On April 8, I will have spent three months studying abroad as part of the Erasmus+ programme in Barcelona, Catalonia. I\u2019m about halfway through my time here and have spent a great deal of that time attempting to learn both Spanish and Catalan, which has been extremely eye opening.<\/p>\n
Despite my fears at being completely isolated over here, I’ve met a lot of amazing people from all over the world, who I’m now lucky to call friends. From meeting these wonderful people, I’ve learnt all about their cultures, and one thing I’ve\u00a0found particularly fascinating is the number of languages that other European countries learn throughout their time in school.<\/p>\n
All the friends I’ve made in Barcelona speak English, as well as their own native language, as well as at least an additional one or two. This was baffling to me when I was first meeting people, but now it makes a great deal of sense.<\/p>\n
From childhood people learn English as it’s one of the most widely spoken languages \u2013 but really because it\u2019s the language most accepted by Western countries. They grow up speaking their native language \u2013 so that\u2019s already two down, with minimal effort. In areas like the Italian region of Switzerland, kids learn at least four languages with tourism reasons in mind. They learn all the languages of Switzerland \u2013 French, German and Italian, as well as English \u2013 and the friend I\u2019ve made from this region also speaks Spanish. Her ease at switching between languages is magical to watch \u2013 with her ability to nail each accent also amazing.<\/p>\n
Meeting such a wide group of multi-lingual students really emphasises the ignorance of most native English speakers. In every other culture, you must learn words to travel, but in the case of predominantly English and American tourists, I have heard so many people not even able to order a coffee in Spanish or Catalan, presuming the staff will just be able to speak English. This presumption is stiflingly ignorant, especially when you consider that literally everyone in Barcelona already speaks both Spanish and Catalan.<\/p>\n
This ignorance extends to the attitude native English speakers have towards immigrants or tourists who speak broken English when in Ireland, England, or America. When you consider the lack of effort native English speakers put into learning basic words of another language for their holidays, this makes for a pretty nasty picture.<\/p>\n
Meeting such a wide group of multi-lingual students has also brought into question the effectiveness of the Irish education system when it comes to languages. I\u2019m speaking broadly but when a majority of Irish students travel abroad for Erasmus, they can speak very little of their native Irish, never mind the language of their host country. It\u2019s embarrassing, honestly, to have to admit that the system of teaching languages in Ireland is so poor that even after spending approximately fourteen years learning Irish, I still can\u2019t speak my native language.<\/p>\n
A few of my friends have been quite shocked that my Irish companions and I don\u2019t fluently speak Irish. It\u2019s unfathomable to them that we don\u2019t speak our own language in Ireland, despite in certain regions.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a topic of conversation frequently that the Irish system of education doesn\u2019t support language learning, but this has never been more evident than during my Erasmus experience. Ireland needs to examine its system and compare it to other European cities to see where it is going wrong. We don\u2019t want to birth another generation of ignorant, solely English speakers and for this cycle to repeat \u2013 action needs to happen sooner.<\/p>\n
For now I\u2019ll tip away with my broken Spanish, Catalan, and French (despite studying it at honours level for six years), but just know: Irish education system, I\u2019m disappointed in you.<\/p>\n