Language Barriers

Here in Ireland we are rather lucky in the fact that there is quite a lack of language barriers. I however will not forget the experience of walking through the airport at 6am looking for a sign that says “GO HERE” and realizing there wasn’t one. All the signs are first in Gaelic (or as they call it Irish here) and then secondly in English. It takes a bit getting used to and it is absolutely terrifying when you first walk off the plane, but like most things it gets better.

In fact just today I came across my own personal language barrier for the first time. For our Special Topics class we have to do a community outreach service learning project and so Carly, Kellie, and I all walked down to what would be comparable to a pre-school. We walked in spoke to the supervisor Ashley for a bit and then waited for the manager to come in. When she finally arrived immediately she and Ashley started speaking Irish to one another, fast and fluently I might add. It was the first time in Ireland that I didn’t really understand what exactly was happening in and exchange between two people, it was both a learning experience and EXTREMELY uncomfortable.

Gaelic just in general is a very difficult language to learn. They use sounds that not just mentally but also almost physically is hard for me and my American mouth to understand. I mean yes all our mouths are formed relatively the same way, but for 20 some odd years of my life I have never had to make the sound like I was coughing up phlegm in order to form a word and now suddenly I’m here in class with 16 other people absolutely butchering this poor language. I have also

noticed that most of it doesn’t directly translate to English so it’s a lot of round about speaking in a sense. They have much richer details, like the name of my blog for example- Aiteall means a perfect endless spring, but they also have several other words for spring whereas in America we have, well Spring. Overall the barriers aren’t enough for you not to appreciate how amazing the language is and how much people have bent over backwards to save it. It is tied so closely (especially where we are located) with the people and the culture. Most only speak it in school, but all are ever so proud of their enduring language and after a month here in Ireland I can understand why.