David Kane
Ireland has a population of 4,588,252, and tops the list of countries that are infamous for speaking one language only. 60% of the Irish population speaks one language, which puts the Emerald Isle just behind Hungary (65%), Italy (62%) and Portugal (61%) on the leader-board of unilingual European states. A mere 145,919 Irish people claim that they speak a language other than English or Irish in their home which is representative of 3.2% of the country.
Of this 3.2%, over 41,000 claim that they use French on a daily basis. A further 16,000 disclosed their use of German to communicate in their homes and 623 Irish citizens’ regularly speak Japanese. This demonstrates the broad linguistic capabilities of the Irish public and highlights the success of the Leaving Certificate language options.
The Irish Leaving Certificate offers language choices of French, German, Spanish, Italian, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Russian and Japanese, with the majority of these languages featuring high on the list of languages used by the Irish public in their homes. The choices are usually well-received by students as most university courses request a second language as part of their entry requirements.
In 2009, 27,675 students took French as a module during their Leaving Cert year. The following year, this figure had fallen by one hundred, and in 2011, the number of students learning French had dropped again to 26,768. By 2012, there had been a 6% decrease (25,977) in the numbers taking French as a Leaving Certificate subject at both higher and ordinary level. Although the percentage drop is negligible, the German language module also experienced a 10% drop between 2009 and 2012.
However, on the other hand, there has been a significant increase in the number of students who are undertaking their Leaving Cert examinations in Polish. The Irish system allows candidates to complete their exams in non-curricular EU languages which include Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Swedish and Polish, among others. In 2010, some 1,050 students requested to take their exams in a non-curricular language, and 451 students chose Polish, the most of any language. This development continued, and in 2013, 796 students completed their Leaving Cert through the medium of Polish. In a 3 year window, the number of students applying for and using Polish in the Leaving Cert had risen by 43%.
Is Polish the fastest growing language in Ireland?
Over half a million people living in Ireland are non-nationals. Non-nationals are citizens who reside in Ireland on a permanent basis, but are not Irish by birth. In the last decade, Ireland has witnessed a particularly emphatic upsurge in the number of Polish migrants entering the country in search of employment, better living standards and a safe place to raise their children. According to the 2011 census, 115,193 Polish nationals call Ireland home, and this represents an 82% increase in the number of Polish natives since 2006. The Polish community is the second largest non-national community in Ireland, and accounts for over 2.5% of the population.
In 2004, Poland became a member of the European Union, which coincided with the beginning of the Irish Celtic Tiger. The Irish economy was performing remarkably for the country’s size, employment levels were at an all-time high and the marketplace still had jobs available that needed to be filled immediately. Many Polish citizens viewed the opening of European borders as an opportunity of a lifetime, and Ireland appeared to be a perfect starting point. Between 2005 and 2011, Personal Public Service numbers were granted to more Polish nationals than any other EU country. At the height of the economic boom, 41.3% of all PPS Numbers granted were received by Polish nationals as they entered the Irish workforce.
The Polish community in Ireland is now the third largest worldwide and remains the second largest non-national community in Ireland. However, of the 145,919 Irish citizens who use a language other than English or Irish in their home, only 5,541 speak Polish which indicates a major failing of the Irish society. 41,243 speak French and 16,160 speak German, although French and German nationals living in Ireland represent only 2% and 1.5% of the Irish international community.
It is clear that the Polish nationals hold a large stake in Irish society and politics, yet for every 1 Polish national, there are 40 Irish citizens. However, even more deplorable is that, for every 1 Polish-speaking Irish citizen, there are 828 other Irish citizens who have no knowledge of the language. While almost 1 in every 100 Irish citizens have a working knowledge of French.
Many people choose to study a language with the inclination of living abroad and the career opportunities that this language might offer them in the future. Poland has a population of 38 million people, and has an even larger diaspora across the globe, estimated at 20 million. It is projected that over 10 million Polish nationals live in the USA, 3 million in Brazil and over 1 million in France meaning that as a language, it is well-travelled and will always offer a strong platform for communication and career progression as the Polish community continue to emigrate and settle in some of the world’s most urbanised and advanced areas.
Poland also accepts close to 1.8 million international students on an annual basis, as students move abroad to pursue their careers. Medical Poland, Dublin 1, drafted a dozen students into their programme this year and Artur Banaszkiewicz, of leader of the initiative, claims that “the graduates of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy will come back (to Ireland) with exceptional medical knowledge received in Poland, that ranks 2nd in OECD in education” (Better Life Index) which again, demonstrates their international prowess when it comes to education and communication.
Without a doubt, the Leaving Certificate is an important incentive for the citizens of Ireland to learn a language. It demonstrates how a language option offered at second and third level education, such as French or German, usually has a corresponding number of nationals who reside in the country. This has been established through decades of emigration to foreign countries and the influx of foreign nationals to Ireland, which will remain a subplot of the Irish Celtic Tiger, as international travel to Ireland increased sevenfold during this period. Due to the overwhelming pitfall in Ireland’s knowledge of Polish and the increased integration of Polish citizens into Irish life – should Polish be offered as a Leaving Cert subject in order to bridge the gap?