Learning to Identify the Foreign in Developed Countries: The Example of Ireland

Abstract

This article presents an essay that highlights how an English-speaking country with a developed, open, globalized economy in Western Europe—in this case, Ireland—can be used to teach American undergraduates how to identify, appreciate, and learn from the foreignness they inevitably encounter when they travel beyond the boundaries of the United States. American students must leave behind the mindset of a superpower and become sensitive to the strategies that a small, relatively powerless nation must adapt in order to survive and thrive economically, politically, and militarily in the community of nations. Ameican students enter an ancient culture that has maintained a remarkable continuity for millennia despite significant linguistic, political and social disruptions; that has suffered the loss of a language and its literature; that has been subjugated by a powerful neighbor and recovered its independence; that for centuries has had its population dispersed worldwide and yet retained a sense of identity.