I have been arguing that people wanting to support the Irish Language should speak it if they know it, learn it if they don't (as distinct from just paying lip service to the language).
I wondered how would a working adult, who had forgotten most of their school Irish, go about (re)acquainting themselves with it? The rather obvious answer is to take some classes. So I had look on http://www.nightcourses.com for Irish language courses in Dublin. Results back: 157. 'My that's impressive' I thought 'a veritable groundswell of support. Must be those Seoige sisters..'. And then I started scrolling through the returned result. Ahh.
The nightcourses website search facility is a little eager and brings back everything mentioning 'Irish' in its blurb. So the Irish Taxation Institute courses are included along with those for Gael Linn.
So how many actual Irish language classes are being offered in Dublin?
Answer: I counted 71 classes in 34 different institutes, including ones for Irish Sign Language.
So plenty of choice and no excuse not to learn it, if you want to use and support it.
But then I came across this: Éamon O Cuív says "At a time of increasing affluence and choice in Irish society, it would appear that more and more people are opting for the Irish language."
Hmm.
I wanted to test out the Minister's contention that more and more people are opting for the Irish language. I wondered how many classes were being offered in other languages. For comparison purposes I did this search - for Italian classes in Dublin. After weeding out the cookery and opera classes I found there was 88 classes in 41 institutes.
More and more people may be opting for Irish. But it looks like, in Dublin at least, more still are opting for Italian.
3 comments:
That's actually an interesting exercise. Not really sure what to think about the finding.
Interesting. I think that its still a trickle. An Spailpin Fanach says that to learn Irish your better off ditching the classes and hitting the books.http://spailpin.blogspot.com/2007/02/youve-bitten-bullet.html
But you have to be highly motivated for that and with more people wanting to go to Italy these days -every second person I meet is having a soujourn there - theirs more reason for them to learn Italian.
"I have been arguing that people wanting to support the Irish Language should speak it if they know it, learn it if they don't (as distinct from just paying lip service to the language)."
Maith an fear! Aontaím go hiomlán leatsa.
Good man! I wholely agree with you.
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