New Neighbours: Chilean engineer and MBA student Eugenio Chinchón (32), from Chile.

The secret of successfully settling into life in Dublin is being flexible and very sociable. I don't have a lot of friends, but those I have are very good friends. Since I came to Dublin with my wife, Bárbara, five years ago, I've learned about the importance of friendship.

Every time I've had a problem, I've had friends supporting me, even though, they've only known me for a few years and I help them too. It's very easy to do very simple things to help and when you move from your home country, your friends are an extension of your family. One of my closest friends is Chinese, another is a really good Nigerian guy and some are Irish.

When I arrived here first I realised that, like Chile, everything in Irish society involves networking. I'm not part of the network yet, but I will make every effort to be worked into it. Socially, I feel very integrated in Dublin. One thing I like a lot is being with people from all over the world; it's a learning experience.

I had a happy childhood. My father was a policeman, which meant that we were always moving from place to place and that has affected my perception of Chile, as well as making it easier for me to adjust to new surroundings.

My grandmother was a Watkins Jones from Bethesda in north Wales, who moved to an island in southern Chile and married a trader. My grandfather owned a cinema, amongst other things. While we were not rich, we were comfortable.

I was always interested in visiting Wales and discovering something about my roots. In Chile, I had Irish friends who were always promoting the country, telling me what a wonderful place Ireland is to live with plenty of opportunities for educated people and so on. So I decided to try living in Dublin for a while, since it's only an hour away from north Wales.

In Bethesda, it was very strange. I met only one, distant relation and we didn't have anything in common. But in Dublin, I was very comfortable and within a year I felt I'd been living here all my life. Irish culture is very similar to Latin American - very happy, very open, family-oriented and Catholic. The main difference that has struck me is that crime here is very low, even though it's in the news a lot.

I work at Impedans at the Invent Centre in DCU. We make measuring instruments for laboratories and industry. We have the knowledge to extract a signal from the environment and measure it very precisely. My work is as a hardware engineer, which means I build the equipment, but I also deal with suppliers and customers. I'm extremely interested in the business aspect of what we do.

I came from a very specific background and I want to see the big picture, which is why I am studying for an MBA at DCU as well as working there. I hope to move more into the business area. I work nine to five, attend classes in the evenings and study the rest of the time, so I can't afford to be sitting in traffic. For this reason, I use a moped to get to work from my home in Ringsend. It takes half an hour, whereas in a car it would take more than an hour.

The atmosphere at DCU is like any university - very friendly. Doing the MBA has been great for my confidence, since it involves speaking English in front of a group of people. I'm learning a new way of teaching at DCU, which is more personalised, but in general the level of education is quite similar to that in Chile. I was afraid I would have problems but my feeling now is that I was well-prepared by university in Chile.

I do miss my family in Chile, but it's easier to get in touch these days. I use a software programme - Skype - that allows us to talk for hours over the Internet for free. We can even do three-way conference calls from three different countries.

To be honest, Chile doesn't feel so far away from Ireland. There are many people of Irish and European descent living there and the relationship between Chile and Europe is very positive.

I love living in Ireland and I would like to start a business here and even have children here after I finish my MBA.

In conversation with Kate Holmquist