Case Study D - Leonard Soulier

‘I chose Ireland because all the people who came before said it was a very friendly country, with a very attractive future,’ says Leonard Soulier, a business management student from Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in France.

He was not to be disappointed, as he discovered on his very first day in Dublin; ‘I was looking with some friends for a place to drink a beer and to have a little fun. An Irish person who saw that we were looking for a place just said “come with me, we’ll find a place that will be good for you,” and so he had a glass with us. He also provided us with a lot of interesting addresses on our map. So it was very good, and surprising, as I don’t think the French are so friendly!’

Leonard is taking a wide variety of modules at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT): International Trade & Globalisation, Market Research & Consumer Behaviour, International Corporate Finance, English for Academic Purposes, German, and Human Resource Management.

An impressive catalogue of courses, but one that adds up to a very manageable 15 hours of classes a week. Together with the location of DIT and his rented apartment in the heart of Dublin City, this means Leonard has plenty of time to enjoy city-centre living.

He can be found strolling around popular areas of the capital such as Temple Bar, Grafton Street and Dawson Street, or making use of city centre transport hubs such as Connolly Station (trains) and Busáras (bus) to travel all over Ireland.

Leonard feels that he has benefited in three ways from the Erasmus programme: firstly, his English language capability has improved greatly; secondly, he has become more independent and mature during what has been his first time to live away from home; and thirdly, he has found it very interesting to engage in cultural exchange with not just Irish people, but also Polish, German, American and Mexican people who he has met through his studies at DIT.