When I tell people that I take Irish classes in college, I get a whole array of responses. At first, people think that I am taking a class on the history of Ireland or maybe Irish culture. Even when I tell them "oh no! I'm actually learning the Irish language," I've quickly learned there are some misconceptions.

I am learning the language Irish or Gaeilge. It is often referred to as Gaelic, which is actually a sort of Irish as the language was brought to Scotland, but it not the same thing. So Irish is not Gaelic nor is it dead. The language is spoken in Ireland and the signs are still in Irish, of course, the signs are in English as well (if you look at the cover photo at the top of the article you will see the welcome sign in the Dublin airport is in English and Irish). Ireland is working hard on giving the language new life so that it will continue to grow in popularity. There are festivals and a week dedicated to celebrating the language.

This is an important year for the language as Ireland has made it "Bliain na Gaeilge 2018" or year of the Irish in the hopes of celebrating the language all year long. Seachtain na Gaeilge, or week of Irish, already happened for this year, as it takes place in early March and lasts for two weeks. There are many events during the two weeks and the events happen all over the country and not just in one county.

There are some popular songs that have been translated to Gaeilge with TG Lurgan making many covers from "Shape of You" to "Some Nights" to "Wake Me Up", each one is as Gaeilge (in Irish), which are all easily found on Youtube to listen to with a few on Spotify. Ed Sheeran even sang "Thinking out Loud" in Irish, which can be found on Youtube.

Oh and often times I will get the joking, "isn't it just English?" as a response. No, Irish is definitely not English. Although English does have some words that are similar if not the same as Irish words as they have been adopted into our language, the 'rules' differentiate the two drastically. Pronunciations and grammar are significantly different. Just try saying some Irish names verse hearing the correct way of saying it. An example would be Niamh (hint it's said Neev). Oh and if you ever want to translate something from Irish, google translator is not the place to go because it is more wrong than usual.

So yes, Irish is a language and it's not English and it's not Gaelic.

It is not as popular as French or English or German or Italian, but it doesn't mean that it is dead or not worth learning.