Alfonso Castillo from Mexico arrived in Ireland in May 2022. He has completed two courses with City Language School.
The 31-year-old with a Degree in Marketing decided to come to Ireland after meeting some of the City Language School team at an expo in Mexico City in 2021.
“They told me everything I needed to know about coming to Ireland,” he says. “Not just about the school but the whole trip. I liked the way they gave me the information and they spoke about accommodation, the process with the visas and all the offerings they had.”
After completing his first General English course with City Language School, Alfonso was on the lookout for a new challenge.
“I liked Ireland so much I decided to stay longer,” he says. “General English was good for me but I spoke to the guys in the academic team and they told me my English was good enough to do Business English and I decided it was a good idea.”
With his degree and his general interest in all things economics and business, Alfonso was the perfect fit for this unique offering from City Language School. He decided to give it a go and it turned out to be the right decision.
“Barry is a really good teacher, I mean really good,” says Alfonso. “He gives lots of attention to the small details related to grammar and pronunciation and the correct form of the verbs. The vocabulary that he taught us was really good and focussed on business. But he mixed it up a bit. We’d focus not just on business but new theories and ideas around economics and politics and that was amazing. I was fascinated.”
Alfonso, who is living and working in Dublin, has found opportunities to use both his skills in marketing and the new language he has learned in Barry’s classes.
“I have two jobs here in Dublin,” he says. “One of them is working as a keyholder in a shop. Here in the shop, I talk with the owner and I suggest strategies and ideas for managing the shops and doing some promotions. So I get to use my marketing skills in the shop and I’d really like to go deeper with my knowledge. It will take time and I know that I need to learn and adapt. But I will keep going. I like it here a lot.”