Why Learn Irish?
Why learn languages?
Though it’s true a second language can help us find jobs, let’s also focus on the other reasons for learning a language. We spend so much of our lives having to serve the interests of an economy that doesn’t care about people or the world. It’s high time we were able to put the interests of each other ahead of those of CEOs and tax havens. Learning a language, in a variety of ways, can help us do this.
Society often funnels us down a career-path. Before we’ve had the chance to discover where our passions reside, we find ourselves scrambling from paycheck to paycheck on low or minimum wages. Worse still, the labour we provide either leaves us starved of inspiration, or in some cases even robs us of time to pursue our interests - all of which has damaging implications for our mental and physical health.
Learning a language can provide some relief, and even an escape, from these pressures. It can’t stop us worrying about bills or rent, but it can help us find other lines of work. Aside from potential career benefits, the process itself is rewarding, and a lot more fun than traditional methods have led us to believe. Far from being an unwelcome burden on our daily routines, learning a language can become an enjoyable distraction from life’s pressures. As well as helping our immediate mental health, it is also thought to aid cognitive function, and could delay the symptoms of dementia.
Learning a language may even help us tackle the problems facing the world. If we can communicate with and learn from each other, we stand a better chance of organising against issues as global as climate breakdown.
Why learn Irish?
Irish is spoken as a first language by an estimated 170,000 people, although more than a million have some knowledge of it. Centuries of invasion, occupation, and persecution at the hands of the English have led to a significant fall in the number of people who speak Irish as a first language, but the advent of the internet and national Irish television and radio has breathed new life into the language, with many now seeking to reconnect with this crucial part of Irish culture.
There are three main dialects of Irish - Munster, Connacht, and Ulster. Unlike most languages, Irish doesn’t have a particular dialect acting as a national standard. With the advent of national Irish television and radio, Irish speakers from each of the three main dialect regions have gained more exposure to one another’s dialects. Speakers of different dialects therefore have little problem understanding one another. You therefore shouldn’t worry about which dialect you learn, as people continue to speak their own regional dialect, and have enough exposure to the other dialects to be able to understand them.
Although speaking a new language does not revolutionise how you see the world, the people and cultures it takes you to will. It's almost like discovering the world again as a child, just in a different tongue. It refreshes the mind and can fill you with the impetus to experience different cultures and meet new people. This could be as conveniently as watching Irish films or reading an Irish novel in the evening. It could be an experience as spontaneous as chatting with people at a bar in Galway, or before a football match in Cork. It could even be a whole new life in Ireland.
After learning any language, the prospect of learning others suddenly feels much more feasible, and this is especially true for languages that share similarities. After learning Irish, you’ll find it easier to learn other languages from the Celtic family, such as Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton.
Chances are that if you’re reading this, you already have an idea of why you’d like to learn Irish. Whether it’s for professional reasons or pure curiosity, I hope these paragraphs have given you a brief sense of the benefits learning Irish, or indeed any language, can bring.
If you're interested in learning Irish, more information and resources can be found on its Get to Know page here on the How to Learn Languages website :