6
YOUR STORY
It’s never too late to learn, says 68-year-old SEDA student Luis Luis Fernando Salazar (68) and his friend Maria da Graca Balsanti Camargo (62) came to Ireland from Brazil to do a course in English. Luis is a retired engineer and the journey to Dublin was his first foreign trip in almost 20 years. He tells SEDA News about his experience and the enjoyment of studying with younger course mates. Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you do in Brazil? I am from Sao Paulo and I am an engineer. I graduated as a metallurgical engineer, but I have worked for insurance companies all my life. At the moment I am retired, but I still do some work for a large international company. My job is to visit the ships that dock in Santos, a big port in the state of Sao Paulo, and examine the machinery that was damaged at sea. I have a son who is also an engineer and a daughter who is a lawyer. She works for the largest bank in Brazil. Why do you need English? I have to speak English in order to communicate with the crew on the ships that I visit. I learned English on my own in Brazil and I have a huge vocabulary because I read English books since I was a teenager. But I find it very hard to speak in English. That is
why I decided to do a course in Ireland. What did you think of your course in SEDA? I was very happy with the course and I really enjoyed the company of young people. For an older person like me it’s very good to sit in class with young people and to hear about their problems, find out what they think about various things. It’s very interesting! From now on I intend to take more trips and visit other places. Last time I went abroad was 19 years ago!
didn’t travel for a long time. I used to stay on my couch all the time watching TV. I rarely left the house, so my family found it hard to believe I was serious about going to Ireland. What did you do outside of classes?
Young at heart: Luis and Maria in Dublin
How did your family react when you told them you were going away to learn English?
Every weekend I visited different places in Ireland and Europe. I went to France and England, visited London. Since I was a teenager my dream was to see the British Museum and I am happy I finally fulfilled it.
When I told my daughter that I was going to Ireland to learn English she didn’t believe me! She said: I will only believe it when you actually go there. That is because I
What did you think about Ireland? I loved Ireland! I feel that Irish people are more kind and attentive than the English. The English are way more reserved. I
was also surprised by the good will that the Irish people have to help foreigners. What are your plans for the future? I want to continue improving my English, but I would like to go to another country – maybe Britain or USA. It’s been 19 years since I went to USA. I want to visit New York and San Francisco again. I know a language school in San Francisco and I’m planning to spend a month there. It’s never too late to learn English!
Our student writing competition continues! SEDA News publishes some of the entries we got for our student writing competition. The competition is now in its final round! To enter just write about your first impressions of Ireland and send you text to news@seda.ie.