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A Bumbling Spanish Learner and the Unexpected Beauty of the Irish Language
“Irlanda ‘as its own language? I thought everyone speak Inglés. “
“We do. Everyone speaks English alright. Irish is just for us, kind of.”
“Oh, you use diz language when you are in your house with your familia?”
“Well, not that either. It’s our old language. We learn it at school but only some people speak it. It’s hard to explain.”
The taxi lady (la conductora) is curious to learn more about the history of the language and why it’s not our native tongue. But, having spoken on the topic for more than sixty seconds, I am nearing the edge of my know-how and am eager to move on. I’m also not overly keen to venture down that particular rabbit hole with someone I’ve just met. There is an entire history of British colonialism and Irish rebellion that doesn’t seem appropriate for a short taxi ride on the Balearic Islands.
La conductora follows up by asking how long we study the language at school and I fear the inevitable demo request. Tentatively, I tell her that we do it for about thirteen years and wait with bated breath. She glances in the mirror and gives a look that basically means, “moncaí, damhsa”. I do what any normal Irish person would do in that scenario, which is physically retract my head so that it goes into my…
