Use of more Irish daily?

earwax_man

If a new party were elected into government, how would they encourage the use of the Irish language being used more daily? Irish almost like my first language, but the government seem to do nothing to enourage the use of it. I looked in Easons and Waterstones, and there are no grammar books for advanced Irish. But if you look at a german section then there are loads of grammar books. Why do people hate to use their native language? Is there any way Irish could be used more on a daily basis?

Damo123

Make a simple new rule.... Every week when peeps are picking up their dole there is a mandatory 20 minute conversation in Irish. If your Irish isnt up to scratch then you only get half your dole sorry couldnt resist

TBH if i was in charge I would try and work more on making people want to learn the language. Obviously Im not speaking for everybody here. But I know alot of people with the attitude off "its being rammed down our necks"...... so my main aim would be to hold back on the exposure and try and get people interested first..... You can enforce it in schools and make it compulsory for certain jobs or whatever but I think thats just making people hate it even more......

thats my 2 cents

Krusader

Learn 1/2 extra subjects in school through Irish
like History/Drama/Civics/PE/Geography
Leave Irish literature for 3rd level education
More learner program series on tg4 and rte

It really has to start with education and media

Fighting Irish

It's pointless

pog it

We need to found new Gaeltachts like Rath Cairn- one in every county, two in the bigger counties.

And native speakers to teach spoken Irish in secondary schools- if even say one native speaker covers 3-4 schools in an area, then let the Galltacht teachers cover the written and the rest- unless of course the Galltacht teacher can show a very high level of spoken Irish in any of the dialects.

Don't get me started on the level of Irish of sadly, a lot of primary school teachers. Any primary school teacher who teaches the likes of 'tá fáilte agat' to bright children who go to school every day and end up learning that kinda crap and whose parents are paying for that teacher's salary does not deserve their job.

Crosáidí

Crosáidí wrote: »

More learner program series on tg4 and rte

It really has to start with education and media

With digital TV on the horizon, it should be very easy to dedicate one channel to language education!

Irish_wolf

Maybe we should have two different forms of irish class. One compulsory one which starts from scratch again in secondary school with a curriculum like french and one optional extra like advanced Irish literature which would be a seperate subject like ancient greek or something.

Everyone is always harping on about how they have learned more french, german or whatever than irish in the 5/6 years they were in secondary school than in the 14 years they spent learning irish through their entire primary and secondary education maybe the government should listen to that and find out why...

pog it

Irish_wolf wrote: »

Everyone is always harping on about how they have learned more french, german or whatever than irish in the 5/6 years they were in secondary school than in the 14 years they spent learning irish through their entire primary and secondary education maybe the government should listen to that and find out why...

They brought in the new marking scheme for Leaving Cert (Don't know about Junior Cert??) with 30% of marks going for the oral from this year on.. so teachers will have to spend more time working on conversation.

Does anyone know how this is panning out in secondary schools, teaching-wise? Like are teachers are being offered extra training for this and are they doing more conversation work with students on a regular basis?
I know the old way was most of the oral work was left to the end of the year with all of us learning off sentences a few weeks before !

jimmylawman

Would be a help if TG4 used Irish subtitles instead of English ones.

Very distracting to have the english constantly running along the bottom, takes away the incentive of trying to learn. If the subtitles were in Irish you could watch and learn and take note of new words.

ironclaw

Fighting Irish wrote: »

It's pointless

Partly agree with that one. The reason for mountains of German, French etc grammar books is that their languages are useful. Go anywhere in the world and your bound to need a little French, German etc. Go anywhere with Irish and your on your own.

Also, there is no financial incentive. Big Bucks don't care that only a small fraction of Ireland speak Irish any more. Its a beautiful language but lets not flog a dead horse.

Dabhach

ironclaw wrote: »

Partly agree with that one. The reason for mountains of German, French etc grammar books is that their languages are useful. Go anywhere in the world and your bound to need a little French, German etc. Go anywhere with Irish and your on your own.

Also, there is no financial incentive. Big Bucks don't care that only a small fraction of Ireland speak Irish any more. Its a beautiful language but lets not flog a dead horse.

Would have agreed with you a few years ago that Irish is a dead horse, but I'm not so sure anymore. I spend a lot of time in Scotland (is GRÁ liom na garbhcríocha!) and the language is in a much worse state over there. I think the Gaelscoileanna make the difference here: there ARE Gaelic medium schools there, but NOTHING like the dedicated movement the Irish gaelscoileanna are part of. Enthusiastic people have a way of imparting that enthusiasm and there are nearly as many fluent Irish language speakers being turned out of the gaelscoileanna every four or five years as there are the total of Gaelic speakers in Scotland. It's not an ideal solution. So called 'urban Irish' speakers, while fluent, are essentially speaking a different dialect (one linguist has called it a creole) to native speakers, but languages change anyway and change is preferable to death. I wouldn't count the language out just yet, not when you compare it to the state of Gaelic.

pog it

jimmylawman wrote: »

Would be a help if TG4 used Irish subtitles instead of English ones.

Very distracting to have the english constantly running along the bottom, takes away the incentive of trying to learn. If the subtitles were in Irish you could watch and learn and take note of new words.

It would be amazing to have them in Irish-- especially for the programmes/documentaties with native speakers! For Ros na Rún though you can turn the subtitles to Irish as far as I know via Aertel.

An gal gréine

Dabhach wrote: »

Would have agreed with you a few years ago that Irish is a dead horse, but I'm not so sure anymore. I spend a lot of time in Scotland (is GRÁ liom na garbhcríocha!) and the language is in a much worse state over there. I think the Gaelscoileanna make the difference here: there ARE Gaelic medium schools there, but NOTHING like the dedicated movement the Irish gaelscoileanna are part of. Enthusiastic people have a way of imparting that enthusiasm and there are nearly as many fluent Irish language speakers being turned out of the gaelscoileanna every four or five years as there are the total of Gaelic speakers in Scotland. It's not an ideal solution. So called 'urban Irish' speakers, while fluent, are essentially speaking a different dialect (one linguist has called it a creole) to native speakers, but languages change anyway and change is preferable to death. I wouldn't count the language out just yet, not when you compare it to the state of Gaelic.

It's true, Dabhach, what you say about Gaelscoileanna, but don't forget the Scottish Parliament is on the go only since 1999...their revival is only in it's infancy and confidence and pride in Gaidhlig language and culture is growing there. They also have some naysayers who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Deedsie

I would love if TG4 had Irish subtitles for some of the English programming they have.

Dabhach

An gal gréine wrote: »

It's true, Dabhach, what you say about Gaelscoileanna, but don't forget the Scottish Parliament is on the go only since 1999...their revival is only in it's infancy and confidence and pride in Gaidhlig language and culture is growing there. They also have some naysayers who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The language question in Scotland is also complicated by the fact that Gaelic was never a national language over there as it was here, however long ago. A lot of people who live in places were the language was never spoken, for example, object to having street signs and notices put up in Gaelic. That's particularly the case below the highland line, but even up north, not everybody is welcoming of Gaelic. The point is that when we look at how the language is faring over there, it seems to me that it's much further from extinction over here than many would have us believe. I've only been a regular visitor in Scotland for the last four years or so, but it's really opened my eyes. What we have here is definately worth fighting for. The language is much stronger than we're used to thinking of it as being.

loldog

Stop forcing people to learn it in school. Simple as that. If people want to learn it and speak it of their own volition, they will.

.

Dabhach

Dabhach wrote: »

The language question in Scotland is also complicated by the fact that Gaelic was never a national language over there as it was here, however long ago. A lot of people who live in places were the language was never spoken, for example, object to having street signs and notices put up in Gaelic. That's particularly the case below the highland line, but even up north, not everybody is welcoming of Gaelic. The point is that when we look at how the language is faring over there, it seems to me that it's much further from extinction over here than many would have us believe. I've only been a regular visitor in Scotland for the last four years or so, but it's really opened my eyes. What we have here is definately worth fighting for. The language is much stronger than we're used to thinking of it as being.

Historically, Scotland was linguistically two countries (A bit like modern Belgium), Gaelic was never spoken in the southeast of the country. So any revival will only be practical in the highlands and islands where there is an interest for the language.

loldog

loldog wrote: »

Stop forcing people to learn it in school. Simple as that. If people want to learn it and speak it of their own volition, they will.

.

Primary school children are generally receptive to whatever their teachers are teaching them, whether they develope a love or hate for the language is often down to the parants attitude.

I have found that my kids like Irish, but only because I encourage them and make an effort to help them with the Irish homework. Wy wife on the other hand has the typical "waste of time attitude" to it! If she helped them with the homework, they'd probably hate it!

I will allow the kids a free choice as to whether or not they keep up the language in secondary school.

deise go deo

I was just wondering if people here try to speak irish in their day to day lives and if so in what ways?

DublinWriter

Ban it.

We'll all be fluent by Christmas.

Gael

DublinWriter wrote: »

Ban it.

We'll all be fluent by Christmas.

Ah, this old chestnut. Wholely ignoring the fact that our colonisers did a very good job of killing the language by banning it from all facets of public life already.

dlofnep

deise go deo wrote: »

I was just wondering if people here try to speak irish in their day to day lives and if so in what ways?

I do - I'm in the Déise btw We run an Irish conversational group here, so that's where I get to use it mostly - but I use Irish with some of my friends too.

earwax_man

My first language is actually Irish, and I don't live in a Gaeltacht. I live in the countryside in North Cork/Kerry border. My mom taught us it when we were young, and it kinda stuck. We'd use it all the time if my dad could speak it as well as us.

Táim beagnach brónach a smaoinaíonn na daoine go bhfuair Gaeilge bás inár saoil... Ba cheart dúinn rud éigean a dhéanamh fé...

deise go deo

dlofnep wrote: »

I do - I'm in the Déise btw We run an Irish conversational group here, so that's where I get to use it mostly - but I use Irish with some of my friends too.

That sounds interesting,Is the conversational group open for anyone to join?

Where dose it take place and when.
I dont have much Irish but i am trying to learn:)

fkt

The Government has more important things to worry about at the moment.

dlofnep

deise go deo wrote: »

That sounds interesting,Is the conversational group open for anyone to join?

Where dose it take place and when.
I dont have much Irish but i am trying to learn:)

I'll send you a private message.

earwax_man

dlofnep wrote: »

I'll send you a private message.

Yeah, could I join that group as well? Táim ag iarraidh á úsáid mo chuid Gaeilge níos mó.

dlofnep

earwax_man wrote: »

Yeah, could I join that group as well? Táim ag iarraidh á úsáid mo chuid Gaeilge níos mó.

Tá muid bunaithe i bPort Láirge. Do you live in Waterford? Drop me a line if you do.

deise go deo

fkt wrote: »

The Government has more important things to worry about at the moment.

For those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing:rolleyes: