Passengers on Dublin flights are extremely sociable. Because they are Irish. And I get scared: what if I don't understand what they are telling me? Then I would have to nod, stare wide-eyed, and repeat every minute “I see” and “Is that so?” And would a conversation even get started that way? But an hour passed, and it turned out that much was quite accessible to me. After another hour and a half I realize: my neighbors are speaking some surprisingly understandable English. Pure-pure, clear-clear. (Later it turned out there is an explanation for this phenomenon: all Irish people - every single one - speak “royal English”, because they, unlike the English, have no dialects.) So, with conversation, the time flew by.
At Dublin airport an officer looks at our passports. “You are leaving Ireland on my birthday,” he says, having seen the date until which our visas were issued. (It is hard to imagine that in our country a police officer, while carrying out passport control, would bring up his birthday in the conversation so inappropriately.) And returning the passport and looking directly into the eyes, he adds: “Pray for me!” Not a single customs officer from my own country has ever offered me to pray for him. Although, probably, it wouldn't hurt.
But here we are in Dublin. At Trinity College it is the day of communion, so students walk around with crosses painted on their foreheads. We walk the streets, listen to English. We touch palm trees - tall, spreading, and small ones like agaves. We look at the Irish. We reason: interesting, how does one need to look and dress to make Dubliners turn around in amazement? Or: why is that lady allowed to walk around in such a hat and laugh so gaily? “No, why are these Irish like this? Free, or what? They are laughing all the time,” we ask each other. And we answer ourselves: “Tradition...”
Like tradition - Georgian style, smiles, goodwill, colorful houses, spiral staircases, shoe scrapers at doors, and, of course, education. To get acquainted with the system of which, in fact, we came here. So. In short.
No ratings
We will not tell how monks several centuries ago took up education in Ireland in earnest - and very successfully; that is known without us. It is not news either that the country has been exporting its education for decades. Let us immediately tell about one amazing thing we learned: school ratings are prohibited in Ireland. The Ministry of Education (State Department) is sure that ratings, firstly, do not reflect an objective picture, and secondly, make - sometimes completely unreasonably - one school better than another. This allows those who took higher places to conduct a strict selection without taking into account the individual abilities of each student. Meanwhile, the Irish are convinced that any school should develop the child's potential to the maximum. To look for exactly that facet in which he may be especially successful. And it is not at all necessary that it will be foreign languages or mathematics. It could be literature. Or swimming. Or arts. Or art history. Within the walls of local schools, children reveal such abilities that parents did not even suspect.
What else? And the fact that sociological research recorded better academic performance in schools with single-sex education. In boys' schools, students (that is what all pupils are called here) do better in such, for example, a “girlish” subject as art history, and in girls' schools, female students do not hesitate to ask the teacher questions in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, which they would be embarrassed to ask in the presence of boys, fearing to seem like “fools” and “girls”. In addition, the Irish empirically found that single-sex education - especially in adolescence - leads to harmonious relations between the sexes.
We also learned that the profession of teacher in Ireland is considered very prestigious and highly paid. Accordingly, the highest demands are quite naturally placed on teachers as well as on curricula. By the way, the system of inspection and accreditation of language schools looks like this: the quality of teaching is controlled by a special council ACELS (Advisory Council for English Language Schools), and centers recognized by this council can join the association MEI-RELSA, which, by the way, tends to also take into account student opinions when evaluating a school.
Besides, in Ireland there are fewer language schools than in England - which is quite logical. And this is a big plus: everything is in plain sight and therefore it is easier to maintain a high professional level. And they cost half as much as English ones with a very high quality of teaching and the “presence” - contrary to logic - of the purest English language.
And finally, the most important thing. There is an opinion that the Irish, by their character, degree of hospitality, and passion for “chatting”, are very similar to us. With full responsibility I can state: that is indeed so. By the way, many local language schools are family businesses, so hospitality and friendliness are even more guaranteed in them.
In general, all Irish schools, like the doors of Dublin houses, are different. Each has its own “trick” and its own “color”. Judge for yourself.
Emerald Cultural Institute
The school director, Mr. Mauro Biondi, came to Ireland 23 years ago as an Italian student to learn English. And he fell in love with this country. (And who wouldn't, in his place? That's Ireland for you.) He learned English and opened a language school in a quiet residential area of Dublin. Besides the usual "practices," excellent English is also taught here according to a special program developed in the Emerald laboratory. "Do you sell it?" we ask Biondi. "No. It's our exclusive Emerald brand," he replies. Another brand is the school football team, made up of boys who came here "for the language." In general, what is commonly called "activities" and is a complete disaster in domestic schools, is in perfect order here: within a five-minute walk there is a swimming pool and a sports center with tennis, basketball, volleyball, and everything else.
Horner School English
Horner School is one example of the "school as a family business" option (see above). Once upon a time, this building housed a dance school, and in memory of that, wall medallions on dance themes remain. Now it is a language school with all the academic diversity that the Irish language education market offers. The director is regal, extremely strict at first impression, but on second impression smiling and good-natured Mama Horner; the teachers are the Horner children. The level of teaching is the highest.
Swan Training Institute
Grafton Street. Shops, crowds of people, laughter, street musicians: it's lunchtime for Dubliners. A glass door, a steep staircase upward. To Swan School. Classes are in session. Students are Italians, Spaniards, Japanese, Chinese, Russians. Swan has no summer language programs for children. High school students and university students come here throughout the year to improve and study the language. "Well, how do you like it here? Enjoying it?" Even the Japanese smile in response. Although, according to some teachers, teaching Japanese is quite difficult – they show little emotion. But in Ireland, even they liven up. However, with Russian speakers, as we were told, there are also problems: "The trouble is that students from the former USSR demand that English be taught according to the rules they were accustomed to in their schools back home. But if a person wasn't born with a language, he must hear and understand spoken speech. And speak himself. And not be afraid. Fortunately, in Ireland this barrier is easy to eliminate: it is here that people love to talk. Chatting is an Irish passion."
Alpha College
The area where artists and poets settled in the 19th century. Pavements with small wells covered by cast-iron lids. Under our feet are old cellars into which coal for fireplaces was poured through these "well" openings. Heavy traffic is prohibited. Nearby is the James Joyce Museum. On the notice board are weekend excursion offers: from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic. Full classrooms. A variety of faces. Very many students from Italy, where English is taught at a fairly low level, so they come to Ireland for it. By the way, students in Ireland are allowed to work. And many get jobs in cafés and pubs. Lena Larionova from Kiev, who completed the Beginner course at Alpha College, is also studying hotel management, works at an Irish bank, and rents an apartment in Dublin with friends.
American College
Merrion Square, near the street where U2 shot their famous video. Across from it is a park with a monument to Oscar Wilde. Staircase windows with stained glass. A bust of Oscar Wilde. Bright classrooms. A friendly atmosphere. Students from all over the world discussing quotes from Joyce's "Ulysses" with the teacher. Laughter. The request "Speak only English." A language school excellently equipped technically (it is no coincidence that Ireland is a leader in computer technology and software production). Among the programs are Arts, Behavioural, Science, Business, Hospitality.
Aspect
City center. The bank of the River Liffey. An old Georgian-style building. An impressive computer center with multimedia equipment, a library, and a language laboratory. Teaching at seven levels of English proficiency: standard, semi-intensive, intensive, business course, exam-intensive, international academic year, international academic semester.
And also working here is Maggie McDonnell, an Irishwoman with the most infectious laughter in the world.
Language Learning International
A coastal area of Dublin – Marina. An embankment, a beach, yachts. A ferry that takes passengers to England in 90 minutes. We had almost stopped being surprised by palm trees, but there are so many of them here! Could this really be Dublin too? Warm colors of the houses, huge windows. Gardens. Under the windows of Language Learning International is a Japanese garden. Several professional programs are offered along with the study of English in its various forms. And excursions to every corner of Ireland.
University of Limerick
On the way to Limerick, the landscape before us was sometimes rural Ireland, with meadows and sheep, sometimes martial Ireland, with castles and watchtowers. And the University of Limerick is situated on the shore of a lake. One is tempted to say 'picturesque,' but I won't, because that would be overdoing it.
At the university, there is a language school equipped in a way that a huge modern institution of higher education, generously subsidized by the government, can afford. Plus "activities" for every taste and every level of physical fitness.
Holywell Language Centre
A gray stone building lost among the meadows and hills of Ireland. Greenery, rainbows, holy springs, Celtic wells. A huge hall floored with red and black tiles. Dark school furniture. A large computer room. A library. Soft sofas. Copies of Roman marble sculptures. In the restaurant on the ground floor, semidarkness. The cuisine is Italian. The school director is Italian, the manager is Italian, the cook is Italian. The teachers are, by tradition, Irish. On the walls are engravings of the life of Indian and Italian settlers and drawings by a local woman artist. The Holywell logo is a semi-nude lady at a spring. In short, it is a language school for adults.
Clare Langauge Centre
Finally. A small school in the small town of Ennis. The very one where the British mistakenly built a huge courthouse, having mixed up the plans with the Bombay one (in Bombay, accordingly, they built a tiny one intended for provincial Ennis). This does not surprise the Irish; they know that the British ran their empire carelessly. And also this is the small town that has the largest musical theater in Ireland. But most importantly: here is the Clare Langauge Centre, the very school where my daughter will go to learn English in a year, when she turns 13. Someone will ask: why exactly here? I will answer: to understand that, you need to see the eyes and smile of the school director Muireann Neylon. And her hat. That is the first thing. And secondly, the Atlantic Ocean is nearby. Rocks, waves, waterfalls, towers. Ireland. Fantasy. Places where Merlin and King Arthur roamed. I want the child to live amid all this.