A languages expert 'spread Gaeilge worldwide' after a video he made speaking with locals in Donegal went viral. Polyglot Arieh Smith, who has studied 40 languages, visited Falcarragh and met with local guide Seamus Doohan. The video, which has racked up millions of views, shows Smith speaking fluent Irish and interacting with locals, showcasing the vibrancy of the Irish language in the Gaeltacht.
A languages expert 'spread Gaeilge worldwide' after a video he made speaking with locals in Donegal went viral. Polyglot Arieh Smith, who has studied 40 languages including Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and Spanish, visited Falcarragh in the Gaeltacht last month. The 34-year-old New Yorker, who has more than 6.4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel Xiaomanyc, makes videos based on travel and learning new tongues.
In one video which has has 91 million views, he shocks Mandarin Chinese people by speaking fluently. Arieh travelled to Falcarragh and met up with local guide and native Irish speaker Seamus Doohan. In the video, which has since racked up more than 1million views, he shows off his language skills by doing everyday things in Irish – like ordering a pint of Guinness in a pub, going to a cafe or just having a chat with locals. After a previous trip to Dublin where his attempts to speak Irish left locals puzzled, he spent around 10 hours on Zoom with Seamus to brush up. When asked how Falcarragh differed from Dublin, Arieh told the Irish Mirror: “All the street signs were in Irish, people were speaking it in the streets and most people did seem to speak it. They were also not surprised to see me speaking it. Donegal felt very much like a different country … it was very very different. The people were super nice but that’s something that I’ve always encountered in Ireland. Like going to a cafe and they just want to sit with you and have a chat for two hours. It’s really very warm and welcoming. I’ve wanted to go back ever since I did the first video. I just really love the country and the people. I wanted to go back to a more Irish-speaking area. Dublin was very fun. I do remember distinctly trying to speak to people in Irish and they looked at me like I was crazy and a foreigner who didn’t speak English. That did not happen in Donegal. Everybody either understood me or if they didn’t speak Irish, they knew I was. I had studied with Seamus beforehand, he had taught me his local dialect. People commented on that while I was there. They were like, ‘Why are you speaking Falcarragh Gaeilge’.” Seamus, who also works as an electrician, praised Arieh and said his video has done “so much” for the language. He told the Irish Mirror: “Because of Arieh’s video, there’s a fella from Massachusetts who got in touch a day or two after and wants to go to the Poisoned Glen for a walk. Arieh’s video has done as much or more for the Irish language than a lot of other TV programmes or other funds. Arieh has spread the Irish language worldwide. If I met somebody, I wanted to say ‘This is Arieh’ but he didn’t want me to introduce him at all. He wanted to go in raw and for the camera to pick up the surprise on people’s faces when this American started speaking Irish. As the conversation went on, they learned more about Arieh and how he had only been learning for about 10 days on Zoom with me. He was a very very fast learner. His grammar wasn’t miles out and people understood him. He has a gift.” Seamus said what makes Arieh’s feat even more impressive was the fact that while he was preparing for his trip to Ireland, he was also learning Frisian – a dialect spoken in the Netherlands. The Donegal man, who has done tours for 20 years, also said he believed there is a resurgence of interest in people wanting to learn the Irish language. He added his tours were initially only in English but as time went on, he realised more and more wanted them in Irish. Seamus explained: “Beforehand, it was all mostly English walks but since I started providing them in Irish, more people are coming from all over the world. I always spoke my Irish but I never did guided walks, I probably wasn’t confident to do that. I saw there was a demand and I went with it. It was just like a work in progress and people liked the idea. Nowadays, tours can be totally immersed in Irish, some can be bilingual and while with others, people are just happy to chat away and learn a few words of Irish while they’re walking.” Seamus, who only learned English at the age of five, spends at least half of each day speaking his mother tongue. He also credited primary schools in the Gaeltacht r for helping with the revival of Irish. He said: “If I were to see somebody in the town, I’d banter away in Irish because we know we both speak Irish and it just comes more naturally to chat in Irish. Whereas if somebody was an English speaker and they came here we’d obviously have manners and speak in English. My message to people who want to learn Irish is give it a go. Have fun with it, it’s only a language. Nobody is going to knock you for tryin
IRISH LANGUAGE DONEGAL VIRAL VIDEO LANGUAGE EXPERT
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