ABOLISH IRISH?

kmlarules

for the irish JC/LC - would you think it would be better if this country were to abolish irish and hence allowing students to pick up other modern languages like russian,italian, japanese etc
Or would that be letting our country down??

Foxhound38

It's a big part of our cultural identity. I do think we should make it non-compulsory after the JC though (but bump up the standard considerably for those that choose to do it).

kmlarules

Foxhound38 wrote: »

It's a big part of our cultural identity. I do think we should make it non-compulsory after the JC though (but bump up the standard considerably for those that choose to do it).

but for the LC no one is gonna chose it unless they want to be teachers. would you intend to make it harder ?

Luno

kmlarules wrote: »

but for the LC no one is gonna chose it unless they want to be teachers. would you intend to make it harder ?

How? I know so many people who have a passion for Irish and they've no intention of pursuing a career in it. Why would you generalize it by saying nobody would choose it unless they intended on being a teacher.

annainez

I think Irish should be compulsory, but just different. Students should choose if they want to study it as literature etc or as an everyday language.

soccymonster

The main reason people hate Irish is because of the whole poems and stories aspect. Not sure when I'll ever be asked to analyse Subh Milis or Jack in detail tbh. The SEC are changing the LC course for ye to base it more on oral irish but still, they should just abolish the whole poems and stories thing altogether. French/german etc imo is better taught.

kevin12345

soccymonster wrote: »

The main reason people hate Irish is because of the whole poems and stories aspect. Not sure when I'll ever be asked to analyse Subh Milis or Jack in detail tbh. The SEC are changing the LC course for ye to base it more on oral irish but still, they should just abolish the whole poems and stories thing altogether. French/german etc imo is better taught.

Yeah I agree, like I know more Spanish than Irish tbh... :rolleyes:

RachPie

I think they should just review completely how they teach it. They don't make it the most interesting or easy of subjects...

patakadarragh

Tbh op that is bullsh*t i'm proud to be irish and want to learn the language and be competent in it.

The course should be seriously reviewed though, it should be more like the german course and exam.

WanderingSoul

I would be in favour of it being optional after the JC, and the courses changed.

Ally7

I think it should be compulsory up to Junior Cert and then made as an option for Leaving Cert, that way you'll have a higher standard of Irish at leaving cert level as the majority of the people will actually be interested.

.SONIC.

patakadarragh wrote: »

The course should be seriously reviewed though, it should be more like the german course and exam.

technically not as we learn spanish/french/german to be spoken like tourists e.g postcards and asking for bus tickets etc. etc. we learn irish as . . . . well im not sure, literature analysts i guess??

but the irish curriculum is bull****, im a fan of irish and would still learn it if it was abolished! i just dont agree with all the storys and bull****.


[rant over]

patakadarragh

.SONIC. wrote: »

technically not as we learn spanish/french/german to be spoken like tourists e.g postcards and asking for bus tickets etc. etc. we learn irish as . . . . well im not sure, literature analysts i guess??



[rant over]

That is the problem though at least in german etc.the main focus is on having a competent ability to speak in that language, in irish up until 6th class we were concentrated on speaking and correctly so however as soon as we went into secondary the concentration turns to poetry etc. the fact of the matter is that coming out of primary school most students havent got to a level of irish where they can confidently move on to poetry and stories analysis of literature etc.We need to be able to actually speak and understand the language before we are thrown into the deep end (poetry etc.)It would appear that they assume that as soon as we leave primary we are suddenly fluent enough to waffle on about Martín ó Díreain and the boys!!

The fact that after 11 years of learning irish most of us wouldnt be able to hold a fluent conversation with a person living in connemara shows that there is something seriously wrong with the system .

Ally7

Irish is taught terribly in primary schools, I probably learnt most of my Irish in 1st year! I don't really see the point in teaching it in junior infants either and imo it would make more sense to start in 1st or 2nd class.

who the fug

JC no it is part of what we are as a state, but after that it be optional

But they must change the way it is taught

patakadarragh

Ally7 wrote: »

Irish is taught terribly in primary schools, I probably learnt most of my Irish in 1st year! I don't really see the point in teaching it in junior infants either and imo it would make more sense to start in 1st or 2nd class.

Tbh i reckon that is down to the individual teacher in primary, I have to admit even though our guy was a bit of a pr*ck he was a great teacher and we learned a lot.

Ally7

patakadarragh wrote: »

Tbh i reckon that is down to the individual teacher in primary, I have to admit even though our guy was a bit of a pr*ck he was a great teacher and we learned a lot.

I might be a bit dramatic saying it was terrible, but I never really learnt how to fully make sentences in Irish or how to have a decent conversation! We did do a lot of verbs though, so that was helpful.

topper75

Daft that you are supposed to comment on the character of this fella and the theme of this story, when you can't even ask where the goddamn bus station is. It should be retained but made more practical.

If you ever need it by the way - that is "Cá bhfuil stáisiún na mbusanna le do thoil?"

who the fug

Ally7 wrote: »

but I never really learnt how to fully make sentences in Irish

Wrong, you can ask permission to go to the toilet, which is a full sentence, and very important in later life if ever get locked up in Dingle

LeeroyJones

The trouble is that most of us learn Irish from the day we begin school to they day we finish our Leaving Cert, yet most of us are rubbish! Which is such a shame, I would love to be fluent in Irish for my own reason-and I've no intention of being a teacher(in response to an earlier completely misinformed post), it's something that we should all be proud of.

There is no reason that after 6 years of primary school that we should all be relatively competent in the language by at least aged 12 because 6 years is enough to learn nearly any language very well and at the ages of 6-12 you take in information at lot easier than when we get older.

I think we should actually introduce a 'State Exam' in Irish at the end of Primary school, but instead of a student being held back or anything it should be the school who gets a slap on the wrist in one way or another.

At the end of the day, it's the Primary Schools who need to get a kick up the.....

We go into secondary school disgruntled at the fact that we still don't know how to say anything more than 'Conas atá tú' or 'Slán' and obviously people will begin to resent the language especially when we need to disect poetry with pigeon Irish!

i would be quite confident that if primary schools got their act together a lot more people would actually enjoy the language in school and beyond

dlofnep

Ally7 wrote: »

I think it should be compulsory up to Junior Cert and then made as an option for Leaving Cert, that way you'll have a higher standard of Irish at leaving cert level as the majority of the people will actually be interested.

No you won't, you'll have the exact same level of Irish because the curriculum will still be flawed.

We don't need to make Irish compulsory (although I'm not entirely against the idea for the leaving cert). We need to review how it's taught and perceived. We need to place emphasis on spoken Irish, and have a second optional subject for poetry and other aspects of the language that are complex and time consuming.

Language study should allow a person to speak the language, not waste months reciting stuff that they will forget immediately after the leaving cert.

Ally7

dlofnep wrote: »

No you won't, you'll have the exact same level of Irish because the curriculum will still be flawed.

We don't need to make Irish compulsory (although I'm not entirely against the idea for the leaving cert). We need to review how it's taught and perceived. We need to place emphasis on spoken Irish, and have a second optional subject for poetry and other aspects of the language that are complex and time consuming.

Language study should allow a person to speak the language, not waste months reciting stuff that they will forget immediately after the leaving cert.

Yeah you're right, I forgot to mention about changing the curriculum in my original post, which I totally agree with!


I hate how for things like essays and writing the poems that we have to learn off all these phrases and quotes without fully understanding what we're doing, it makes no sense at all! :mad:

Fad

MOD WARNING: This thread is for discussion, any one with a blatant (And antagonistic) nationalist agenda will be banned, you know who you are.......

Dont abolish Irish, I like it.

That is all.

Colm!

Don't abolish Irish.
I hated the subject up until about a year ago. Then I went to IC.
Going to an Irish college showed me the language's clear link with the country's identity and culture. At the same time, going to an Irish College did not mean learning off notes about a poem I didn't understand. It involved dealing with Irish language and culture by engaging directly with it as a spoken language and a living culture, not something that we deal with in school and leave behind.

We need to change the course. Literature should not be covered. People must speak Irish. There must be no room to learn off notes. It has to be done as a language, not a subject.

karlog

Irish shouldn't be compulsory anymore. Students should have a choice with it as they do with other languages for e.g French, German and Spanish. It's useless and a waste of time for people who dont want to learn it. If Irish wasn't compulsory i would of done French and German in the leaving cert. So many wasted hours over the years learning a language that i had no interest in:(.