Sir, – Eoin Clancy (March 8th) asks “Having mastered the world’s most important language, isn’t it time we focused on mastering the languages of the future?” There is a curious anglophone idea that the human capacity to master languages is somehow limited, and that languages need to be traded off against each other.
The contrary is true.
Most – almost all – fluent speakers of Irish speak at least one other language. This is independent of whether they learnt Irish well at home or in school.
I speak German fluently, although I’m not sure whether that is what Mr Clancy would consider a language of the future. – Is mise,
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AONGHUS Ó HALMHAIN,
Pairc na Seilbhe,
Baile an Chinnéidigh,
Co Chill Mhantáin.