On the subject of Irish language revival (see my previous post), I think it is worthwhile to look into other initiatives where other ethnic groups are trying to save their native tongue from language death. It may prove useful to see not only what we can learn from their endeavours but also to uncover what may be successful and applicable to our situation and also to avoid their mistakes. On this point I think we have plenty to learn judging by where we are currently at. We possess all the criteria for an easy language transition from from being monolingual speaking people, to a bilingual; we are an Island nation (with a relatively small population), linguistically sophisticated, and are still relatively culturally homogeneous – the thing that we are lacking is the necessary mindset to provide for any transition.
Yet there is no mystery about the root cause of the linguistic holocaust that we’re living through. The English language and the ‘Anglo-culture’ are the cultural and linguistic superpowers of the modern world and all nations seem to bend and gravitate around their cultural pole. Part of the change in mindset will be the realisation that we must disentangle ourselves from this Anglo-sphere [America and Britain, especially in terms of their popular-culture & pastimes] which is having a ever more noticeable and disastrous effect on the Irish psyche. It not only pervades in our popular-culture, language and education system, but even manages to worm its way into and warp our traditional Gaelic customs. We are coming to the point of no return in terms of regaining the Irish language.
I mean just ask any Irish person today about how they view Irish language and what it means to be Irish and it won’t be long until you receive the repetitious, incredibly naive responses of, ‘I don’t like how it is taught in school’ and ‘We should try to revive the language, but I can’t/don’t want to learn it!’. The problem here is a naiveté in relation to learning a language and the profound and highly illusory association with school (and negative experiences in school) and education with Irish rather than embracing an attitude of life-long interest and healthy pragmatism. For many, learning Irish is no different from studying history or maths. We can’t bring the population to fluency with just a few hours class-time per week until the age of 17 (then the youth go home to an English speaking environment and to be inundated with American sitcoms on TV).
The mindset simply must change, and it just might happen with increasing globalisation and EU ‘integration’, when they figure out what might be lost, and that money isn’t everything, just as happened in Irish -America. Of course some are so overcome with the consumer and popular lifestyles they will not wake up to it at all.
The longer we are exposed to this soulless ‘new world culture’ the harder it will be to reverse it and the more damage it will wreak on the Irish spirit. Language is always the first defence.
12 European languages are on the list of endangered languages (which means they are worse off than Irish).
Al Jazeera recently did a series on language revival which was quite good and is applicable to our situation.
