Case Study 1

Clíodhna Fannin is studying International Commerce with Italian at NUI Galway. She spent 2006/2007 in Trento, Italy, on the ERASMUS programme and describes it as ‘the best decision I have made’. She says: ‘The best part about studying a language in University is the chance to go away for a year and experience a whole new and different culture. Trento is a beautiful city with Italian and Austrian influences. I met so many different people over there and my best friends came from Portugal and Turkey. Because Trento is such a small city, I was fortunate to know nearly all the ERASMUS students. There was a great sense of community among all the ERASMUS students and by the end we knew the name of everyone at the parties’. ‘We did a lot of travelling and it was really easy to get to places…we even went as far as Munich, and Austria was only a cheap train ride away. For me the best part about Erasmus was getting to do all the stuff you don’t get the chance to do in Ireland. I made some amazing friends that I know I will have for life and now I have plenty of excuses to go and visit them all’. She also developed a new hobby – snowboarding – which she was able to learn and practice in the winter months due to Trento’s winter climate. She explains: ‘I got really into snowboarding over there and we would go nearly every week during the winter’. She would recommend anyone to study a language at University and to go on ERASMUS explaining that ‘in today’s economy it’s a definite advantage and it will open up many doors, plus it gives you an insight into other cultures’.