By Margot Garnier

“You should have learned a useful language!” This was the reaction of one of Arne’s friends when he learned that the young German was attending Irish courses at Conradh na Gaeilge.

Sitting around a cup of tea in the college basement, his classmates laughed at the anecdote. There are around 20 students who started the courses a few weeks ago, and none of them is native Irish.

“I arrived in Ireland in 2003 and I became an Irish citizen two years ago,” says Arne. “I decided to learn Irish because I often travel to the western Ireland and there are signs along the road in Irish that I can’t understand and I would like to know more about the Irish culture. 

“When I told my Irish colleagues that I will be able to speak with them, they answered me that they don’t even speak Irish themselves.”

For Kevin from the United States, it is his love for music that pushed him to learn Gaeilge.

“I am studying ethnomusicology in Dublin and I love Irish songs but I can’t understand the lyrics. And learning another language was requested in my school, so I chose Irish,” he says.

Crispin, meanwhile, simply wanted to learn Irish because he “thought it was the right thing to do” – and the Englishmanin his late 50s, who recently moved to Ireland, believes that it will help him to keep his mind active.

For Canadian Sheila and her American friend Christine, learning Irish is a way to get closer to their partners. Both of them are in their 30s and in a relationship with Irish – and Irish-speaking – men, and they wanted to be able to talk with them and their families in their mother tongue, and discover another aspect of Irish culture.

Moreover, Sheila hopes that learning Irish will help her to do the job she is dreaming about. 

“For the moment, I am a primary school teacher at home but I want to become a full -time teacher in a few years,” she says. I will have to take an exam and I need to speak Irish. I will follow a 10-week class this year and hopefully I will keep on next year.”