish for a job, exactly the same that we did at ESDES for the third semester.

     

    To know more about the final exams, come on on my diary and the article about the weeks 17 & 18.


    votre commentaire