[To Galway I’ll go…]
I’m so incredibly excited to have this opportunity to travel to Ireland this summer. I’ll be attending NUI Galway’s international summer school. Due to COVID-19, the program will actually be taking place in both Galway AND Donegal, which I find even more exciting.
Some background on my knowledge of Irish: I’ve completed three semesters of Irish language instruction at Notre Dame and will be taking a fourth semester of it at the start of the next academic term. I’ve fallen in love with the Irish language and hope to experience its dynamic culture this summer, as I’ve never been lucky enough to travel to Ireland! In my time abroad, I’m expecting to use Irish heavily in the classroom; further, I’m hoping to challenge myself in using Irish as much as possible outside of the classroom. I also would like to expand my learning beyond the language and would like to learn about Irish history and geography through the trips sponsored by my program.
Since I began taking Irish in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, my language-learning experience has been disjointed at times. Online classes aren’t exactly conducive to speaking a language, particularly when you’re in the clumsy and awkward beginning stages of the language. I think that learning Irish abroad will help atone for the difficulties the pandemic created in my language journey by allowing me to focus wholly on Irish for four weeks. Furthermore, being around the culture in real life instead of through images and videos will be enriching.
Four weeks isn’t long enough to experience even a sliver of Ireland, but I do hope it will be a formative experience for me. I hope to become more confident in my language learning abilities and to appreciate other cultures even more than I already do.
Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll see you when I’m in Ireland!