There were many insights I gained into Irish culture, and language learning as a whole as a result of my time in Ireland this summer. One thing that struck me about immersive language acquisition specifically is how far a reasonably small amount of vocabulary can get you in a conversation. While it may seem like the best possible route is to try to learn a bunch of very specific words, having a firm grasp on the most common words and expressions proves far more valuable. I believe I did take out of this experience much of what I hoped to learn from it. I learned many expressions relating to everyday life and my surroundings, and started to see my environment through the lens of Irish language structures.
I also gained a more complete perspective of modern Irish culture, separate from the often romanticized vision I think many foreigners have of the country. Particularly in coming to terms with the serious situation of the Irish language, and how the fight to keep it alive is being fought not on a national level, but town by town and family by family. Even in Southwest Donegal, the primary schools some 15 years ago would have been through English, but now Irish is the educational medium in the primary schools and is being phased-in in the nearby secondary school. This sort of grass roots fight to keep the language alive is not something one can really experience from the outside. To a future SLA recipient I would just give the simple advice of go for it. Never again in your life will you have this kind of opportunity, so why not throw yourself all in and come out the other side all the better for it? Slán agus go raibh míle maith agaibh!
