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Finja Interview_mixdown (Made by Headliner).mp4Finja Berz, a future GMC graduate student, shares what it's like to be a student in Galway coming from Stuttgart, Germany.
Warning: Culture Shock!
Warning: Culture Shock!
Moving to Ireland can have its culture shock. There are many ways that the country has its own way to function and knowing a few of these differences is imperative for your move to the Emerald Isle. Just because the Irish speak English, doesn't mean there won't be some cultural differences to throw you off.
Walking
Walking
When walking down the streets of city centre Galway, you will see people going in all directions. Walking into store, listening to buskers or trying to find the perfect pint at a bar along Quay Street, it's hard to walk downtown in a straight line.
One thing that is different than America is that they have no pattern or way of walking down the street. Getting from point A to point B takes a lot longer.
In America, we typically walk on the side of the road we drive on in order to be more efficient. This is not the same in Ireland.
Be prepared to make sudden stops and weave in and out of people when walking down the streets. And beware — people won't move if they see you moving towards them. It is the ultimate game of chicken!
Another important piece of information is that Galway is a walking city. Not many people own a car because you can walk from campus to city centre in about 15 minutes and everyone lives in the surrounding neighborhoods.
The step count of people living in Galway is soaring much higher than US citizens — we often found that our step counts doubled what they were in the States on average.
Galway is a built-in workout, so make sure to bring your sneakers!
Oh! And if you do find yourself driving a car, just a quick tip to let you know you can park on either side of the street — no rules against that in Ireland!
Learning
Learning
Although it might be a large transition from Undergraduate school to Post-Graduate school, there is a high likelihood you will have to reteach yourself how to learn.
The Irish school system has a different grading scale which may look concerning for certain students when they get their first assignment back. It looks like this at NUIG:
This scale is taken directly from the NUIG website.
For all those high achieving students, don't go expecting to get 90% to 100% on your projects, that is virtually impossible in this grading system. This downright shocking grading scale takes some getting used to, but just remember as long as you have a 70%, you're doing just fine. What other time can you say that you are proud of a 70%?
The other part of learning that takes some getting used to is the fact that the school work is different. You aren't often left with homework for the next class, it is typically large essays and projects.
When speaking with post-graduate students in the States, it seems like they still have homework to complete for their Master's.
In Ireland, it is mostly work at your own pace with readings to coincide with lecture topics. Just be prepared to work on time management skills because waiting until the last minute makes it ten times harder to have a satisfactory project.
Another small detail worth mentioning is that course and module all mean different things in Ireland when speaking about the education system. A course is the entire program, and a module is a specific class. Once you start using those two correctly, then you are an NUIG professional!
Drinking
Drinking
This may seem like a given, but the drinking culture in Ireland is much different. NUIG even has a bar, Sult, on campus!
Something to remember is that the drinking age in Ireland is 18. So, they have had access to alcohol from a much younger age than a US citizen.
In college at the US, people would drink so much so fast because access to alcohol was almost nonexistent outside of fraternities or house parties. However, in Ireland when they go to university, they can go to a bar and have it whenever they want.
This obviously limits the binge drinking culture in Ireland. People are more likely to go to a pub for a single pint and just enjoy the community aspect of drinking. It isn't uncommon to meet your professor for a pint to discuss a project or sit outside on Quay street and do work with a Guinness in hand.
Going for a drink is like going for a coffee — people take it much more in moderation when in Ireland.
Also, since the city is so walkable, no one has to worry about getting in a car after drinks so it is much safer to drink with friends after school or working on a project.
There is such a conversational part to drinking that hasn't been a thing in US universities just due to the fact that the drinking culture varies.
Finja shares a bit of this in her podcast episode shown at the top of the page, "More people are always chatty here, like always say, hey, how you doing? And like have like a little nice chat and like wherever you go, you just have a little lovely chat and like small talk in Germany is not as common as it is here."
People meet some of their best friends while at a bar listening to live music or talking with the bartenders. You will find Galway is a small town and everyone is so friendly that grabbing a pint is an easy way to meet new people.
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