Yesterday I listened again to the Here on Earth programme. It is a programme of the Wisconsin Public Radio which tries to galvanize the world community and decrease xenophobia. I'll feature the link under the post "links" tomorrow.
The programme I listened to revolved around the Irish Gaelic Language and the question how to save a language. The moderator, Jean Feraca, spoke to a linguist (Brian Ó Broin), who teaches adults the Irish Gaelic language in the USA and to a teacher and singer (Mairín Uí Chéide), who also works and lives in America.
After centuries of English colonization, where speaking Irish was savagely forbidden, the EU has named Irish Gaelic an official language in 2005. Today, there is a renaissance of interest in learning Irish, especially among Americans with Irish roots.
In answer to the question "How to save a language?" both speakers agreed that this happens through:
a) the dedicated labour of activists
b)communication
c)marketing and the media (radio and TV stations in Irish)
Ireland is for them nowadays also a bilingual country, which aims to use English as a language of business and Irish as the language of identity.
Finally, I have to transcribe what Mairín said about learning languages:
"Everyone can learn a language if he/she puts his/her mind to it. The only thing you should do is to try to keep obstacles out of the way."
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