Is the Irish Language going out of fashion? Please Vote!

three

So what do you think?

Spalk0

I was unaware it was ever in fashion in the first place!Not where im from or where i have been around the country!

DJPJ

Lets face it - who wants to learn a language where you can only communicate with a couple of thousand people! THose census results which say a high percentage of the population can speak Irish are ridiculous.. most people just say 'well I did it in school' and tick the yes box! I know my parents used to mark their four children as 'yes' to speak Irish and none of us could hold a conversation.

If tomorrow I decided I wanted to learn a new language, I'd rather learn something like spanish or french with which I could communicate with hundreds of million of people, rather than Irish.

luckat

Are you joking? Gaelscoileanna are the fastest-growing school type in the country, and are neck-and-neck with the Jesuit schools as the most successful in terms of sending kids to university.

We have an Irish-language TV station and at least two Irish-language radio stations!

The great thing about this modern generation (**creeak**) is that their attitude to Irish is so different. Rather than it being a punitive thing, a duty and a way of being in competition, they're speaking and fostering Irish for love and fun. I love the slang, the relaxed attitude about speaking Irish, the lack of musty dutifulness.

luckat

DJPJ, why not learn lots of languages - good fun. I'm learning Japanese from mp3s at the moment as I cycle in and out of work.

monkeyfudge

When I was young and in school I didn't think much of Irish at all. I never got on well with my Irish teachers. And I ended up doing the extra low foundation level in the Leaving Cert.

But I've found when you end up traveling alot you feel a need to assert your own national identity and culture when in other countries, and using your own language is a good way of doing this. I was actually at a multi-lingual/multi-cultural conference last week in Frankfurt and it was great be able to throw in a some Irish against the German, French and English.

DEmeant0r

To be honest, I'm proud that we have our own national language, as opposed to some countries like America who don't.
But I think the main problem with Irish is that schools have crap, old and cranky teachers, this results in disinterest in the language. Also I don't see the point in learning pros and poetry, you don't need to learn these to speak the language.
If there was a better standard in teaching and Leaving cert syllabus that doesn't include pros and poetry, then I'm sure that the interest in Irish would surge. I'm guilty of being in this situation, I used to love Irish back in primary and junior cert, but when the leaving cert years came, my interest dropped completely, it was possibly because of the syllabus and the poor teaching quality.

SoupyNorman

Demeant0r wrote:

To be honest, I'm proud that we have our own national language, as opposed to some countries like America who don't.
But I think the main problem with Irish is that schools have crap, old and cranky teachers, this results in disinterest in the language. Also I don't see the point in learning pros and poetry, you don't need to learn these to speak the language.
If there was a better standard in teaching and Leaving cert syllabus that doesn't include pros and poetry, then I'm sure that the interest in Irish would surge. I'm guilty of being in this situation, I used to love Irish back in primary and junior cert, but when the leaving cert years came, my interest dropped completely, it was possibly because of the syllabus and the poor teaching quality.

We were taught irish by the wrong method, it should have been taught to us the same way as German or French using soild usful grammer not poems and stories about abandoned donkeys and old women living on their own!!!

ARGINITE

no the irish language is more popular today than it was 5 or 10 years ago!

The_B_Man

Tá tú get your wellies on.

Hopefully it'll get more popular. ur man hector seems to have single handedly made Irish a bit more cúl. maybe if they taught Irish in schools by sittin all the kids in front of reruns of Hangin with Hector, they might want to learn more. He could be this generations Bosco. He even has the ginger hair and red cheeks . I admit I'm not very good at Irish but i still like to annoy a cupla english friends i have by speakin it, and i think it would be a horrible thing if it died.
PS did i hear correctly that Welsh is spoken fluently by natives by a much higher percentage than Irish is spoken by us even though there population is smaller? something like 0.2% (10,000 ppl) Irish as opposed to 20% (500,000 ppl) welsh.

jonny68

How can a language go out of fashion? :rolleyes: its shameful that we dont the whole do not speak more of our national language,more is needed to promote the Irish language to younger people.

Blisterman

Irish sucks. They should just get rid of it. The government seems to have an illusion that a lot of people speak Irish and not English. Why are there bilingual irish/english forms in the passport office, road signs, tv station etc.

Id say more people speak chinese in ireland, than Irish.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Blisterman wrote:

Irish sucks. They should just get rid of it. The government seems to have an illusion that a lot of people speak Irish and not English. Why are there bilingual irish/english forms in the passport office, road signs, tv station etc.

Id say more people speak chinese in ireland, than Irish.

you probably sing rebel songs in pubs too don't you..

Sleepy

The problem with Irish is that it's forced down your throat in school. It's not of enough educational importance to be a compulsory subject to Leaving Cert level and the manner which it's taught merely enforces the loathing many students have of it.

I did pass Irish for Leaving Cert and perfected my Tetris game during the class purely because I resented being forced to do such a pointless subject for what was supposed to be "the most important exam you'll ever sit". Instead of wasting my time on it and trying to struggle through the honours paper I took pass, did nothing for it and invested my time into subjects that were going to be more useful to me in my planned future. Worked for me.

From what I can see, the Irish language has now become fashionable amongst the 4x4 driving "Soccer Mom's" of Ireland. Ironic really that those most vocally in support of the Irish language are often the one's most abandoning Irish culture in their attempts to be cardboard cut outs of Californians.

The only other people I've seen to be interested in the language were that minority of minorities: those who actually had good teachers for the subject in secondary school.

Unit00

It is taught badly in schools, few people care about it and even fewer use it at all.

Suaimhneach

Oh, the irish language. This is being debated _all_ the time like. It's ridicoulous. I'm a fluent speaker but I chose "it was never in fashion". As that is true. Though it would be nice if more people spoke it, or even if less people hated it.

I agree with Dementor, and have said it many many times myself, it is jsut a matter of teaching the language, as a language. Not as something that is only relevant to stuff, that I as a fluent speaker, found hard.

There will always be clichés, always.

stagolee

i used to have a pretty good command of irish when i was about 11 (could hold a basic conversation) but when i finished senior school i failed pass irish in the leaving cert. now i cant string two words together in irish. but ive recently decided to start learning irish and another language. irish for the cultural aspects and another one for travel and to better my future employment prospects

magpie

Well, I've been banned from the Gaeilge forum (for expressing the views below), so that's one less fear who will be ag leabhart an tainge as it were.

My 2 pence worth: Irish was effectively a dead language by the 19th Century, it was reinvented by a coterie of Cultural Nationalist Intellectuals who used it as part of the evidence of our cultural 'otherness' from Britain and therefore right to independence in the late 19th Century, it was inserted into the school curriculum by Fianna Fail in the 1930s along with a very dubious history curriculum as a bulwark against 'counter-revolution'.

Seeing as how the need for the language has now passed, I say let it die in peace and be buried happily in Inis Boffin. Similarly it's time to revamp the LC History syllabus to make at least a passing nod at the truth.

Nil aon tintean mar do thinteain fein, as they used to make you learn by rote in school.

woosaysdan

yeah it was always a subject i enjoyed in school but neglected it to study other "more important" subjects!!! but im seriously thinking to going back and learning it again!!!

PH01

"...this week i will be mostly wearing Irish Language..."

Blisterman

magpie wrote:

Well, I've been banned from the Gaeilge forum (for expressing the views below), so that's one less fear who will be ag leabhart an tainge as it were.

My 2 pence worth: Irish was effectively a dead language by the 19th Century, it was reinvented by a coterie of Cultural Nationalist Intellectuals who used it as part of the evidence of our cultural 'otherness' from Britain and therefore right to independence in the late 19th Century, it was inserted into the school curriculum by Fianna Fail in the 1930s along with a very dubious history curriculum as a bulwark against 'counter-revolution'.

Seeing as how the need for the language has now passed, I say let it die in peace and be buried happily in Inis Boffin. Similarly it's time to revamp the LC History syllabus to make at least a passing nod at the truth.

Nil aon tintean mar do thinteain fein, as they used to make you learn by rote in school.

I agree.
Of course I'm finished school, so I never have to say a word of Irish again.

davie_b

Blisterman wrote:

Irish sucks. They should just get rid of it. The government seems to have an illusion that a lot of people speak Irish and not English. Why are there bilingual irish/english forms in the passport office, road signs, tv station etc.

Id say more people speak chinese in ireland, than Irish.

it is becauce the 1st language of the coutry is irish and i always use the irish forms
why??!
because people should be proud off thier roots!!!
it sets us apart from other nations
cop on!!!! :mad:

JBoyle4eva

well, I think that beecause Teenagers have been doing Irish since national school, they find it such a bore in second level. The fact that we're also FORCEd to do it adds to the bore factor.

I think if it was changed to a second level ONLY subject, and it was to become an optional language/subject, I think more people would probably do it and have a better interest in it.

Saruman

Im one of many who resented being forced to learn irish when i was younger... now i wish i had been sent to an irish school and could speak fluent irish. Its not needed in todays world but its just so cool to be able to speak it. I think TG4 has a LOT to do with it.. even though i dont watch it (or any TV these days) i think it has made Irish more popular... I only know the bits i remember from school.. some words etc but not fluent and cant hold a conversation.

I cant agree with davie_b though.. it does not set us apart from other nations.. it only puts us on par... do you have any idea how few countries speak English?? Most speak their own language and learn another because they want to. We dont speak our own language at all unless again some want to.

Tiriel

did anyone see that short movie that was running before "Man about Dog".. it was as gaeilge about a runner from Tipperary going to the Olymics... well it was actually quite good.. I was surprised at how much I understood! And it was nice to hear Irish being spoken on the big screen.. I say more of it please

segadreamcast

That was actually a pretty nice story they told in Irish.

The language is horrific though - it is, no matter which way you dress it, an awkward language in terms of structure, and it always will be.

Abolish it? No. Make it optional and watch it happily go the way of latin as most people choose not to go near it with a barge pole and, instead, study worthwhile subjects.

Naos

unfortuntly its is dying ;( eu aint helping much tsk tsk.

however, it is GREAT craic using it, seriously. Me and a couple of lads used it on holidays, just basic crap like shes goodlooking etc, but it was funny.
of course a stupid ass friend has to call a girl fat, 30 seconds later she heard me say somehting as gaelige and she responds with "Ta me lufa(sp?) na teanga" - Im fluent in the language.. great. she lived in the gaeltacht...... cue red face

DEmeant0r

If every primary school in Ireland was made into an all Irish speaking primary school, then people might speak it more often. Oh, and change the god damn LC syllabus, take the bloody poetry and pros out. If people have an interest in them, they'd read the poetry and pros themselves.

Blisterman

That would be the worst idea ever.

Also, not only is Irish obsolete, it is a terrible sounding language. it's almost as bad as Welsh and Hebrew.
This is opposed to Italian and Spanish, which sound nice to listen to.

DEmeant0r

Blisterman wrote:

That would be the worst idea ever.

Also, not only is Irish obsolete, it is a terrible sounding language. it's almost as bad as Welsh and Hebrew.
This is opposed to Italian and Spanish, which sound nice to listen to.

Most if not all of my friends who studied in all Irish Primary loved Irish up until Leaving Cert, go figure.

Flukey

It should not be let die. It is an important part of our culture and heritage. It does need to be taught properly. That is a problem, and the fact that there is not much opportunity to use it. It has proved handy for the Irish abroad when they want to communicate in a language that no one around them understands.

Though we may not speak it, it surrounds us in all sorts of ways. We use a lot of words daily that have an Irish origin or are Irish, Taoiseach being the best example. Most placenames in Ireland are either translations from Irish or mispronounciations of the Irish form. "Bally" that starts a lot of placenames comes from Baile, meaning town, being mispronounced. Dún is an old Irish world for fort. Cill is an old Irish word for church and as a result we have a lot of placenames beginning with Kil or Kill. There are many other examples.

Some places have completely different Irish and English names. The word Dublin comes from Dubh Linn (Black Pool), while the name Baile Átha Cliath comes from "The Town of the Hurdle Ford". Where Dublin is now, around 100BC there were two villages: Dubh Linn near the mouth of the river Poddle and Áth Cliath near the mouth of the river Camac. Much of where the city is now, was still under water at that time. The modern English and Irish names came from those two villages.

There are all sorts of other ways that the Irish language surrounds us, directly and indirectly. So while few of us can speak it fluently, it is there and is part of our history and culture, so it can't be let die.

Slutmonkey57b

Magpie is absolutely correct. What you know today is not "Irish" at all, it is a political construct. It is not "Gaelic", the original language of the native speakers. No modern European language is the same as it was 500 years ago, but the difference is that other languages have evolved through natural use, whereas Irish has been invented along the way. My favourite example of this is that when I was sitting in Irish class ignoring the teacher, the "correct" word for car was - "carr". Wow. Then they realised it was a joke and turned it into "glustean" (no I can't spell it and even if I could I wouldn't on general principle so don't bother) - meaning, literally, "go - thing".

The language is permanantly stuck at the equivalent of a 6-year old child's level of English vocabulary. Even assuming you wanted to hold a conversation in the language, you couldn't hold an eloquant one because the words and flexibility simply don't exist. Total waste of time, and like others here, I refuse to have anything to do with the language because the filthy powers that be force it down our throats from birth as "part of your heritage". It's not part of my heritage, background, or everyday life, and it never will be.

Also note that English is no longer taught "as a language" in primary school - primary school children do not learn grammar anymore. This has not stopped English being the most widely spoken langaueg in the country.
People do not speak Irish because there is no reason for them to do so, and many of them activly do not want to. Stop pretending otherwise. It has not been "beaten down by the man" - it has been forced down our throats, and it still fails.

Slutmonkey57b

luckat wrote:

Are you joking? Gaelscoileanna are the fastest-growing school type in the country, and are neck-and-neck with the Jesuit schools as the most successful in terms of sending kids to university.

We have an Irish-language TV station and at least two Irish-language radio stations!

The great thing about this modern generation (**creeak**) is that their attitude to Irish is so different. Rather than it being a punitive thing, a duty and a way of being in competition, they're speaking and fostering Irish for love and fun. I love the slang, the relaxed attitude about speaking Irish, the lack of musty dutifulness.

1: There is no pressure on University places in this country, except in very specific disciplines. Teaching methods have no bearing on the awarding of university places (at least not in terms of the political structure of the school). The non-takeup of 3rd level places has far more to do with socioeconomic factors than anything else. Also bear in mind Irish schools and Jesuit schools are heavily subsidised/private colleges respectively (or in some cases both).

2: The existance of Irish language stations is a very overt Poilitcal statement, and not a reflection of Irish's popularity. It is precicely because the langauge is a) dead and b) unpopular that they exist.

Djpj is absolutley correct. Irish is a political checkbox, not a living language. It is not our National language. If you ask someone "is Irish important, should we keep it?" They'll say yes. Then monitor that person for 2 weeks and see how much Irish they speak. The answer will be none in 99% of cases.

stagolee

personaly i reckon kids in junior school should be tought in irish for half the day and english half the day then when they get to senior school let them choose between irish and a couple of other languages.

even though the irish language radio stations and tv stations do exist largley because of govenment funding they still kick the arse off rte and i am genuinley motivated to learn the language by them. praticularly the radio stations which play decent music while im on the nightshift as opposed to the piss poor 80's/chart/dance cack that seems to run on a 20 song loop on all the other stations

ixoy

While we're at it, the Government are lobbying the EU today to get Irish recognised as a working EU language, enabling meetings, etc. to be held as Gaeilge. Currently, it's a Treaty language only, meaning (I think) that all EU treaties, etc. are available in Irish if you want them. Estimates put the cost of this as €28m, with the apparent creation of 280 jobs.

Interestingly though, it appears 7m can speak Catalan and that 40% of the populace of the new ex-Soviet states speak Russian, yet neither of them have been afforded the status of a Treaty language and they may object to Irish being awarded such a status. Which beggars the question are we pursuing it for national identity solely or for any real practical reasons?

And wasn't there some new paper on improving Irish road safety that's been delayed for over a year because, by law, it needs an Irish copy but noone is available to perform the translation? And meanwhile bodies pile up on the roads - anyone confirm this one?

Haruspex

Flukey wrote:

Though we may not speak it, it surrounds us in all sorts of ways. We use a lot of words daily that have an Irish origin or are Irish, Taoiseach being the best example. Most placenames in Ireland are either translations from Irish or mispronounciations of the Irish form. "Bally" that starts a lot of placenames comes from Baile, meaning town, being mispronounced. Dún is an old Irish world for fort. Cill is an old Irish word for church and as a result we have a lot of placenames beginning with Kil or Kill. There are many other examples.

I agree with Flukey in this respect. Irish placenames are so much more descriptive and intricately bound up with location and a sense of place than their anglicisations would have you believe. I admit we are historically stuck with the English now but they should not be forgotten.

As for Irish being a "dying" language well take at look at the flourishing work of poets writing "as Gaeilge" such as Cathal Ó Searcaigh and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. These are two of the most acclaimed contemporary Irish language poets in the country. Their work is often not celebrated enough but they contribute enormously to the notion of a language in use.

Sleepy

Yeah, TG4 beats the arse off RTE by showing the occasional watchable movie that RTE showed years before it, some sub-Fair City Soap operas and, well, that's about it really isn't it?

The only decent things they've done have been their children's TV, Hector and the Underdogs.

stagolee

Sleepy wrote:

The only decent things they've done have been their children's TV, Hector and the Underdogs.

(in best soccer score announcer voice...)

TG4:3
RTE:......nil

blondie83

magpie wrote:

Well, I've been banned from the Gaeilge forum (for expressing the views below), so that's one less fear who will be ag leabhart an tainge as it were.

My 2 pence worth: Irish was effectively a dead language by the 19th Century, it was reinvented by a coterie of Cultural Nationalist Intellectuals who used it as part of the evidence of our cultural 'otherness' from Britain and therefore right to independence in the late 19th Century, it was inserted into the school curriculum by Fianna Fail in the 1930s along with a very dubious history curriculum as a bulwark against 'counter-revolution'.

Nil aon tintean mar do thinteain fein, as they used to make you learn by rote in school.

Thats probably actually a pretty good description of why we all have to do Irish, but it's no reason to stop people from learning it. Someone mentioned earlier that having our own language doesn't set us apart from other nations, it just makes us equal to them. But why not be equal? I fully agree that the sylubus (sp) for the junior and leaving cert needs to be brought more into line with the sylubuses for more modern European languages - Irish as it is taught now is completely ineffective. But if you ever spend even one month in Irish college in the Gaeltacht, you learn what it is to speak Irish in a relaxed everyday envirnoment - and out of necessity you learn how to speak it quite quickly! This is the sort of atmosphere that we need to encourage in the Irish classes in this country - that or send anyone off to the Gaeltacht! Just out of interest, My Irish teacher for the leaving cert didn't really "teach" as such - she used to just sit there and give us "advice for life" and chat to us and all - then occasionaly she'd do a poem or something. Thing is I still managed to get an A in honours Irish and am still a fluent speaker of it. This is in no way because of my teachers, it's becuase I went to Irish college 4 years in a row, for 3 weeks at a time. I learnt more in those 12 weeks than I did in my 12 years in school

Saruman

saw an excellent short movie at the cinema last year... a Chinese guy was bored (maybe Japanese) so he turns a globe puts his finger down and it lands on Ireland.. so he spends 6 months learning everything about Ireland.. seeing that Irish is our first language he learns it...

He arrives here and tries speaking but no one understands him.. he thinks its because his pronounciation is all wrong etc. He asks for directions or a job at a chipper i think.. he speaks irish, they cant understand him and when he leaves one guy says "What language was that?" And the other guy says "Chinese or something!"

finally he is in a bar and is all depressed and when he starts asking the bartender something.. again maybe for a job... he is not understood.. BUT an old guy at the bar notices and and they have a chat As Gaeilge ... anyway he ends up working for Board Failte i think.. I thought it was excellent and made me ashamed that our language was unknown to most of us.

Haruspex

Saruman wrote:

saw an excellent short movie at the cinema last year... a Chinese guy was bored (maybe Japanese) so he turns a globe puts his finger down and it lands on Ireland.. so he spends 6 months learning everything about Ireland.. seeing that Irish is our first language he learns it...

He arrives here and tries speaking but no one understands him.. he thinks its because his pronounciation is all wrong etc. He asks for directions or a job at a chipper i think.. he speaks irish, they cant understand him and when he leaves one guy says "What language was that?" And the other guy says "Chinese or something!"

finally he is in a bar and is all depressed and when he starts asking the bartender something.. again maybe for a job... he is not understood.. BUT an old guy at the bar notices and and they have a chat As Gaeilge ... anyway he ends up working for Board Failte i think.. I thought it was excellent and made me ashamed that our language was unknown to most of us.

That'd be Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom.

Flukey

I saw that too. It is very good.

monkeyfudge

I saw that film on TG4 recently. It was very well made.... even if it did make Dubliners out to be eejits who don't know the difference between Chinese and Irish...

simu

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

Magpie is absolutely correct. What you know today is not "Irish" at all, it is a political construct. It is not "Gaelic", the original language of the native speakers. No modern European language is the same as it was 500 years ago, but the difference is that other languages have evolved through natural use, whereas Irish has been invented along the way. My favourite example of this is that when I was sitting in Irish class ignoring the teacher, the "correct" word for car was - "carr". Wow. Then they realised it was a joke and turned it into "glustean" (no I can't spell it and even if I could I wouldn't on general principle so don't bother) - meaning, literally, "go - thing".

The language has changed over the centuries as all languages do, no one is denying this. As for your political construct theory, would you like to provide us with some links to back this up? In all my years of studying Irish and linguistics, I've not heard of it - maybe it's some sort of grand conspiracy? Please help me lift the veil of ignorance that blocks my sight.

The government did set up a group to standardise spellings and grammar but the same has been done with other languages - take the Académie Française in the case of French, for instance.

It has also been necessary to find words in Irish there were no wors for 100 years ago for the simple reason that the things these words refer to did not exist yet. No language had a word for a car or a computer before these things were invented. The word "gluaisteán" is not intrisically funny - you'll find similar words created by recombining elements of other words in many languages. It happens in English as well but is less visible unless you have knowledge of Latin and Greek.

In fact, there are quite a few words for "car" in Irish, depending on which dialect is involved.

The language is permanantly stuck at the equivalent of a 6-year old child's level of English vocabulary. Even assuming you wanted to hold a conversation in the language, you couldn't hold an eloquant one because the words and flexibility simply don't exist.

Maybe your knowledge of the language rests at such a low level but that's not to say there aren't people out there who can have discussions about whatever they feel like in Irish. Do you think Radio na Gaeltachta is just random sounds generated by some government machine? Do you think all Irish books and newspapers are random letters created by the same machine?

Seriously, if you're going to try and argue that Irish shouldn't be taught in schools, try finding more coherent ways of arguing your point.

Undergod

First of all, I think its important to preserve it even if you think its a dead language. Irish is in so many ways a really nice and poetic. For example, it has different verbs 'to be' for definition and description. In english, our emotions define us. "I am sad", but in Irish, "tá brón orm" (there is sadness on me).
I can't see any reason why learning it is a bad idea... how many peple who do French in school will actually use it? Learning it can't do any harm.

Saruman

Thats the one yes.. it was excellent

passive

Learning it can't do any harm.

yes...but NOT learning it can't do any harm either...

people are constantly saying, and it's been repeated here, "it's important for our heritage" or "our language is our culture" and other such statements like that. someone please explain this for me? one of the "gaeilge=great!" crowd... what exactly is that supposed to mean? when people say things like "it's important because it's our history" do they actually have any intelligent thoughts behind it or is it just a sentence.

it's not necessary and it should not be compulsary. it's completely unfair on leaving cert students, especially because of the nature of the course <tangent> as has been stated repeatedly... it's not about learning and understanding the language, it's about learning off meaningless words about certain plays poems and stories, the vast majority of which have very poor plots and little substance, particularly when compared to the standard of literature on the english course. they seem to pretend the irish is a first language course and the students already know the language and are just required to give their opinions on the greatest of irish political works or spout some inane (but grammatically correct) views about drugs & alcohol, the problems of racism, the celtic tiger etc.

the reality is that students on average (well..in my school anyway, maybe we're the worst in the country or something) have very poor grasp of the language...most of the books are entirely in irish and huge amounts of time are wasted in Irish class translating each line of the poems & stories so we have a vague idea whats going on. we have extra classes after school for grammar... if not for them i'd be even more lost in class, but we don't have time to cover actually knowing the language in class because of the course work :mad: </tangent>

all that said: i kinda like it. I accept that if it was taught differently i probably wouldn't have all this pent up hatred. I do think it's "nice" that people still speak it as a first language in (a handful of) places. I randomly use irish words in conversation, enjoy speaking it in the oral (ahem) &, for no reason i can think of other than a random realisation that i preferred it, i've replaced "between" with "idir" in writing texts and emails and stuff... it's a novelty for me. It isn't a necessary novelty though...or a novelty on a par with Maths & English in terms of their educational merit.

umm... slán...

Saruman

Irish should not be compulsory.... If it were an optional class though then it might work out better.

Pinkchick03

luckat wrote:

DJPJ, why not learn lots of languages - good fun. I'm learning Japanese from mp3s at the moment as I cycle in and out of work.

Where did you get the mp3's from - I am really interested in learning Japanese! Thanks

simu

The thing is that you have to make a distinction between the language itself and the way its taught in some schools (there are good Irish teachers out there too!).

SprostonGreen

It definitely needs to be taught differently in schools. I wish I knew more of the language, I can get the gist of An Nuacht but cant speak it very well. Our identity is being eroded too much as it is, with every main street looking exactly the same. It should be "let die" or "buried in Innisboffin", that is a soul-less mentality.