China breaks into Dublin's radio airwaves

I've been here for a year now, studying English. In China I was a radio show presenter and a children's television show presenter. Next autumn I'm hoping to do master's in media studies in Dublin.

In China, Ireland is described as a beautiful country and a very peaceful place to live, so lots of Chinese are interested in coming here now to work and to study. The show has only been on five times so far, so it's hard to generalise, but we tend to have a guest and to have callers ringing in. They talk about their lives in Ireland.

The first guest we had was a doctor who has been living here for 20 years. She practises Chinese and Western medicine and she is very well known in the Chinese community. Then we had a Chinese violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra. He has been living here for 10 years.

They both talked about how to understand Ireland, what it is like to live here. Sometimes I talk about the Irish language so that Chinese people get a chance to hear it.

Last week we had callers talking about the Chinese New Year celebrations. Most of the callers are young, mainly students here learning English or young Irish-Chinese people who have grown up here. The students from China were talking about how they missed being at home at a time like the New Year. It is family time in China, and everyone was missing their parents. We always have music during the show, and for that one I chose music which would reflect the mood of the callers.

But the Chinese I know like living here - it is a really happy community. They work as musicians, running restaurants, as academics, and in medicine. The aim of the radio show is to promote good Chinese-Irish relationships.

I decide who the guest will be, and I talk to the producer, Alan Lambert, about what the format of the programme will be. There is usually an introduction in English and we close the show in English, then between we have about 15-20 minutes of talk and the rest is music. It's all Chinese music at the moment, but in the future I hope to have traditional Irish music as well. The Chinese Embassy has been very helpful, giving me lots of contact names and a lot of music to play. Sometimes I play old songs because everyone knows those. The music from the embassy is very traditional Chinese music.

Although it's a live show, I never get nervous during the programme. I'm used to doing it in China. The only thing I don't like at the moment is that I'm not familiar with the equipment so I can't do everything myself. While you're doing an interview and you have music queued up, you have to think on your feet and it's difficult to liaise with a technician.

The hard part is the preparation. I get to the station about eight p.m. and practise the two English slots. It's still hard for me: I've only been here for a year and before I came I didn't speak any English at all. I prepare notes, questions for the guest, and organise the music. If we're going to take calls, we'll have a practice run-through to co-ordinate everything.

In college I majored in music, and when I was in my last year Dalian Radio advertised for a presenter. I did the exam and was accepted. I had two radio shows, one for young people which was pop songs and one in the evening which was a more quiet show. I enjoy doing the talk show here because you can learn a lot from the guests and the callers. They all have different experiences of living here and it helps to hear about it. I see the programme as an opportunity to explain the Irish mind and traditions to the many Chinese people living here.

In conversation with Jackie Bourke