When people list the various projects they plan to undertake during COVID-19 self-isolation, they often say “learn a new language!” Time will tell if anyone actually does learn a new language, which is more difficult than companies like Rosetta Stone and DuoLingo lead them to believe. But these companies may inspire in their customers a desire actually to learn a language, which will be a boon to language teachers.

Ofer Tirosh, the CEO and founder of the international translation services provider Tomedes, views the period of self-isolation as an opportunity for a much more ambitious language-learning project. In an article posted to Irish Tech News he poses the question “AS WE SIT IN QUARANTINE, IS NOW THE TIME TO BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO GAELIC?”

Much of the article is devoted to an overview of Gaelic in Ireland and a discussion of language-learning tools and online translation services. But his proposal goes well beyond providing resources for quarantined hobbyists: “I envision a national effort to revive the moribund Gaelic to become a national language of Ireland and Irish people abroad.”

Tirosh is not Irish, nor does he live in Ireland, but his proposal is based upon personal experience: “I was raised in a country which saw the resurrection of a language long thought dead. Today, less than a century after the living language was reintroduced, almost all of my country’s population speaks it. I speak, of course, about Israel, and the resurrection of Hebrew, the language of the Bible.”

Tirosh acknowledges that such a project will seem far-fetched to most observers, but he concludes that “the current health crisis is shutting down borders and turning our societies in on themselves as never before. Now is a great time to learn the Irish lingo.” This is a valid point, and the article will be of interest in places such as Canada and the former Soviet Union where efforts are already underway to revive indigenous languages.