The young, these days, pick up a rucksack, take a plane to Prague, Paris, Pisa or Provence as easily as they would set off for Clifden or Cork. They go to enjoy themselves and broaden their horizons. How many of them can make themselves understood and converse in the language of the country they are in? Today, apart from teaching in the schools, there are opportunities in the Alliance Francaise, the Goethe Institute, there are lessons on television, there are cassettes in various languages to add fluency to anything learned in school or to start them from scratch.
More and more we are learning that if some Continentals can speak two or three languages more than their native tongue, then so can we - and this applies especially to business people, publicists and, of course, politicians. But, in the end, there is no substitute for going to the country and living with a family.
University towns in Germany, for example, had many houses where during the ordinary university term the German students lived, while during the summer the woman of the house concentrated on foreigners anxious to learn the language. One such, a friend used to relate, made it her business to see that, apart from language courses in the university or from private tutors, her Irish or American or Finnish or Swedish young folk should see the countryside around. Not only that, but visit the most important churches, castles, monuments and generally get into the history and thinking of the people of the city (Heidelberg) and its surroundings.
You were not persuaded that you ought to see this or that landmark - you were told you had to go. You wouldn't be educated - (or did she say cultured?) if you hadn't been there. So, in parts of Finland or Sweden or England or Ireland, there are elderly people who show a surprising knowledge of buildings which they probably never saw again. As consolation, the good Frau Professor would organise musical evenings to which half-a-dozen or so of her gifted friends would come with their violins or their tenor voices and so on, while her sister, a professional music teacher, did the accompaniment. Now that's teaching. You may have had something like it on Aran or in Cloghaneely or Rannafast.