Someone inside the Arctic Circle is interested in learning Irish. How do we know? Through modern technology. An Ghaeilge ar an Idirlion - the Web. The person up there in the cold reaches of that remote region may have Irish connections or may not, but he or she has used UCC's Centre for Spoken Irish (Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha) Website to access information on Irish and what is happening at the university.
The Website has been running since January 1999, the director of the centre, Mr Pol Ruiseal, said. Now, every week from all over the world, it receives 120 "hits" or contacts.
The site markets the work of the centre in French, Italian and Spanish and is reaching out to people from many countries who are taking an interest in Irish. The language, the director added, is becoming fashionable beyond these shores.
Proof of this may be seen in that 220 foreign students arrive at UCC via the EU's Erazmus/Socrates exchange programme under the East European Tempus Programme. There are other exchange programmes which encourage American and African students to take beginner courses in Irish. Yes, a few African students would like to become proficient in Irish. Some stay for just a term, some for the academic year. By the time they leave, some will have earned a certificate in Irish Studies including the language, archaeology, folklore, literature and culture. UCC already is home to at least 1,000 foreign students who study there right across the disciplines. In the past five years, interest in Irish courses organised by the UCC centre has increased by 40 per cent; another 1,000 students are taking the various courses at the centre.
Mr Ruiseal believes things are on the move for the language, with a revival at home and increased interest abroad. This could be due to our high-profile successes abroad in music, literature and dance.
Some years ago, the University of Bochum in the Ruhr Valley in Germany developed the concept of "tandem learning" - using the Internet, I teach you and you teach me.
Suppose a Spanish student studying at a university in Madrid wanted to learn Korean. Bochum could help pair each with the relevant person, who would not have to be a university student to get in involved. Once logged on to the Bochum Website, things will take their own course. A language/computer buff in the Dingle peninsula or in Dalkey might want to get involved. Once introduced to a computer partner on the other side - wherever that is - the programme starts to run.
Until the Centre for Spoken Irish became involved in the Bochum project through Helmut Brammerts, head of the largest tandem-learning network in the world, nobody had thought of bringing Irish into the mainstream of language technology. Bochum was offering computer exchanges to students in almost every language you could think of, but Irish wasn't one of them.
It is because of Pol Ruiseal's contact with the German university where, as a visiting professor, he has taught elementary Irish as well as other aspects of Irish culture that it is becoming a reality. Helmut Brammerts was just as eager that Irish should go online.
So a tentative experiment has begun. At UCC, four Irish students are interacting with four German students. Under this procedure there are formal rules whereas there might not be if the project is approached from an independent standpoint.
The students who enlist are required to make contact every other day on their computers. There are writing and speaking assignments. The students correct each other's errors and help one another to fine-tune the language they are learning.
On either side, progress is monitored by a station master. In the case of UCC, it is Dr Ciaran Dawson. Time must be given for a database to be built up, he said, before real claims can be made for the efficacy of the project.
There may be teething problems, which is why the intention is to bring the students together in early summer to see how the programme works for them and how it might be improved.
The UCC centre has taken a novel approach to Irish learning and teaching. Naturally, the Gaeltacht environment is still important. UCC runs Dun Chiomhain, its own outreach college in the west Kerry Gael tacht, which operates all year round.
Last year, demand continued for accreditation to the 22 weekend courses run there during the academic as well as week-long courses offered at other times of the year. The all-Irish environment at Dun Chiomhain is a vital part of the centre's work, said Pol Ruiseal.
There is also the mini-Gaeltacht which has been created on campus. This is at the Castle white student apartments where 30 students, who go about their business exclusively through Irish, are accommodated.
The centre may also have an input into a proposal to turn the now defunct Colaiste Iosagain at Ballyvourney, Co Cork, into an Irish-language centre of excellence. Deloitte & Touche was commissioned by Bord na Gaeilge at UCC and Udaras na Gaeltachta to conduct a feasibility study on the possibility of developing the college as a third-level education centre.
The consultant's report concluded that with adequate State and other investment, the college could provide five different functions including: an Irish language/cultural centre of excellence; an adult education and training centre; a centre for information and communications technology; a conference and exhibition centre, and a national Gaelic games coaching centre.
If you wish to log on to the tandem learning site, here's the address: http://www.slf.ruhruni-bochum.de/index.html