Well, I suppose our goal, our job, is to get young people from Ireland, from all over the country, excited and introduce them to using the language in a more informal, social way. I suppose my biggest criticism of our own education system is that it doesn't promote the free use of the language; the language is a kind of a—. Most students feel that it's confined to the classroom, that the responsibility to promote or to use the language outside of the classroom really isn't their responsibility. It's a question of ownership and a question of, I suppose—. To put it in context, when we met—. A really nice group of young people spent two days with us here last June on one of our courses. It was a kind of a lastminute.com arrangement, because many of the arrangements we had made for previous years were null and void due to COVID restraints, but to spend two days—. I suppose it's—. Their sense of bilingualism, where both languages seem to be—. There doesn't seem to be any pecking order between using Cymraeg and English in many parts of Wales. That’s what we’d like to see, that’s what we’d like to strive for, is that language is just a language—it’s there to enjoy, to communicate with, but to use more than anything else.
Our biggest shortcoming, as far as I can see, and our biggest challenge each year when young people come on our courses to get acquainted with, to become comfortable with, to maybe connect with the language, for some—there are quite a number of them, because it’s just that sense of ownership, that there isn’t this kind of—. English/Gaeilge, there’s no competition whatsoever. Gaeilge, it’s just to give it its space, its time. But ownership is the big one all right, and that’s what I could see, and I must admit I was very envious of the language behaviour of the young people from Wales that we came across. They had a huge influence also on, I suppose, much more so—. I did expect that there would be some kind of synergy, all right, but I must admit it was much, much bigger, much more profound, than I expected it to be. it was something to behold, all right.
It’s the sense of curiousness—they’re really curious about this language use, whereas, I suppose, while north Wales is only two and a half hours from Dublin, it’s easier to get to north Wales, believe it or not, from Dublin than to get to Conamara—it takes longer. Geographically, they’re so near, but there is complete, complete—. It’s like discovering you don’t know that this sibling or this relation is right there on your doorstep. But there are similarities—. Being minority languages, you know, you think you’re alone, then all of a sudden you’ll discover that you’re not maybe so different or so alone as you thought you were.
But, yes, the level of inquisitiveness, the curiosity—as far as I’m concerned, that’s education at its peak, when people are interested, when people kind of—. I suppose there was a bit of a language barrier, all right. There’s a language divide, where, of course, English would be where you could appreciate and listen and be enthralled by people, by these young people, speaking this language, Cymraeg, and vice versa. I must admit the young people from Wales were—to the same extent, they showed the same kind of enthusiasm and inquisitiveness towards Gaeilge also. But it's—. There’s something there, all right. There’s something there to be built on, and we’re very much looking forward to—. As I said, we’re going to Glan-llyn—I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly—