Emirates Day

On Friday July 30th 2010, ATC Language & Travel hosted ‘Emirates Day’ at the Global Irish Institute on the UCD’s Belfield campus. Emirates Day was organised by over 100 Emirati students who have been attending full immersion English language and cultural programmes with ATC over the past 5 weeks. The student body is comprised of 40 boys that lived with host families and attended classes and activities in Blackrock College and 60 girls on campus in residence at University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4.

The students with ATC are part of a group of 200 high achieving Emirati students between the ages of 16 and 17 that were selected by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) to attend an English language course for five weeks and act as cultural ambassadors for the UAE during their stay.

It is the first time groups of students from UAE have travelled to Ireland for English courses; both ATC and their partner agency have received excellent assistance throughout from the Irish Ambassador and the Embassy in the UAE; Ms. Aiveen Ryan, the Tourism Ireland Marketing Manager for the region and in Ireland from Fionnan Nestor of Fáilte Ireland.

The events scheduled as part of Emirates Day included:

1- National anthem.
2- Part reading of Holy Quran.
3- Opening speech (female & male students).
4- Documentary film about UAE.
5- Traditional folklore dance (Ayalah).
6- Short movie about HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zaid delegation.
7- Invitation to Emirates day fair.

Exhibition sections:

1- UAE pictures section viewing the level of UAE developments in all sides.
2- HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zaid section (CV, Pictures & achievements).
3- Student's pictures of view in Ireland.
4- Emirate food court and traditional dishes.
5- Henna section.
6- Heritage section (photos, clothes, sculptures & Arabic incense)

The ‘Emirates Day’ was a great success and it was a wonderful opportunity for the students from both centres to demonstrate aspects of their culture to the other international students, their host families and the staff of ATC.

We are delighted that ADEC chose ATC and Ireland as a destination for learning English, and grateful to the students and leaders from the United Arab Emirates for sharing this rich cultural experience with us. It has been our pleasure to host them and we hope they will bring many wonderful memories back home, and share these with their friends and families. We look forward to having the opportunity of welcoming more students from the UAE to Ireland in the near future.