Lean ar Aghaidh: Seven ways to help your teen hold on to their Gaeltacht Irish
Pic: iStock
As we approach the end of summer, thousands of young Irish students will be saying slán to the dozens of new friends they have met at their and returning to their (mainly) English-speaking homes.
The two or three-week immersion in Irish has done them no end of good and most will undoubtedly come away with a greater knowledge and, more importantly, appreciation of the language.
Keeping it topped up, alive, and in use can often be the more difficult challenge, however.
So how do we ensure that they reap the benefits of their Irish immersion and keep using the they've learned in the Gaeltacht this summer? Try these 7 steps for success.
“The language isn’t just for Irish college,” says Julian deSpáinn, Ard-Rúnaí, Conradh na Gaeilge.
“It can be used at home or out and about. The main thing is to give it a go. Take every opportunity you have.”
Simple things like making the first five minutes of mealtime an Irish-only zone or catching up on the day can work wonders for confidence.
That said, children can be a little embarrassed speaking a language they are not used to speaking with their parents, so it might be better to encourage them to keep in touch with the friends they met at their Irish college -- whether that’s through Zoom or the myriad of other ways we can connect these days.
If you're up for it, try to join in or ask them to teach you a new word or phrase every day too.
Encourage your student to follow cool and fun Irish-speaking influencers on social media.
Amidst all that scrolling, they're likely to linger on entertaining accounts like TG4’s Síomha Ní Ruairc - @siomhaniruairc - and freelance presenter - Caoimhe Ní Chatail @caoimhechats - on Instagram or TikTok.
Accounts like Múinteoir Meg @muinteoirmeg or @gaeilge_bheo have huge followings and are great places to keep up to speed on everyday Irish.
Of course, the media can play a big role in keeping you in touch with any language.
Instead of Home and Away or EastEnders, why not invest your daily dose of soap in Ros na Rún or top up your History and Irish at the same time with one of TG4’s excellent documentaries?
“Raidió RíRá is sort-of the Irish language equivalent to SPIN FM,” says Julian.
“So a lot of the music is chart music and contemporary, but all the talking is . You can download the app for that or listen online. You can get involved too. They would have plenty of people doing work experience on the station and they’d always be on the lookout for contributors from right across the country.”
Most local radio stations are also crying out for volunteers to work as researchers and item creators for their Irish-language shows of which they have to have at least one.
In many cases, they won’t need you to be fluent in the language at all, they’ll just want you to be eager and to come up with ideas.
Teens love building streaks on their favourite apps, so why not get them going on Duolingo?
The language learning app allows users to learn the basics of a language through short and snappy interactive features, with listening tests, oral tests as well as grammar and vocabulary exercises.
A daily lesson takes just a few minutes, but will keep their grammar sharp and vocabulary growing (while ensuring their user-'streak' is unbroken.)
At the end of 2020, Duolingo announced that Irish was the fastest-growing language on the app and listed it as the 16th most popular language to learn with a staggering 1.10 million users actively engaging.
Though its position on the table has moved to 20th, the numbers have increased to over 1.4 million active users.
“There are several youth organisations around the country like Cumann na bhFiann, Ógras, Feachtas who run weekly youth clubs in different towns and cities around the country,” says Julian, “and that’s a great way of keeping up your Irish because you are using it at least once a week.”
Encourage your student and a pal to try it out together. They may find other learners of similar fluency who are willing to speak the language while hanging out without focusing on our mother tongue as a subject required for Leaving Certificate points.
Before there was speech, there was song and it remains one of the easiest ways to access and learn any language.
At Irish college, students learn many of the classics from traditional music and will often carry these tunes with them for the rest of their lives.
“Often Irish songs learned during your time at Coláistí Gaeilge outlive the spoken language itself,” says former Nuacht reader, journalist, and author, Pádraic Ó Gaora. “Sinéad O’Connor’s beautiful rendition of should inspire teenagers with the to follow her example and maybe add , or to their repertoire.”
Though our native tongue has been slow to break into other music genres, bands like hip-hop trio Kneecap from Belfast, or Connemara collective IMLÉ, have given Irish a new musical life that is well worth tuning into.
Some colleges, like Coláiste Lurgan in Galway, have dedicated YouTube channels for videos of their students singing chart-topping favourites through Irish, from stars like Miley Cyrus, Avicii, and George Ezra.
Despite what its many detractors might say (and there are far too many), Irish is not a dying language.
Jobs, relationships, art, and music are created and sustained every day through our native tongue. If anything, it is only getting stronger as people discover they are not alone in loving the language.
“When you come out of Irish college or out of the context of the Gaeltacht it’s very easy to think that there’s no Irish around you,” says Julian deSpáinn.
“But there is lots of it out there and you can create that Irish around you if you want to. Speaking the language for its own sake rather than the pursuit of points in state exams is probably the first step to getting the result you want."
