'Ask yourself why you want to learn': Úna-Minh Kavanagh on Irish for Culture Night
Úna-Minh Kavanagh: "I'm trying to break down that barrier where young people see Irish as just for school."
This Friday is Culture Night in cities, towns and villages around the country - a chance for individuals and communities to explore the role of the arts and culture in our daily lives.
Music, language, visual art, performance art, as well as the written and spoken words, are all part of the rich tapestry of Irish life and history.
But while there are limited 'real-world' events this year, amid the tumult of the ongoing pandemic, Culture Night is joining the plethora of festivals and events that have created streaming and interactive alternatives, with live and pre-recorded events happening throughout the day, and into the weekend.
Which suits one of the event's ambassadors just fine - writer, journalist/editor, content creator and Kerrywoman Úna-Minh Kavanagh has been working in an increasingly online-dominated space over the past decade, including new website WeAreIrish.ie, and as a regular on streaming giant Twitch, where she plays the latest and greatest videogames 'as Gaeilge' for a dedicated audience.
Kavanagh discusses her role in Culture Night and attendant responsibilities, as well as the ease with which she and others can take it on, given the circumstances.
"I was chosen to represent the Munster aspect of it, which is quite an honour because Munster is so huge, and because I have the Irish language, that was another aspect.
"It's mostly online... I'd be well used to being online anyway, so it wasn't massive for me, but for people who don't touch the internet for whatever fear or discomfort, it's super-impressive.
For her own part in proceedings, Kavanagh is overseeing a workshop on online access to the Irish language in 2020, aimed at beginners and people looking to get past the cúpla focal.
'DIY Gaeilge: Crash course in the best online Irish-language resources' will see Kavanagh discuss an array of current and easily-accessible resources for different levels of learning, as well as different experiences with the mother tongue.
The idea has clearly resonated with people, as more than 800 people have signed on to view and partake in the workshop online.
There's a definite sense of curatorship on Kavanagh's part, as she talks about frustrations people have encountered with finding places to learn.
"I've noticed myself over the years, there's no place or hub of resources that isn't to do with one particular company or group, whereas I wanted to provide something where I was laying out things I've seen that have worked over the years for learners.
"I'm part of an online community [for the language], and we get a lot of questions: 'Where can I find this, where can I find verb conjugators, where can I find lists or have something explained?' With this event, if you want to attend this event, where I'm going to be firing out a gazillion links for ye to take down, and see how they work, this is going to be the one for you.
"We'll be looking at grammar, dialects, pronunciation, all the things people need to get off on the right foot, hopefully, and also to show them that we can't rely on one resource, because there's no one resource to suit all, but also that, really, there are tonnes of resources, the problem being where to find them all.
"My job will be to bring them all into one place, showcase that there are plenty of resources out there, and also to use them to supplement each other to help enhance your Irish language journey, and to help move it forward."
And there are many of us who, be it right or wrong, feel nervous about, or even alienated from, our abilities with the Irish language.
They might point to its status as a 'dead language' on the European periphery, or being 'impractical' for daily use, or they'll sink into the depths of their memories of school, and 'the way it's taught', where either rigid technical rules or cringeworthy attempts at appealing to the yoof might be the order of the day.
For those of us that are curious, or returning to the language as adults, Kavanagh has some valuable advice.
"The biggest question I ask people is always, 'why exactly do you want to learn?'. That really goes into the understanding of feelings of negativity toward the language, or feelings of shame.
"You should honestly ask why you want to learn. Answering this question will allow you to formulate the kind of learning you'd like to take on. Not everyone likes the grammatical aspect, for example. It's really important, but you might prefer to focus on conversation.
"Ask yourself those questions and you'll be in a place to approach places like An Siopa Leabhar, an Irish-language bookshop. A lot of people don't realise there are Irish bookshops, but they're there, online and offline.
"If you're on Twitter, there's an amazing website called IndigenousTweets.com, and if you click on the Irish section, you'll see people who predominantly use the Irish language on Twitter, if you're looking for people to connect with online in that respect.
With that being said, Kavanagh is careful to warn new speakers or the curious of the importance of one's own research.
"Another thing to consider is that Irish speakers aren't dictionaries. We get exhausted if we're asked constantly what the Irish is for blah, blah, blah. The internet has at least five or six Irish dictionaries, and it's a lot faster to look them up than to Tweet a Gaelgeoir about the question.
"Speakers just want to use it in their everyday life - they're not dictionaries, and they're not teachers. You have to do a lot of your own legwork."
Having written her first book, , about her journey to date, and with a decade-plus media career on her CV, Kavanagh's body of work is distinguished in any language, much less traversing Irish and English.
The same spirit of DIY that's informed her approach to the Irish language and its resources has guided her steps into the new media landscape, most notably live videogame streams as Gaeilge, bringing the language out of the classroom for younger viewers, and into pop-cultural context.
"A lot of people come into the streams, and if I'm speaking in Irish, they automatically ask if I'm a teacher. I'm trying to break down that barrier where young people see Irish as just for school. It is one of the things I've noticed over and over again.
"And with streaming, I'd noticed there were no Irish-language streamers, I'd looked, and saw, 'oh, there aren't any', and thought, rather than lament that there aren't any, that I could do something about it. That's my approach to a lot of projects.
"With WeAreIrish, we launched in February, which was actually a really good time, the site focuses on just good news. I'd noticed that there weren't many hubs in Ireland to go for good news. I could be sad that there isn't one, or I could build one myself."
"I always look at how I can utilise this world to the full, and see how I can help people because as a media professional, you're not trying to serve yourself, you're trying to serve an audience, and that's how I approach these projects: to show you can use the Irish language in your everyday life, and that it's not a daunting thing once you get into it."
