SedaNews, July 13

SEDA students score gold at BJJ Open in Cork

Black belt Jorge Santos led a team of 14 “soldiers” to the Premier BJJ championship

– an open Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tourna-ment, which took place in Cork on June 22. Established just a year ago, the Dublin club came fourth in overall results with an impressive medal haul: 4 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze.

“It’s an amazing achievement for Jorge Santos BJJ, and I’m really proud of all my students who took part in the competition,” said the master. “I would also like to thank all those who came to Cork to support the team. Oss!”

SEDA student Herbert Oliveira

was one of the winners, scoring gold in the brown belt Absolute division. “I’ve been practicing jiu jitsu for almost sev-en years and I can’t live without it,” he told SEDA News.

Herbert, also known as “Kennedy”, hails from the state of Minas Geraes in Brazil. He trained with famous fi ghter Vinicius Franklin and has competed in many BJJ competitions, coming second in the CBJJO world champion-ship. Oliveira has also won many re-gional competitions and open tourna-ments. It was his fi rst time competing in Ireland.

“I would advise everyone to train jiu-jitsu,” the gold medal winner said. “It has so many benefi ts! It’s something that you can use in a dangerous situa-tion and it stays with you for life. When you train you get rid of stress, it liber-ates your energy, you come back home satisfi ed and relaxed. It’s also great for your self confi dence and fi tness. I don’t know what I would be without BJJ!”

His current coach Jorge Santos was due to meet another black belt Andre Ramos at the tournament in Cork, but the “superfi ght” was called off , with Jorge scoring a technical win because his opponent failed to make

the previously agreed weight of 76 kg. A rematch between the athletes is now expected in September.

Aft er the competition Jorge Santos promoted his student Mike Moloney to brown belt, while Stephen Ward (who won another gold medal for the team) and Rafael Paiva were awarded blue belts.

Jorge Santos, who is one of the few BJJ black belts in Ireland, has thanked his sponsors – SEDA College as well as Real Transfer, Feijoadão, the Irish Strength Institute and Ronin Crossfi t for supporting him along the way.

SEDA News, Issue 20, July 2013 Copyright: SEDA College | www.news.sedacollege.com

A martial arts club led by SEDA student Jorge Santos returned home with an impressive medal haul after competing in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Premier Championship in Cork last month. Jorge’s team fought like the Spartans, with another student Herbert Oliveira win-ning gold in the brown belt Absolute division.

You can train with Jorge Santos and Herbert Oliveira at Jorge’s gym off Abbey Street, Dublin 1. Every Friday Jorge also gives BJJ classes at SEDA. SEDA College students get a special price of just 40 euro per month. To fi nd out more log on to www.jorgesantosbjj.com or call 087 3568115.

Stella from South Korea

gives tips on learn-ing Eng-lish and

overcoming homesickness

With baby on the way teacher Judy is still name-

picking

Student lands 55,000 a year IT job after SEDA

internship

INTERVIEW

INTERNSHIPS

YOUR STORYPAGE 7

PAGE 7

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SEDA NewsWelcome to the July edition of SEDA News!You’ve probably noticed that

this edition of the news-paper looks diff erent from

most past issues, and the reason is it’s got a brand new design. Th e new look was developed by three interns who joined our team in June –Isa-belle Velloso, Gabrielle Velloso and Yuri Galiza.

Th e creative trio were busy all month redesigning artwork, editing pictures, laying out pages and even writing articles. Th e interns have been a great addition to the team and an absolute pleasure to work with!

Th is edition also introduces the work of another intern – Bianca Daga. A journalist from Brazil, Bian-ca wanted to keep in touch with her profession in Ireland, so she applied for an internship with SEDA News. In this issue you can read all about Bianca’s trip to Brussels and Amster-dam – and get plenty of tips on what to see in these two wonderful cities. Th e intern worked as a sports jour-nalist in her native country, and if you think you may have a story for her (or a topic you’d like her to cover) let us know! Th is issue also features excellent work by our more estab-lished writers like Lili “Chatterbox” Garzaro, Semy Monastier and Guil-herme Akio. One of the big (and it’s literally get-ting bigger every day!) news stories here in SEDA this month is teacher Judy’s pregnancy and we’ve got it all covered for you on page 7. We also covered the college’s internship pro-gramme which keeps going from strength to strength: one of the appli-cants recently got a dream job in IT that comes with a salary of €55,000 per year. I would advise you to check out music listings on page 8 to see what shows are coming up this month. Also make sure to read Lili’s article on page 9, which will give you some tips on how to spend an Irish sum-mer, especially those “high chair days” that are so common here. As always, you are very welcome to send all your suggestions, comments and criticism on [email protected]

I hope you enjoy reading the news-paper,

SEDA News Editor,Viktor Posudnevsky

Interns Isabelle Velloso, Yuri Galiza and Gabrielle Velloso gave SEDA News its new cool look: well done!

“Great” results at City & Guilds test

14 SEDA College students did the Upper Intermedi-ate City & Guilds exam last

month, with 13 passing the test and seven achieving the highest distinction of First Class Pass. “We are really proud of the students: they worked really hard to prepare for the exam and the results refl ect that hard work,” said SEDA’s assistant

director of studies Ashleigh Langille. ”Th ere is an Elementary A2 level City and Guilds test on Friday, 12th July and we are hoping for great results again!” In the meantime, free Friday activi-ties at SEDA will be expanding. Th ere are two new interns in the school who will be giving Beginner and Elemen-tary English classes. Th e timetable is

on a week to week basis, so students who are interested in attending the free lessons should stay tuned and look around the school for information. At the same time, the 2-30pm conversa-tion class will continue every Friday as before.

Most SEDA students who took the City & Guilds English language exam last month passed with flying colours

FREE FRIDAY CLASSES AT SEDA

College open till late for evening classes

Get social with the SEDA Facebook group

Evening classes for European citi-zens who are living in Dublin

began in SEDA last month. Th e classes run from 6-30 pm to 9 pm from Mon-day to Th ursday. Course prices start from just 80 euro per week, and some 200 students from Spain, France, Italy and other coun-tries are already attending the lessons. Most of the students live near SEDA and are working in Dublin. Th ose who want to improve their English, but can’t attend SEDA’s morn-ing or aft ernoon classes are very wel-come to book their place in one of the

evening groups by sending an email to [email protected], calling 01 473 4915 or signing up at SEDA’s reception at 68-72 Capel Street, Dublin 1.

SEDA College now has its own Facebook group which serves as

a community forum for all students - present, past and those who are think-ing about coming to SEDA. Th e group can be found under the college’s offi cial Facebook page, MySeda, which has recently gathered an impressive 5000+ likes. Th e forum is being promoted by SEDA’s market-ing intern – and budding digital guru – Rokaïna Larabi from France. “In my university in Toulouse we have a simi-lar Facebook group: it is a place where we can ask about a test date, a correc-

tion for an exercise or simply organise a meal with the class,” Rokaina told SEDA News. Facebook users who are already present in the group (and that includes most of those who liked SEDA’s offi cial Facebook page) can invite their friends to join the forum. If you’re not in the group already just make a request to join. Th e group has pretty much the same functionality as any Facebook page and you can also post your mes-sages and pictures on it. All SEDA stu-dents are very welcome to try it out!

SEDA is now open until 9 pm on most days of the week as evening classes have begun. Up to 500 students now attend classes at the college every day.

There is a new place for SEDA students to ask about a test date, get an exercise corrected or organise a meetup with classmates - and it’s on Facebook.

SEDA News: Ireland’s � rst newspaper for international students. Circulation: 1000 copies. SEDA College, 68-72 Capel Street, Dublin 1. Ph.: 01 473 4915; [email protected]; www.news.sedacollege.com; http://www.facebook.com/mySEDA.Ireland.

3

Student lands €55,000 a year IT job after SEDA internship

Before being hired by FireEye SEDA student Daniel complet-ed a 2-month work experience

with Hibernia Networks – a Dublin-based IT company, which also has of-fi ces in the United States, Canada and the UK. “I’m very grateful to SEDA College for organising this work experience for me,” said Daniel, who applied for SEDA’s internship pro-gramme in January this year. “I really enjoyed this internship! It also helped me improve my English and gave me the edge to apply for IT jobs in Ireland”. Daniel, who worked in the IT in-dustry in Venezuela, was providing customer support and implemented several network-related projects during

his internship. He said most of his col-leagues were Irish and chatting to them both in and out of the offi ce helped him improve his English fast. Th e Dublin-based company did not have a perma-

nent position for him at the end of the work experience, but it helped him look for a paid job elsewhere. “Hibernia were very help-ful, they gave me valuable advice on fi nding work and

facilitated interviews,” said Daniel. “I also put the director of the company on my CV as a referee, and I think my experience with Hibernia helped me get other companies’ attention”. Th e SEDA student was invited for in-terviews by both Amazon and FireEye before choosing to stay with the latter

company. FireEye took him to Cali-fornia for a 2-week training course before he started the job and provid-ed Daniel with a brand new MacBook Pro. Th e Venezuelan will be working as a Technical Support Associate in the company’s Cork offi ce. “I’m really happy about this op-portunity,” Daniel told SEDA News. “At the moment I plan to stay in Ire-land indefi nitely. Th e situation is bad in my country in a political and eco-nomical sense. So I prefer to stay here and see what happens.”

Venezuelan student landed the job of his dreams after completing an internship organised for him by SEDA College. Daniel Villavicencio is now working for American IT company FireEye in Cork, making 55,000 euro per year - more than 3 times his salary in Venezuela!

SEDA’s internship programme has been running since November last year. It provides long-term SEDA stu-dents the opportunity to get work ex-perience and improve their English in an Irish company. All internships are unpaid. SEDA has partnered up with some 50 Dublin-based companies that are off ering internships in hos-pitality, marketing, administration, IT, accounting, engineering and other areas. So far more than 120 students applied for work experience under

the scheme, with most getting place-ments. A number of students were hired by the host companies aft er completing their internships. Taking part in the programme is free for all long-term SEDA students with Inter-mediate and above level of English.

To apply send your CV (in English) to [email protected] information about the scheme is available on:http://sedacollege.com/en/services/internship

SEDA’s internship programmeDaniel Villavicencio celebrating St Patrick’s Day with his colleagues in Hibernia Networks

A mystery Irish man or woman won 94,000,000 euro in the Euromil-

lions lottery last month. Th e lucky per-son collected their prize in Dub-lin and at the time of print their identity remained unknown. Th e winner has become Ireland 96th richest person as he or she shared the jackpot of over €187m from the

draw with a player in Belgium. Th is is the second largest jackpot win in the history of the Irish National Lottery.

In 2005 an Irish woman called Dolores McNamara won €115 million. However, smaller wins have been more common for the

lucky Irish: in July a €15m winning ticket was sold in Carrick-on-Suir, Co.

Tipperary, while a €29.4m jackpot winning ticket was sold in Dub-lin in June 2009.

Croatia became the 28th member of the European Union on Monday,

July 1. Th e event marked the fi rst ex-pansion of the EU since Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. Th e small Balkan nation, famous for its football team and Mediterranean resorts, has a population of 4.2 million. It was part of Yugoslavia and endured years of vio-lence aft er declaring its independence

in 1991. Th ere were celebrations in Za-greb, Croatia’s capital, and across the country as the clock struck midnight on July 1. Border posts were removed on Croatia’s border with Slovenia and Hungary, also EU members. Th e Irish government decided not to restrict ac-cess to Ireland’s labour market for na-tionals of Croatia. “Ireland looks for-ward to our strengthened friendship

with Croatia and our productive engagement at EU level in the future,” offi cial communication states.

Irish winner scoops €94m Euromillions jackpot

Croatia becomes newest EU member

SEDA News

4

“It was the best time of my life”: says French student, one year after leaving SEDAKathia Bourdin from Poitiers in France worked as a marketing intern at SEDA from May to June 2012. One year after leaving Dublin she got in touch with SEDA News to fi ll us in on what’s been happening in her life.

Kathia has now fi nished the second year of her university course in France and gradu-

ated with a diploma in International Trade. She now wants to enrol for an-other year of studies, but even more than that the French girl wishes to re-turn to Dublin and visit her favourite English language school again.

“For me SEDA is the best in Dublin!” she said. “You feel close to the staff and the students, you can meet a lot

of people from many countries and go on trips around Ireland – it’s very nice! People are lovely and patient. It’s a pleasure to go to school because you can see people are there for their own choice. Teachers and staff do their work with passion and students are happy there.”

She said she couldn’t wait to see the school’s new city centre location and called the months she spent in SEDA “the best time” of her life.

For Kathia SEDA also has a roman-tic connection: it was here that she met her Brazilian boyfriend Fernando Agostini whom she has been dating for a year. “He plans to do a French course in France soon and I’m saving money to go to Brazil in a few years with the aim of studying Portuguese,” she re-vealed.

“I would like to understand the life in a country, which is so diff erent from mine in terms of culture, but also in

terms of the conditions of life”.

“I wish all the happiness to all the staff in SEDA especially Guilherme, Laura Barry, Netania Gomes, Carol, Martha, Felipe, Mario, Ferran, Erika, Viktor...and everybody there! And I hope to see you all soon!”

Kathia Bourdin and her boyfriend Fernando whom she met at SEDA.

The Irish Naturalisation and Im-migration Service (INIS) offi ce

at Burgh Quay, Dublin 2, will have a new reception area for visitors soon. Th e offi ce will also have a new en-trance, with the existing entrance be-ing retained for staff only. Th e works are scheduled to begin this month and are planned to be completed by early September, INIS said. “Th e work is part of a wider programme of measures designed to improve ser-vices to customers using our Burgh Quay Offi ces,” offi cial communica-tion states.

“For example, plans are also being

developed for the introduction of an on-line appointments system for both registration and visa re-entry applicants which will enable custom-ers to know with certainty when they will be dealt with, thus completely eliminating the need for people to queue for these services. Th e devel-opment of the new reception facili-ties is a prerequisite to these plans”.

Immigration of-fi ce to get new reception area

A b o r t i o n law passes first vote

SEDA News goes multi-lingual

It’s THE style this summer: SEDA T-shirts and hoodies go on sale

Ireland’s politicians have voted to introduce abortion in limited cir-

cumstances. Currently abortion is il-legal in Ireland unless it is necessary to save the life of a mother. But the pro-posed legislation would allow termi-nations to be carried out where there is a threat to the life of the mother or where there is medical consensus that the expectant mother will commit sui-cide over her pregnancy.

Th e bill was supported by 138 TDs (members of the Irish parliament), with just 24 voting against it. Th e vote is the fi rst in a series of stages the pro-posed bill must pass before it becomes law. Anti-abortion campaigners be-lieve the bill will lead to more wide-spread abortion, while many on the pro-choice side say the legislation is too restrictive.

SEDA News

A new batch of SEDA-branded hoodies and T-shirts will go on

sale this month. Th e hooded jackets will be available for 20 euro a piece and the T-shirts will cost 15 euro.

Students can also get their own SEDA College kits consisting of a SEDA-branded rucksack, notepad and pen.

Th e kits are available at the college’s reception for just 5 euro (or 4 euro if you buy one together with your study book).

Visitors from Spanish and Por-tuguese-speaking countries can

now read SEDA News in their own language. Parts of the http://news.se-dacollege.com website were translated into Spanish and Portuguese and went live last month.

At the moment both sections con-tain only a small fraction of the news-paper’s content, but they will be up-dated regularly with new information about student life in Ireland, events at SEDA and handy tips for people com-

ing to study in Dublin. If you are a student and you would like to publish your articles in Spanish and Portuguese, photos or any other content you are very welcome to get in touch with the SEDA News editorial team on [email protected]

Articles in Spanish and Portuguese now available on SEDA News website and blog

55

6

Belgium and Amsterdam: a trip full of sweets, beer, bicycles and history

If you have just a few days to travel, but you don’t want to stay in just one country, Brussels in

Belgium and Amsterdam in Holland are great destinations for your short trip. Two days are enough to get to know the Belgian city and then you can take a cheap bus to arrive in the Dutch capital in about three hours, and spend a few more days there. Be prepared: you will be tempted to try many different kinds of chocolate, waffles and beer in the first city, and you’ll see a crazy amount of bicycles

in the streets of the second destina-tion coming at you from everywhere!

One of the most beautiful places in Brussels is the Grand Place, historic, geographical and commercial center of the Belgian capital. In that square, every two years in August the floor is covered by a carpet of flowers. In the streets around, you can enjoy the chocolate smell coming from differ-ent shops. But even better is the smell of the waffle: a typical Belgian sweet that can be found on each corner and

sampled with toppings like banana, Nutella and ice cream. Belgium is also famous for producing more than 200 types of beer. There are some stores where the price is not so tempting, but in the supermarkets it is pos-sible to find good beer at a low cost.

Just beside the Grand Place you will be disappointed about the Manneken Pis, a small statue of a little boy pee-ing – it’s really much smaller than you may have imagined and the reasons why it’s so famous are unclear. It is

known that the little boy was a duke’s son who was found peeing on a tree during a battle in the XII century and then became a bronze statue as a sym-bol of military courage. The Manneken Pis is sold as a souvenir and it can also be found beside the doors of a lot of shops, welcoming the costumers in.

Brussels is also world famous for a comic strip. Belgian authors created Tin Tin (1929) and The Smurfs (1958), characters that can be seen in the Belgian Centre for Comic Strip. The

museum gathers about six thousand original illustrations and also pictures and objects that tell the history of the comic’s invention. Another symbol of the city is the Atomium. Designed in 1958 for a world exposition, it rep-resents an iron atom magnified by 165 million times. The last stop can be Mini-Europe, an attraction inside Bruparck which gathers miniatures of the most famous sights of Europe.

Try chocolates, stroopwaffles and travel through Tin Tin’s and Anne Frank’s world

Amsterdam, the bicycle city

It doesn’t take more than five min-utes for the Dutch capital to charm you, especially if the day is sunny. The Amstel River and various streams that cut the brick streets give a romantic atmosphere to the city, where you will look at pretty, friendly and happy peo-ple all the time. But be careful not to get hit by a bicycle while enjoying the surroundings! They are everywhere and the cyclists often ride outside the bike lanes quite fast without worrying too much about pedestrians. It is part of the culture: the people here use bi-cycles for getting to work, college and going out. On the train and metro sta-tions, there is always parking for bi-cycles and you can find hundreds of them. It is just incredible!

Amsterdam is also known worldwide for drugs and prostitution. Walking through the neighborhoods, you can easily find the famous coffee shops, allowed by the government since the 1970s. Some of them look like simple cafes to chill out with friends, and oth-ers are dark and smoky with the real “stoner” atmosphere. But in all of them you can find a menu with different types of marijuana and hash in a vari-ety of products like cupcakes. The cu-

riosity is: alcoholic beverages and to-bacco are banned in the coffee shops. Many of the coffee shops are based in the Red Light District, the prosti-tution centre. The narrow streets are littered with sex shops and decadent nightclubs; several rooms have glass display cases where the women are ex-posed as goods and actu-ally they really are there for sale... Unfortunately, it is a tourist attraction and it can be a little bit sad to look at that scene. There are wom-en of all kind, but you can easily notice that the pret-tiest ones work overnight.

As regards food, make sure to try the stroopwafel, a Dutch original cookie which will probably make you a fan from the first bite! In translation the name means “waffle with syrup” and is tastes like caramel. Besides being delicious, the wafer can be easily found in supermarkets. A package of ten units costs just around two euro and in some plac-es it is even cheaper. Don’t leave Amsterdam before trying it and buying a few

more to put in your bag!

Next stop, Heineken Experience. Even if you don’t like beer, you should visit the building where the brewery used to be and which is now equipped

with multimedia devices to give the tourists an opportunity to see, smell and taste the world famous Dutch bev-erage. After getting to know Heineken’s history and also the ingredients it is made of, the visitors enter an amazing

4D experience which shows how the beer is brewed and bottled. In another room, you can watch some of the famous Heineken ads that have been broadcast on TV around the world. And sure, the end of the expe-rience is at a bustling bar, where you can drink a few pints of beer!

Amsterdam also has a lot of museums and at least two of them are worth vis-iting. The first and the most interesting one is The Anne Frank House, it is abso-lutely fascinating! It was there that Anne and her Jewish family hid during The Second World War to protect themselves from Nazi persecution. For her 13th birthday – two years before dying – Anne got a diary where she wrote about the sad experiences of that period. Her father

Otto Frank, who survived the War, de-cided to publish Anne Frank’s Diary. In 1960, the hideout became a muse-um with pictures, documents, movies and the original Diary on display.

The other museum which almost all tourists visit and which I can fully recommend is the Van Gogh Museum. The works of the Dutch painter Vin-cent Van Gogh are displayed in many countries, but in Amsterdam you can admire his most important pictures. The collection includes 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 850 letters that the artist wrote to his brother. The paint-ings are distributed in the chronologi-cal order, which helps you to track his art’s development over time. While alive, Van Gogh wasn’t famous and sold just one painting… And now they’re worth millions.

There is much more to see in Am-sterdam and Belgium – you’ll definite-ly enjoy the trip!

By Bianca DAGA

SEDA Trips

Belgium | G

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7

T eacher Judy Bresnan is a well-known face in SEDA: she started working here

in 2010. Judy is from Cork and this year she will have her first baby! The teacher chatted to SEDA News jour-nalist Semy Monastier about living in Dublin and Cork, her work as an Eng-lish teacher, choosing a proper Irish name for her baby and a lot more!

Judy Bresnan graduated from the University of Limerick where she studied Public Administration for four years. In Cork she had a job as an ac-countant that she really hated, so she began to teach English to refugees as a volunteer, and she really enjoyed it. Later she took the TEFL course for teaching English to foreigners. At the moment she is teaching the following classes in SEDA: Advanced, Pre Inter-mediate and Intermediate.

So Judy, why did you move from Cork?

I moved to Dublin for love (laughs)! My boyfriend thought that moving to Dublin would be better for his job

prospects, and I decided to come with him.

Do you miss Cork?

Not really, but I thought I would! I do love Cork, love the time I spent there. It’s a lovely city, especially when you are young. I used to live there with friends and in a moment everybody left... So I just go there to visit fam-ily, because all my friends are gone.

So can you say that today Dublin feels like home for you?

Yes, it does!

What can you recommend our students to see in Cork?

Cork has lots of places to go, there is a big pub culture and the people are very in touch with the community. It’s a very friendly city, you’re never on your own. The city is full of local pubs, there’s one for every taste! I used

to go to pubs that were near me! That would be... Barrack Street, there’s like 30 pubs in this particular street! And for Christmas you do your 12 Pubs of Christmas! For evening time there is a Burlesque Night, maybe one Friday a month at the Crane Lane.

And what about Dublin? Which places do you enjoy to go to?

I recently moved house, but I used

to treat me well going every Thursday evening to Ka-vanagh’s, a very local pub near my old house, the food is amaz-ing! I used to go there when I was doing my Master’s in Edu-cation. And for a walk it is al-ways good to go to the Botani-cal Gardens: it’s free and you can download a smartphone app with a guided tour of the place. Now is the best time to visit the gardens because it’s summer! It’s always nice to spend an afternoon there.

My next question will be about the baby that you are expecting! Are you picking an Irish name?

Well, I don’t have an Irish name, but my boyfriend does. I like Irish names, I do, and I think they are very popular at the moment. I have a lot of friends and family who have an Irish name, so all the nicest Irish names are used al-ready! They are so overused!‘v But anyway we are not very attached to Irish names. So if it’s a boy we are thinking about Larry because there is

an expression “Happy as Larry”, but we don’t know yet, we are very relaxed about it.

(on the day of the interview Judy didn’t know if she was going to have a boy or a girl, she was only 21 weeks pregnant)

Would you like to use this op-portunity to pass on a message to your students?

We will have a test soon, so what would you like to remind us? I wish all my students the best of luck in their tests! I’ve 100% faith in them! They’ll do very well, just READ the instruc-tions!!! Carefully! Judy said that she would continue giving classes until she has just 2 weeks before the birth of her child, after which she will go on maternity leave. She will then stop teaching for around 9 months.

With baby on the way teacher Judy isstill name-picking

By Semy MONASTIER

SEDA People

Staff Of The MonthStella Lee from South Korea is a member of SEDA’s friendly student support team who works with Asian students. She has been in student

support for about 4 months and previously worked as a marketing communications manager in Korea. Stella speaks Korean and English and you can reach her on Stella.lee@ Seda.ie.

What’s your favourite thing about Dublin? I would say I absolutely enjoy music performances! Dublin is a nice city that likes music, and it is easy to fall in love with this city. From street busk-ers to pub musician, not only music is everywhere, but you can enjoy it every day if you want.

What’s your best personal tip about living in Dublin as a stu-dent? When you study English try to talk with the people instead of the desk. Most Irish are friendly and they are usually happy to chitchat even with

strangers. You can talk about any-thing the music, the weather, history – whatever you want. When you’re hanging out with people, impercep-tibly you improve your English and gain self confidence.

What’s your best personal tip for learning English? Don’t be shy! Koreans sometimes talk less when they speak in English. They are afraid to say a sentence in the wrong way, but English is not your na-tive language, so it’s OK to make mis-takes. So try and openly express your opinions, even if some of the grammar isn’t correct. You will learn by making mistakes!

Do you ever feel homesick in Ire-land and how do you cope with it? I send a message to my family through my smartphone or go to a Ko-rean restaurant. It’s a good thing that there are many Korean restaurants just 3 minutes’ walking distance from SEDA! When I feel depressed or get home sick, I have some spicy Korean food, it gives me energy.

What’s the best thing about working in student support? I can meet people from all over the world: from Asia to South America students come to Ireland to study Eng-

lish. Meeting new people every day, I can give them help, and it’s an exciting and wonderful experience.

Give three reasons for coming to study in Ireland. First, you can study English in Eu-rope (and travel around Europe as a backpacker!)Second, there are less Koreans here than in other English-speaking coun-tries.Third, as a student in Ireland you can work legally for 20 hours per week and for 40 hours per week when you’re on holidays.

Finally, what’s the best place to see in Dublin or Ireland?

Guinness factory, top floor, Grav-ity bar. From there you can see panoramic views of Dublin, and taste the best quality pint of Guin-ness in town!

8

Shows & Gigs in Dublin

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE10th July

Phoenix ParkTickets: €79.50

www.ticketmaster.ie

BEACH HOUSE20th July

Iceagh GardensTickets: €35.00

www.ticketmaster.ieLONGITUDE

FESTIVAL 201319th | 20th | 21th July

Marlay ParkTickets: €54.50(day);

€149.50(weekend)www.longitude.ie

THE KILLERS + FRANK OCEAN + TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

12th JulyPhoenix Park

Tickets: €61.50www.ticketmaster.ie

MUMFORD & SONS + THE VACCINES

14th JulyPheonix Park


BELL X113th July

Iveagh GardensTickets: €35.00

www.ticketmaster.ie

AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA

18th JulyAcademy


GRIZZLY BEAR18th July


www.ticketmaster.ie

THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH

12th JulyIveagh GardensTickets: €33.50

www.ticketmaster.ie

TRASH TALK12th JulyWhelan’s


ASIDEMAINSTREAM

BANDS | GROUPS | SINGERS

BSIDEALTERNATIVE

BANDS | GROUPS | SINGERS

GLEN HANSARD21st July


www.ticketmaster.ie

DAMIEN DEMPSEY14th July


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PAUL BRADY18TH July

The Convention Centre Dublin


JULIE FEENEY9th August

National Concert HallTickets: €15.00 | €28.00 | €35.00

www.nch.ie ISIDE

IRISHBANDS | GROUPS |

SINGERS

By Guilherme AKIO

BLUR1st August

Royal Hospital KilmainhamTickets: €68.60

www.ticketmaster.ie

ENNIO MORRICONE27th | 28th July

Royal Hospital KilmainhamTickets: €85.60

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IMELDA MAY11th July


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+ Riverdance Until 1st September Gaiety Theatre, Dublin 2

World famous Irish show returns to Dublin for the 10th summer season at the Gaiety Th eatre. Th e show is a fusion of Irish and international dance and it tells the story of Ireland through dance. Riverdance has been around for almost 18 years (the premiere was in Dublin in 1995) and it toured globally, being seen by some 23 million people worldwide. Riverdance at Th e Gaiety features the remarkable Riverdance Irish Dance Troupe with the cream of Irish musicians play-ing live in the Riverdance Band and a spectacular array of international guest stars performing to the magic of Bill Whelan’s music. Tickets can be booked at www.ticketmaster.ie or in the Gaiety Th eatre box offi ce. Prices start from 25 euro.

Show-timesEvening : Tuesday to Friday at 7.30pm, Saturday at 7.30pm, Sunday at 5.30pm Matinee: Saturday at 3.30pm , Sunday at 2.30pm

+ Vodafone Comedy Festival 25th July – 28th July The Iveagh Gardens, Dublin 2

Vodafone Comedy Festival takes place in the Iveagh Gardens – a beautiful park hidden away just off Har-court Street – every year in July. Th e festival features the best in Irish and international comedy. Th is year’s line up includes John Bishop, Baft a award winner Lee Mack, German superstar Michael Mittermeier and American acts such as beat-boxing genius Reggie Watts, Eugene Mirman, Michael Che & Reginald D Hunter. Also performing will be great Irish comedians such as Tommy Tiernan, Dylan Moran, Maeve Hig-gins, PJ Gallagher, Jason Byrne, Fred Cooke, Bernard O’Shea, David O’Doherty, Ardal O’Hanlon and others. Performances will be spread across four specially cre-ated indoor theatres set amidst the unique features of the stunning Iveagh Gardens. Visitors will also be able to relax and enjoy street performances and live music across the grounds as well as gourmet food and drinks.

www.vodafonecomedy.com | www.ticketmaster.ie

9

Going Out

By Lili CHATTERBOX

“It doesn’t rain in the pub”: the best ways to spend an Irish summer

According to the calendar, summer began on June 21 and it will last until Sep-

tember 21, when autumn will begin. I know that when you look out of the window in Dublin most of the time it doesn’t look like summer, but it has to be agreed that even when it’s miserable out there it is still way better than the freezing Irish winter. So don’t be discouraged: there are some sunny days ahead and hopefully you will get to enjoy the good weather in Dublin’s parks or maybe even on the beach! Gary Condren, a sergeant of Ire-land’s Army who is always willing to help me out with articles for SEDA News (by providing tips about Ire-land’s culture and history) said that the biggest thing about Irish summer is the barbecue. In fact, this was the answer I got from most people when

I asked them about summertime. Th e other most popular answer was: going to Spain for holidays. Indeed, in Ireland barbecue is not for beginners. For example, a few years ago this country even hosted the World Cup Barbecue Championship! (www.wbqa.com). Th e Irish take their barbecue very seriously: it goes way further than just grilling sausages and hamburgers. Th ere are several kinds of specialties and sauces, even legendary ones like the famous Maguire’s Barbe-cue Sauce, the recipe for which who was written down in the 17th century. It is also said that St. Patrick himself started the tradition of fi ring up the grill using whiskey. Unfortunately, the weather here may be an enemy sometimes, and it’s common to hear people say that if you want it to rain just start a barbecue. So, you get the idea...

But Irish people are very cheerful and the rain doesn’t ruin their mood. “It doesn’t rain inside the pub”, said Paul Hickey. According to him, these rainy days of summer are known as “High Chair Days”: it is a day to sit at the pub’s counter and have as many pints as you want because one thing is true: the rain is not going to stop anytime soon. Obviously, these are activities for someone who doesn’t have to work and can easily spend the day drink-ing pints in the pub. But most peo-ple work, and it doesn’t matter if it is snowing or if the fl owers are blos-soming outside, they are still going to spend the day in the offi ce. For these guys, summer would happen on week-ends, when they usually go to one of the music festivals that are plentiful in this time of year.

Th e biggest summer event of this year has got to be the Oxegen Festival (www.oxegen.ie). It will take place in Kildare on the August Bank Holiday - August 2nd, 3rd and 4th. It is one of the greatest events in of all Europe, and it will attract popular names, like David Guetta and Snoop Dogg. Most of the youngsters that are going to the festival will spend two or three days camping, but one-day tickets are also available. Lee Bagnall, a very nice Dubliner that I met on one of these High Chair Days, is defi nitely going to the festival.

“I’ve been waiting all year for this. I couldn’t go last year, but I went in 2011 to see Coldplay and it was amazing!” he told me. But there aren’t just music festivals: make sure not to miss the Street Per-formance World Championship, which takes place in Dublin every summer. It is the second largest free festival in Europe and it will take place on Merri-on Square from the 12th to 14th of July. Presiding over the festival will be the Minister of Silly Ideas, who will attempt to break the world record for

the most water balloons thrown at one person at the same time. Th e Ministry of Silly Ideas will also promote free and silly activities such

as the Custard Pie Th rowing Championship where hundreds

of teams will battle to win the coveted trophy, and the Rainbow Disco where people

will be showered with tonnes of multi-coloured powder while

they dance. (www.spwc.ie).Dublin is indeed a great city to have a Minister of Silly Ideas. Let’s face it – the people love them!

Irish summer may not be great, but there’s still a few sunny days ahead of us and plenty of things to do! SEDA News journalist Lili Chatterbox asked several Dubliners for some tips on how to make the most of your summer in Ireland.

make sure not to miss the Street Per-formance World Championship, which takes place in Dublin

largest free festival in Europe and it will take place on Merri-on Square from the 12th to 14th

Championship where hundreds

of multi-coloured powder while they dance. (www.spwc.ie).

The fi rst event took place in Bra-zil last month, and it was called

l Ornitorrinco – Modos Transitivos de Criação [Platypus – Transitive Modes of Creation]. Th ree Dublin artists exhibited their works during the event. Following the exhibition, on July 21, there will be a streamed discussion about independent cul-tural centres at the Exchange Dub-lin. Th e talk is free to attend and it will give you the opportunity to know more about these kinds of spaces and fi nd out about the work that happens there. Th e last part of the project will be an exhibition by Brazilian art-ists at the Exchange Dublin, open-ing on the 30th of July with a spe-cial performance from Brazil that will be broadcast during the even-ing.

Some of the main themes present in the works selected for this ex-change are identity, appropriation of public spaces and technology. Th e artists taking part in this pro-ject are: the collective Eu Tambem Quero um Carrinho de Mercado which has been is active since 2008, the artists Ricardo Nolasco, Leonar-da Gluck, Laura Formigheri. Th eir works span various artistic fi elds having in common the search for new creative avenues and theoreti-cal research.

Th e Brazilian cultural centre Casa Selvática is today one of the main spaces for to research and investiga-tion of new artistic languages in the South of Brazil. In less than a year the centre has already hosted prom-inent artists from Brazil who found there a network, a place where they

could develop their individual re-search in an active exchange with other creators. Th is cultural centre is totally independent and does not receive any governmental help. Th e pieces presented during the Ex-change Selvática are the products of this relationship and mostly devel-oped during 2012.

Exchange Dublin is a new collec-tive arts centre in Temple Bar, run entirely by young people and hold-ing discussions, gigs, visual arts and performances. Most projects origi-nate from the autonomous “Ex-change Groups” that use the space as a hub for their activity. Repre-sentatives of these groups form the general Exchange Dublin Collective that programmes and coordinates events in the centre. All their work is voluntary.

July 21 – Skype with Casa Selvática @ Exchange Dub-lin 8pm – FREE!

July 30 until August 11 – Exchange Selvática, Th e Ex-hibition @ Exchange Dublin 7pm – FREE!

For more information visit:http://www.exchangedublin.iehttp://selvaticaacoesartisticas.wordpress.com

By Semy MONASTIER

Brazilian art comes to Dublin Between July 30 and August 11 the Collective Arts Centre known as Exchange Dublin, in the heart of Temple Bar, will host an exhibition from the Brazilian cul-tural centre Casa Selvática. The exhibition is part of the exchange that is happening between these two centres this year.

Rubberband Boy is one of the acts at the upcoming Street Performance World Championship

10

Photo Album

Semy Monastier at the Dublin Gay Pride parade last month

Dublin Gay Parade last month

Bianca Daga trying out a traditional Belgian waffl e

One of the students touched the hand of the Crusader mummy – it is said that touching his hand brings you a life time of good fortune!

Teacher Holly’s class went along to St Michan’s church to see the famous Dublin mummies

Amsterdam canals

11

Photo Album

Isabelle Velloso and Yuri Galiza with a Garda Offi cer in the protest.

Brazilian Awakening Protest last month, that took place in the heart of Dublin.

Mike Moloney gets his brown beltJorge Santos with his students Matheus Lopes Dos Santos and Phil Alounsavath

12

Crossword puzzleTry to solve the crossword puzzle by finding the opposites of the words below!

A Bit of Fun

Across1. Th e opposite of empty4. Th e opposite of summer5. Th e opposite of cold6. Th e opposite of black8. Th e opposite of dull9. Th e opposite of hate

Down1. Th e opposite of near2. Th e opposite of big3. Th e opposite of mean5. Th e opposite of sad6. Th e opposite of strong7. Th e opposite of short

Send your answers to [email protected], or cut this page out and give it to your teacher. If you get the answers right you can win a prize!

Your name:__________________________

___________________________________

Your e-mail: _________________________

___________________________________Congratulations to MICHELLE KING! She won last month’s puzzle and can claim her prize in Carol’s offi ce.

Here are the answers to last month’s crossword puzzle:

For more crosswords log on to: www.abcteach.com

Documents

SedaNews, July 13