what is the most irish you have ever spoken

tadcan

After reading some of the Irish language threads here, I was reminded of my Oral exam. After years of not having a clue, I'm put into a room with a teacher from another school to speak Irish. After running out of the stock phrases in the first minute, the man tried to drag every last bit of Irish out of me. I had to start putting in English words to complete sentences. By the end I was lucky to put two Irish words side by side in the sentence.

Thinking about it now, its the most Irish I've ever spoken at the same time. It seems insane that after 14 years in school, I had never had to have a conversation in Irish before the exam, when I had finished 'learning' the language.

So what is most Irish you have ever spoken?

Chuchoter

I went to the gaeltacht in 2nd year for 3 weeks and I was one of the only students actually speaking Irish there:mad:

Absurdum

ní thuigim Béarla

syklops

My Leaving cert Oral Exam almost a decade ago was the most I ever spoke.

Ulysses Gaze

tadcan wrote: »

After reading some of the Irish language threads here I was reminded of my Oral exam. After years of not having a clue, I'm put into a room with a teacher from another school to speak Irish. After running out of the stock phrases in the first minute, the man tried to drag every last bit of Irish out of me. I had to start putting in English words to complete sentences. By the end I was lucky to put two Irish words side by side in the sentence.

Thinking about it now, its the most Irish I've ever spoken at the same time. It seems insane that after 14 years in school I had never had to have a conversation in Irish before the exam when I had finished 'learning' the language.

So what is most Irish you have ever spoke?

Two times I went to the Gaeltacht. Colaiste Camus where you spoke Irish all the time.

Good times.

scotchy

"An bhfuil cead agam dul amach go dtí an leithreas"



Havn't used that in a while though.


.

mikemac

A lads weekend to the Aran Islands on St Patricks weekend a few years back

I made a fair stab at it
The locals were probably laughing at me

Vinta81

Bainne.

Only word I ever learnt since moving here

snickerpuss

I went to a Gaelscoil so everyday for 8 years. And not so much in secondary but then I did it in college. So... loads.

Coriolanus

Irish college probably. Three weeks at a trot. Loved it at the time, sounds horrifying now.

LucyLouLou

Every school day for 14 years, went to all Irish primary and secondary schools and sat my leaving in Irish.

Son Of A Vidic

Tiocfaidh ár lá

phasers

Once in third year my teacher decided to give the whole class an oral exam as part of our mocks for some reason, everybody spoke for about 20 seconds except me and I ended up having a 40 minute conversation with him about The Simpsons or something

My Leaving cert one was 12 minutes I think, that was seriously easy

Ardennes1944

irish college for two summers and 6years in irish class

TeddyTedson

I'd love to be able to speak good Irish, it's like a secret language that almost nobody knows.

Never spoke it once outside of a school environment.. Pity really. I've been able to hold together basic conversations with my crap french a few years later.
I don't think I was ever even taught basic conversational Irish during them 14 years.. ever. The oral isn't conversational Irish.. I don't meet someone on the street and reel of what I did for my holidays last year.

imwatchingyou

im not irish,but all i can say in irish is: pog ma hon

cml387

Hey OP I can really relate to that,since my oral Irish was the most I've done in the First Official.

The teacher told us that if the examiner felt you were a bit weak he would start asking simpler questions.

By the time I was finished I think we were discussing a cat sittting on the mat.

God I hated Irish.

Rowley Birkin QC

Probably the Irish oral exam too.

Mine wasn't too bad though, the guy recognised me from playing GAA and helped me along when I got stuck.

Change my facebook language to Irish last week in an effort to pick up a cupla focail again.

scientific1982

From the age I began to talk until I was seven, I could only talk in Irish.

Faith+1

scientific1982 wrote: »

From the age I began to talk until I was seven, I could only talk in Irish.

Care to elaborate?

Scuid Mhór

crayolastereo wrote: »

I went to the gaeltacht in 2nd year for 3 weeks and I was one of the only students actually speaking Irish there:mad:

Same here. It's pretty easy if you just go with the flow.

HalloweenJack

I went to all-Irish primary and secondary but the reality was we didn't speak Irish all the time.

My secondary was very lax. Quite a few of the teachers would speak to us in English and the students would speak English all the time when the teachers weren't around and even a lot of the time when they were.

You were supposed to get in trouble for speaking English but it was never enforced. The odd time you'd be told to switch to Irish but that was the furthest it ever went in terms of punishment. A lot of the teachers spoke to each other in English.

In primary, I spoke a lot more but even then, the students would always talk to each other in English. Punishment for speaking English outside English class was tougher and the teachers would never speak English during other classes.

scientific1982

Faith+1 wrote: »

Care to elaborate?

I live in the gaeltacht. English is my second language.

deconduo

LucyLouLou wrote: »

Every school day for 14 years, went to all Irish primary and secondary schools and sat my leaving in Irish.

Same here. There should be more all Irish schools around the place, you actually get to learn the language as opposed to drivel that gets taught in other schools.

tadcan

scotchy wrote: »

"An bhfuil cead agam dul amach go dtí an leithreas"



Havn't used that in a while though.

HMM it was a bit different in my primary school.

"An cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas, Más é do thoil é"

We also had to answer the roll call in Irish as well. If your name was Patrick, then you had to say Padraig or if your surname was Tool, you would say O'Tool, etc. My name was the only one in the class that didn't have an Irish equivalent. Having a surname of Norman decent meant I was part of the problem, not part of the solution.

When I was traveling abroad I was told this story by some Irish folk I met up with. A group of them were working in an industrial food growing factory in the Netherlands. Early on the Turkish workers said we can speak in Turkish and you can't understand us, but we can understand you. So to annoy them, they spoke Irish and said, 'this is our language'. For the first few days it was to annoy them and see how much Irish they could remember, but after a few days they got into it and between then remembered enough to hold all their conversations in Irish.

Ghandee

I shouted 'TIOCFAIDH AR LA', as hard as I could one night at a Wolfe Tones concert in Bundorans Astoria in 1994!

CrazyRabbit

In 2nd year of secondary, I spent a week learning how to tell my Irish teacher in Irish that I didn't want to learn it, so he should just leave me alone. I had to do this as he refused to listen to us if we spoke English.

tadcan

Gucky wrote: »

I shouted 'TIOCFAIDH AR LA', as hard as I could one night at a Wolfe Tones concert in Bundorans Astoria in 1994!

I was on a cross community exchange program in Derry in the late '90's. A teenager passing by said that from behind a wall and walked past as if it wasn't him. Later I thought I should have said 'Cunas atá tú' in a big happy voice to embarrass him.

Setun

On holidays in Morocco last christmas and some local fella in the market heard my accent and immediately started speaking Irish with me. I bought some textiles off him for his efforts. That's probs the most use Irish has gotten me since the leavinc cert.

MultiUmm

Third year Irish teacher had a ban on speaking English in her class. It was a proper ban, if she heard you speaking English she'd correct you straight away and make you repeat the sentence as Gaeilge. All conversations were through Irish, so spoke a fair bit (albeit broken/ fairly shocking Irish) then. It seemed to have worked, ended up with a B in the junior cert. New Irish teacher for the leaving, haven't spoken it in months, I'm now ****ed once again.

wow sierra

The most I've spoken is when on holidays in the Gaeltacht. After a few days it seems weird speaking English.

In Dublin it would be a few hours on an evening out.

I love speaking it abroad when you want to talk about people:D

tadcan

MultiUmm wrote: »

Third year Irish teacher had a ban on speaking English in her class. It was a proper ban, if she heard you speaking English she'd correct you straight away and make you repeat the sentence as Gaeilge. All conversations were through Irish, so spoke a fair bit (albeit broken/ fairly shocking Irish) then. It seemed to have worked, ended up with a B in the junior cert. New Irish teacher for the leaving, haven't spoken it in months, I'm now ****ed once again.

I wonder if their is a service to link people up, like a pen friend, except use skype for people who want to learn Irish to speak with each other or a native speaker.

There is probably an Irish section on the board where you could post in Irish.

wow sierra wrote: »

The most I've spoken is when on holidays in the Gaeltacht. After a few days it seems weird speaking English.

In Dublin it would be a few hours on an evening out.

I love speaking it abroad when you want to talk about people

There was a story on the Gerry Ryan show many years ago, that may be an urban legend. Two girls are on the tube in London saying in Irish, 'Theres a good looking fella, etc'. when he gets off he asks in Irish do they want his phone number.

kelle

I live in the Gaeltacht, so I speak Irish almost on a daily basis.

tadcan wrote: »

There was a story on the Gerry Ryan show many years ago, that may be an urban legend. Two girls are on the tube in London saying in Irish, 'Theres a good looking fella, etc'. when he gets off he asks in Irish do they want his phone number.

My friend and I used to do that frequently in London, but unfortunately never got a response!

lily09

There is probably an Irish section on the board where you could post in Irish.



There was a story on the Gerry Ryan show many years ago, that may be an urban legend. Two girls are on the tube in London saying in Irish, 'Theres a good looking fella, etc'. when he gets off he asks in Irish do they want his phone number.[/QUOTE]

Ha same thing happened to me and my friends in states on j1 discussing the merits of a particurly handsome looking man on the subway. Would have good Irish so was quite long indepth conversation . At his stop
he stood up and threw a bag over his shoulder emblazoned with a crest for a Kerry gaa club turned to us winked and said slan cailin!! Could have swore he wasnt Irish ... He had a tan...

JuliusCaesar

tadcan wrote: »

There is probably an Irish section on the board where you could post in Irish.

click on After Hours at the top of the page.....then look down. What do you see after Cool Vids???

:P


Anyway, the most I spoke was at my adult Irish class - realisied that I'd never learnt coversational Irish. Not one of us -all Irish people - in the class could think of how to say "Where are you from?" at first. Our kids were attending the local Gaelscoil, which is why we were there and it wsa great fun.

deise go deo

tadcan wrote: »

I wonder if their is a service to link people up, like a pen friend, except use skype for people who want to learn Irish to speak with each other or a native speaker.

There is probably an Irish section on the board where you could post in Irish.

Look Up. ts a subforum of AH.:)

No need for a pen friend, you could just go to a Ciorcal Comhrá.

They are Everywhere

There was a story on the Gerry Ryan show many years ago, that may be an urban legend. Two girls are on the tube in London saying in Irish, 'Theres a good looking fella, etc'. when he gets off he asks in Irish do they want his phone number.

Of course, Everyone who speaks Irish is good looking, Havent you ever seen the weather on TG4?:D

So Moroccon textile markets and subways are the only places Irish has been used outside learning institutions and gaelteacts.

Awesome.

Capt'n Midnight

Ní thigim an chéist seo.


(appologies for the spelling)

Run_to_da_hills

Daddio wrote: »

On holidays in Morocco last christmas and some local fella in the market heard my accent and immediately started speaking Irish with me. I bought some textiles off him for his efforts. That's probs the most use Irish has gotten me since the leavinc cert.

Ha you were duped into buying carpets.

I was backpacking through Morocco in the 80' with my brother, we spoke Irish with each other to try and throw off the locals from hassling us at the markets. We were amazed at the amount of people that knew where we were from. The Moroccans are very good at languages, thats how they make a living.

davepatr07

In the Gaeltacht spoke it for 3 long weeks. On the 2nd last day someone ran off with me sun glasses so I shouted after them to give me my bleedin glasses back only for the head munteoir to hear me. Wasn't allowed to go the the disco that night in the main hall instead had to write about a 4 page essay on why I think Irish language is important to learn (as Gaeilge) Overall it was the sunniest 3 weeks I've been in Galway! 95 summer was the best.

candy-gal1

my irish oral lol

pow wow

A reading at mass when I was about 10. A whole paragraph.

Min

Níl a fhios agam.

Setun

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Ha you were duped into buying carpets.

I was backpacking through Morocco in the 80' with my brother, we spoke Irish with each other to try and throw off the locals from hassling us at the markets. We were amazed at the amount of people that knew where we were from. The Moroccans are very good at languages, thats how they make a living.

I was had, true, but you got to hand it to the bloke - he knew more than most people in Ireland.

Lovely carpet all the same :P

BraziliaNZ

Sé bliana as gaeilge nuair a bhí mé i mbunscoil. Níl me in ann morán a remember though!

deise go deo

I speak Irish fairly often, at least once a week, Its weird though If I go for a visit to the gaelthacht and spend most of my time speaking Irish that when I go to speak English with someone I find my self starting the sentence as Gaeilge and I have to stop and think about what I want to say in English.

tadcan

Ok, trying to see how much I can understand. Correct me, I'm sure I'm wrong. Might help the blow-ins to get the jokes.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Ní thigim an chéist seo.

I don't remember how much I spoke now

Min wrote: »

Níl a fhios agam.

Don't have a clue.

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Sé bliana as gaeilge nuair a bhí mé i mbunscoil. Níl me in ann morán a remember though!

Something about the year I was in school and speaking Irish.

davepatr07 wrote: »

In the Gaeltacht spoke it for 3 long weeks. On the 2nd last day someone ran off with me sun glasses so I shouted after them to give me my bleedin glasses back only for the head munteoir to hear me. Wasn't allowed to go the the disco that night in the main hall instead had to write about a 4 page essay on why I think Irish language is important to learn (as Gaeilge) Overall it was the sunniest 3 weeks I've been in Galway! 95 summer was the best.

If you had said that in Irish would you have received a gold star or an essay on why its wrong to curse in Irish.;)

I heard about a couple, two native speakers, one was from west cork and the other from Donegal. Their Irish dialects was so different they have to speak to each other in English, otherwise they couldn't understand each other.

deise go deo

tadcan wrote: »

Ok, trying to see how much I can understand. Correct me, I'm sure I'm wrong. Might help the blow-ins to get the jokes.



I don't remember how much I spoke now

I dont understand the question.;)

Don't have a clue.

Spot on.

Something about the year I was in school and speaking Irish.

Six years through Irish in primary school, but I cant remember much now.

I heard about a couple, two native speakers, one was from west cork and the other from Donegal. Their Irish dialects was so different they have to speak to each other in English, otherwise they couldn't understand each other.

They probably only barley understand each other in English too.:pac:

The difference between the Dialects in Irish is exaggerated greatly

nermal15

My leaving cert oral exam, which was fairly dire. Couldn't remember the word for uncle. Which is uncail. Yeah.

Hopefully it won't all disappear from me but I don't know when I'll get to use it again, really.

Run_to_da_hills

If Sinn Fein get anyway into power in the general election we might see a revival in the language. Possibly a manditory playing of Amhran na Bfiann agus a seas suas at the end of every function.