In Ireland, it’s compulsory to study Irish in secondary school. The language is integral to our cultural heritage, but it can be difficult to convince teens of its contemporary significance. I remember thinking, “What’s the point in learning a dead language? Nobody speaks it apart from us anyway.”
I’m not of that opinion anymore, and I changed my mind about learning Irish early enough to have retained a decent amount of it. The same can’t be said for everyone, however, which is why it’s important to illuminate the people hoping to keep the language alive by conflating it with popular culture – something Nathan Fox did when he translated the names of the original 151 Pokémon into Irish.
“My name is Nathan, early 20s, fairly typical nerdy Irish guy,” he tells me. “I had the same primary/secondary education as anyone else in Ireland. I did higher level Irish all the way into the Junior Cert, then ordinary level Leaving Cert Irish to make studying a bit easier on myself.” In Ireland, the Junior Cert is similar to the GCSEs, whereas the Leaving Cert is comparable to the A-Levels.