Arieh Smith, a New York native polyglot and YouTuber who also goes by Xioma, surprised some locals in Dublin when he tried chatting to them in the Irish language, which he had only been learning for a few weeks.
Smith, who has mastered several foreign languages, recently shared his Irish language encounters in Dublin across three videos on his TikTok page.
In his first video in Ireland, Smith tries his Irish with a friendly fruit vendor in Dublin.
When he asks, in Irish, how much the bananas are, the vendor is pleasantly taken aback and shares her surprise with a bystander.
Smith admits that he's just learning and that it's his first time in Dublin, but the two locals could only smile at his earnest attempts.
A cheeky passerby offers his own mini-lesson, asking Smith if he knows what 'póg mo thóin' means. "Don't say it too loud!" the passerby says with a laugh.
"It's good to see other people learning it," one of the vendors said.
@spicychallenge4 American Tourist Speaks Irish in Ireland, Locals Shocked #american #ireland #fyb #fouryou ♬ original sound - Xiaomanyc Fan
In his second video in Dublin, Smith tries conversing with another vendor, though this time they aren't able to keep up.
"A lot of Dublin people don't speak Irish," one of them told Smith, before loading his bag up with some extra fruit as a 'well done' on his efforts.
Elsewhere, a shopkeeper told Smith: "We all learned it in school and don't use it again, so I have to think about what you're saying."
The shopkeeper agreed with Smith that the younger generation has been embracing the Irish language.
In his third video, Smith met up with one of his Irish language teachers in a pub where "you're only allowed to order in Irish."
Smith successfully orders a pint of Guinness - his first in Ireland! - and a glass of water.
After tucking into the tasty pints, Smith begins chatting with fellow punters who are shocked to learn he's from New York and even more shocked to learn he had only been learning Irish for a few weeks.
In the wake of his popular videos in Ireland, Smith told IrishCentral this week: “I learned from tutors in Ireland, we met daily for an hour a day online for about three weeks and they taught me conversational Irish."
Smith, who has studied dozens of languages and is near native-speaking in Mandarin, admitted that Irish “was definitely up there in terms of difficulty.”
“I would say it would rank in the top quartile of languages as far as difficulty goes," he added.
“Very unusual structures I have not seen in many other languages except for Welsh (which is related to Irish).”
Smith admitted he was nervous to try out his “so-so” Irish language skills with the locals, but thankfully found a warm reception.
“It turns out the Dublin locals were really excited to see me practicing!" Smith said.
Smith chronicles his journeys as a polyglot on to nearly 20k followers on TikTok and nearly 6 million followers on YouTube. He also offers online language courses here.
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