How do you use your Irish?

RetroRuss

Dia daoibh.

I'm curious how folks use their Irish in everyday life. I know that it can be difficult to find other people to speak with, unlike major languages like Spanish and French, and so it interests me to know just when and where people tend to find the most opportunity to use it. Where do you end up speaking as Gaeilge the most? Forums, chatrooms, at home, at work, at school, social functions, etcetera. How often do you get the chance to really speak the language? All the time, often, occasionally, rarely, never.

I am creating a learning program via interactive comics and texts for teaching basic conversational skills in Irish, making this topic important to the development of the materials. I'm wanting to know just how Irish tends to be spoken outside of the Gaeltachtaí, so that I can choose the best themes for the project. It's easy enough to come up with generic themes, but I was wanting a more realistic image of how people actually use the language in their lives. When it can be difficult to find people to talk to, it probably affects the range of topics that folks find the opportunity to discuss. For example, I really doubt that most people need to know how to call a taxi in Irish, which is the kind of stuff that tends to be taught in the major languages.

Personally, I only use it on the internet. I have not tried to find anyone in my area that can speak it, as I doubt that it would be easy considering my location. I live in an American suburb, and to my knowledge it would be much more realistic to find other speakers in a place like New York or Los Angeles. I have only begun to really get into actually talking to people as Gaeilge, so I'm still a bit uncomfortable about using it outside of study, but I'm finding that it's not too hard once you get over the initial nervousness.

Go raibh maith agaibh.

Toyota_Avensis

Great idea, and would only do good for the language. Personally, I get 5Hours of Irish during the week at school. I then expose myself to TG4 and Radió na Gaeltachta to improve my understanding of Irish on an ongoing basis. I tend to use cúpla focal on a daily basis when 'thinking to myself' or chatting to my sister, we both make an effort. Luckily for me, my girlfriend grew up though Irish, so we speak it now, almost exclusively together, unless we're with friends, which in that case, we'd revert to English. I believe that Irish outside the Gaeltacht isn't easily found, but it's there. We're in a way like an 'ethnic minority' of speakers, interestingly, in a place where Irish is technically the first language. The biggest problem now with Irish I think, apart from the fact that the majority aren't fluent, is that those who are often cannot identify each other.

Insect Overlord

I'm studying Irish in college. It's only six hours each week, but for those six hours everything we say, hear and read is in Irish. Supplementary reading includes novels, autobiographies, articles on linguistics, poetry and béaloideas, so that's several more hours of reading in the language. This forum and Teach na nGealt are good for informal Irish. I read these two forums every day at this stage!

Keller Bear

Well what scenarios that spring to mind for me are:
1. speaking irish to my fellow students if we didn't want our lecturers to understand what we were talking about. Many of our lecturers were foreign so we were able to chat around them....seems bitchy but it wasn't we would just be arranging times for the pub and going out!
2. That leads nicely into the second point - the pub- here me and my friends would use irish (depends on the pub) to talk without getting bothered.
3. We would often speak irish while playing football so as we would have a tactical edge and literally confuse the opposition.
4. On holidays is a great place to get very vocally irish and mix it with the germans, french, spanish etc it feels like giving irish the global recognition it deserves! Often irish is a good deterrent if someone is trying to haggle with you but as happened to me in Tunisia you may find the locals might have a cupla focal of their own. On a passing note its also good to use if you get labeled to be British.
Hope those help, if i think of more il post again.

deise go deo

A Ciorcal Comhrá is where I would use most of my Irish, I am in the Cumann Gaelach in UL so nthere is one Every week in the local pub, There are events as gaeilge now and again too.
I also just started an Irish class today.:)

deirdremf

RetroRuss wrote: »

Dia daoibh.

I'm curious how folks use their Irish in everyday life. I know that it can be difficult to find other people to speak with, unlike major languages like Spanish and French, and so it interests me to know just when and where people tend to find the most opportunity to use it. Where do you end up speaking as Gaeilge the most? Forums, chatrooms, at home, at work, at school, social functions, etcetera. How often do you get the chance to really speak the language? All the time, often, occasionally, rarely, never.

I am creating a learning program via interactive comics and texts for teaching basic conversational skills in Irish, making this topic important to the development of the materials. I'm wanting to know just how Irish tends to be spoken outside of the Gaeltachtaí, so that I can choose the best themes for the project. It's easy enough to come up with generic themes, but I was wanting a more realistic image of how people actually use the language in their lives. When it can be difficult to find people to talk to, it probably affects the range of topics that folks find the opportunity to discuss. For example, I really doubt that most people need to know how to call a taxi in Irish, which is the kind of stuff that tends to be taught in the major languages.

Personally, I only use it on the internet. I have not tried to find anyone in my area that can speak it, as I doubt that it would be easy considering my location. I live in an American suburb, and to my knowledge it would be much more realistic to find other speakers in a place like New York or Los Angeles. I have only begun to really get into actually talking to people as Gaeilge, so I'm still a bit uncomfortable about using it outside of study, but I'm finding that it's not too hard once you get over the initial nervousness.

Go raibh maith agaibh.

I like the idea of the comic a lot.
As you say, there are few opportunities for calling a taxi in Irish - in fact typical city life - public interaction with strangers - would be unusual. Public interaction with strangers in rural/village settings would not be unusual in communities where the language is generally spoken.

As for myself, I'm probably older than most others here, so here goes: I live in a city, and I use Irish -
at work
at home
with some friends
dealing with my kids school
I read in Irish - books, magazines, etc.
Listen to radio
watch tv
written interaction with official organisations

Schapiro

There isn't a soul nearby who speaks Irish, other than my parents with their (very limited) cúpla focail, let alone any classes to take (currently living in Cleveland, OH). I always make sure to put forth a daily effort to somehow use or study the language, even if it's simply reading blogs for half an hour.

• The internet; watching TG4, live-streaming RnaG, reading/translating news articles and blogs.
• My dog, I talk to him in Irish; he's the only who could not care less about what I say or how I say it (unless it's briosca or siúil, then he's interested.) It sounds absolutely mental but it does help. My dad is making an effort to learn a bit more than dia dhuit, cén chaoi bhfuil tú, and Ár nAthair, and my boyfriend insists on learning a word a day, so I'm not completely alone.
• RnaG podcasts. Although they never seem to be updated, I download them anyway and listen to them in the car or in the studio (I'm an art student).
• Books. Loads of books. Reading is one of my favourite things to do in itself, let alone as Gaeilge, so the two are fantastic together. Although I tend to reserve this for the summer as it's not a terribly easy thing to keep up with while school is in session and I'm up to my neck in assignments.

It's not much but I'm getting by well with it anyway

RetroRuss

Thank you for the replies. I am interested in everyone's responses. Does anyone else have any input?

n0irin

I tend to listen to a lot of Irish, mainly on TG4 - but I'm used to listening to it as both of my parents grew up speaking Irish and when my dad goes back home, they all end up speaking as Gaeilge always. I tend to be able to understand well what they're saying, but when asked for a response I'll sometimes be stuck. I haven't been studying Irish properly since Leaving Cert, but we go through phases of speaking it at home, and I always use it when I meet Irish people abroad - it's like our own secret language!

dlofnep

Conversational group once a week, and on the phone to a few friends.

Guevara78

Speak Irish with my friends once every two weeks in the pub and speak on phone with them/text as gaeilge a few times a week

Work in a bilingual job dealing with customers problems in Irish or English

Listen to Raidio na Gaeltachta on way to and from work every day

Attend a lunch as Gaeilge on a Friday

Enkidu

Speak it at home and read lots of novels. Those are my two main uses.