Active Chatroom as Gaeilge

RetroRuss

Dia daoibh.

I am a student of Irish, and one thing that I've been having a lot of trouble finding is a chatroom as Gaeilge. Personally, I don't have the skills to hold even a decent conversation unless I were to talk in very broken Irish and always have a dictionary at hand, but I am interested in listening to others with more skill to talk in Irish. I figure it could help me with my grammar and vocabulary acquisition. I was thinking that maybe the Irish part of this forum could not host a chatroom but have a link in a very accessible location on the website to an active IRC channel that is open to Irish speakers and learners. There is one that is stickied in this forum, but the link appears to be broken.

I like to use a particular IRC server called Mibbit. I know that a lot of people don't like Google Translator, but I like to use it for the Mibbet IRC, which it is built into for anyone that wants to use it. Based on some translated conversations that I've had in Mibbet, I figure that I could log in with one username that translates all of the Irish into rough English and another username in a different browser window that has the original Irish that people would be speaking in. That way, I could pick up vocabulary, as while Google Translator is quite bad at grammar, it does offer a portal for picking up general vocabulary for the beginning speaker.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with IRC, a room called "Gaeilge" on the Mibbet server could be accessed by anyone from anywhere, and a link to it could be posted on multiple Irish language related websites for access. Then Irish speakers and learners could hold conversations as Gaeilge or for those who are uncomfortable about speaking they could sit back and listen in order to help them with their studies. There wouldn't be people in the room all the time, so some patience would be required for whoever logs in first. I find that people tend to stay logged into the chat and not simply leave, as long as there is at least one or two people present, so whoever has the patience could open the doors for those who are more jumpy about joining empty chatrooms.

Personally, I think that it would be a wonderful idea to sustain an active chatroom as Gaeilge, that is one that is used on a daily basis. If people want, a time for chatting could be arranged for those that would like to guarantee a larger group and these times could be posted somewhere. While I have been able to find a couple chatrooms as Gaeilge, I'm not sure how active they are and they don't load properly on my computer, so I can't use them anyway. There really needs to be a chatroom that is supported by as many people as possible, in order to ensure a place where Irish speakers and learners can come and go as desired rather than always trying to desperately ring some people together.

Anyway, like I said, this could be something that doesn't have to be solely supported by the Irish section of this forum, but by as many Irish language related websites as possible that would put up a link to an IRC channel. That way, there's always people to talk to, as people can always find it.

If anyone would like to use Mibbet, which is a wonderful IRC server that I've used for a long time, the following link could be used by anyone. It's a chatroom that will always exist by the name "Gaeilge". Also, this is the link that I was wondering if you guys would like to link to in particular. I don't own it, I just created it. No one really owns an IRC channel to my knowledge and they are just free places to chat by anyone.

http://widget.mibbit.com/?settings=a4dd853e61ef8f1080c6aebbb88553db&server=irc.mibbit.net&channel=%23Gaeilge

Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestion. I would be happy to know what people think of it and if anyone believes that it could work. I have already proposed this idea to the guys at the Irish Gaelic forum at http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/, and they have agreed to give it a shot and are already starting to hang out on the channel.

Krusader

Was chatting to you last night, great idea

Raic

I'll definitely use this, thanks!

RetroRuss

Thank you.

I can get on at odd hours when the Irish folks and some Americans are on, but I was wondering if most of the Americans are able to get on the chatroom when there's people present? There's probably more people from Ireland on the forum than America, so it made me curious, as there is a significant difference in time zones. If it's a problem for anyone, perhaps a time can be arranged on the weekends, in order to increase the cross of the American users with the Irish users, so as to provide more people to speak with for both parties. Presently, it appears that there's enough folks to keep the chatroom busy from at least 3 to 6 or 7 PM EST/UTC -5:00—My time zone has a five hour difference from Ireland. After that, it seems like the Irish folks start turning in for the night, and that's the time slot when a lot of Americans get free from work.

So, yes, if you're American, my question is are you having trouble getting people to talk to or are you doing well in that regard? I wouldn't know, as I'm usually in the chatroom earlier in the day, though, I have seen some Americans in the chat during that time.

goibhniu

That's a great idea to use google translater via mibbit!

That sticky link to a part of boards.ie is indeed broken, but the other channel mentioned there is alive and well.

You can access it with an irc client or in your browser via
http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=gaeilge

I didn't realise that quakenet didn't allow connection via mibbit. Perhaps we should migrate to another server, or see if there is an option to integrate google translator somehow. We used to have an irc bot which looked up translations via focal.ie, and could tweet to #gaeilge and stuff like that. It that sounds useful/fun we can set that up again pretty easily.

Pop in and say "haigh" or "gheo" or .. something like that