Parallels between Irish and Cantonese languages highlighted at Dublin graduation

More than 40 Cantonese-speaking migrants who have spent the last three months learning the Irish language gradated in Dublin this weekend.

“One of the things that have jumped out to us over the last few months is that we are puzzled . . . We don’t understand why Irish people are scared of this language,” says an enthusiastic Alice Chau, one of the successful course participants.

The north Dublin resident, who came to Ireland from Hong Kong, is already adept at several languages – she speaks English, French, Cantonese and Mandarin.

“The Cantonese language has a similar experience [to Irish] where we have been told our language is useless. So we come in with the mindset that ‘no, there has to be something else to it’.

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“Because of our own political situation we have been told to learn English and to learn Mandarin. So I have four languages and now five. We don’t find Irish that difficult. There are lots of similarities between Cantonese and Irish. They are both very old languages and some words are peculiar but it is not rocket science. You just need to learn it,” says Ms Chau, a cat behaviour consultant, who came to Ireland 15 years ago to pursue a job in finance.

The course was taught in Cantonese by Dr Fangzhe Qiu who is an assistant professor at the School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore at UCD. He is an active promoter of Irish culture to the Chinese public. It was the first Irish course taught in Cantonese in the country.

Language has become a political issue in Hong Kong since the province was handed back from the UK to China in 1997. While Cantonese is the default language for the majority of the population, Mandarin is increasingly being promoted.

Ms Chau, who also hosts a radio show on Near FM which promotes Asian talent in Ireland, says some of the students in the Dublin course are becoming proficient in the Irish language.

“They can introduce themselves and say ‘hello’ and basic one-minute conversations. This is the first course where people learned Irish through the Cantonese language. A lot of courses would involve you learning Irish through English. So there is another filter there because you are using a second language to learn a third. For us, we are privileged to have found someone who is a mother tongue Cantonese speaker who is fluent in Irish.”

Another student, Ceres Chung, moved to Dublin from Hong Kong two years ago.

Ms Chung said she found Ireland to be a welcoming society. She came across the course on a Facebook page and decided to attempt to learn a few words of Irish.

“It is a fairly difficult language for me. I still can’t pronounce it very well. The pronunciation of Irish is so different from the other languages that I know. Actually I only know Chinese and English.

“The pronunciation of Irish is quite complicated for me. We have done the course online and we will be meeting people [face to face] for the first time today.”

Irish-speaking TD’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Senators Lorraine Clifford and Barry Ward were in attendance at the graduation. The event and lessons were organised by Cantonese in Ireland, a non-profit organisation that aims to help Cantonese-speaking migrants integrate into society here.

The lessons were sponsored by the Department of Children Equality Disability Integration and Youth. Conradh na Gaeilge also supported the event by hosting the graduation in Harcourt Street in Dublin.