Do you Speak Irish?

deise go deo

Do you ever speak Irish? Most of you spent 13 odd years learning it, do you ever dust off the cupla focal and use it?

kfallon

Oui

:pac:

TheZohanS

Oui.

Irish is a fantastic language, French is always touted as the language of lovers, imho Irish is much more romantic.

edit: damn you Fallon!

Phill Ewinn

Isteach

Guill

Not really,I have a couple of words.

Speaking it to my daughter (19 months) all the time just stuff like:

Laimhe suas
Ca bhfuil (anything)
Give me such a thing
etc


She picks it up very fast (as all kids would).



Apologys for Sp.

Bad Panda

No. No interest in it. Never had.

I guess because I'm a halvsie!

biko

Last years numbers in case anyone is interested.

I speak it a tiny bit, usually just to confuse tourists.

jester77

Sometimes I get asked to say something in Irish, and the only sentence I can run off is "An bhfuil cead agam dul go dti on leithreas?"

Standard Toaster

Afraid not...Cupla Focal
Would love to be fluent in Irish....I probably know more German the Irish :-/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNBmFveq2U

As the comment there said I've learned more Irish off this add than 12 years learning it in school :pac:

kfallon

Decent grasp of the basics alright, I do actually wish I was fluent tho!

seamus

No. I have no reason to ever use it in daily life. I don't know anyone else who speaks Irish and I never have to read or write anything in Irish.

I may on occasion use Irish while talking - but only single words such as replacing "Why" with "Cén fath" - but I do it so rarely that it's as good as never.

Things I do find myself doing though are seeing a placename in Irish on a road sign and then translating it and thinking about the root of that name, or when Nuacht or TG4 are left on the TV by mistake, I'm surprised by how I can still get the gist of what's being said, even if I don't fluently understand it.

What shocks me most is that nearly everyone spends 13 years learning the language and the vast majority of people leave school barely able to string a sentence or two together. In 13 years we should all be fluent.

hooradiation

Mais non.

Kojak

I can ask the most important q in the irish language...

An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithris?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Sie haben keine "Ich spreche ein anderen Sprache" anwahl.

deise go deo

seamus wrote: »

What shocks me most is that nearly everyone spends 13 years learning the language and the vast majority of people leave school barely able to string a sentence or two together. In 13 years we should all be fluent.

Not really, over those 13 years you get about 1500 hours contact with the language, nowhere near enough to become fluent.
A lot of people say that if the population dose not speak Irish after 13 years of learning it in school then it proves they can't/wont/dont want to learn Irish, which is nonsense, if someone came out of the education system with fluent Irish it would be astounding.

Insect Overlord

Beagnach líofa anois! (Nearly fluent now)

Anyone who'd like to use the bit of Irish they have, don't be afraid to post in Teach na nGealt. That forum could really do with some new blood.

screamer

I'm actually pretty fluent in Irish, even after all these years. When we go for abroad on holidays, we always speak Irish, no one understands us, it's magic. I hope that there will be a revival for the Irish language soon, we need to realise that speaking Irish isn't backwards or shameful, is mor an gra ata agam don teanga nadurtha.

KeithAFC

Yes mo chara.

El Guapo!

Is maith liom cáca milis

Ficheall

It's difficult to find people who are willing to speak it, I find. I was chatting to a girl the other day who went to school through Irish but she felt uncomfortable even having a conversation in Irish, though she was well able.

I'm going to be a complete dick for the duration of seachtain na gaeilge http://www.snag.ie/ and speak only Irish. I expect to spend a lot of time alone that fortnight.

RiseToTheTop

No, because we belonged to the UK for many years.

deise go deo

Ficheall wrote: »

It's difficult to find people who are willing to speak it, I find. I was chatting to a girl the other day who went to school through Irish but she felt uncomfortable even having a conversation in Irish, though she was well able.

I'm going to be a complete dick for the duration of seachtain na gaeilge http://www.snag.ie/ and speak only Irish. I expect to spend a lot of time alone that fortnight.

If you're around Dublin, head over to UCD, there will be a few hundred students doing the same.

Wibbs

Nope. I can get the general gist of the spoken word most of the time, if the speaker's accent isn't too heavy. Ditto with French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and German. I seem to have some faculty for listening comprehension with languages if I'm around them for even a short enough period, but for some reason in the speaking of them I'm completely and utterly useless. For some reason there's a disconnect from what I hear in my head and what I can speak. I'm pretty gistalingual actually Though in the past I tried to tune my ear and head to Basque and my brain fell out.

KeithAFC wrote:

Yes mo chara.

Actually K one guy I met years ago who learned Irish in later life was an Orangeman's son and a strong loyalist. According to him he just loved languages and found Irish a very interesting one grammatically.

foxyboxer

Completed secondary school through the medium of Irish.
Still have it knocking around in my brain.

The only purpose I can see it having now is having an 'Ace in the Hole' if I ever get into an argument with an armchair republican.

"Do ya speak the Gaeilge though? Do ya? Ha?"

ballsymchugh

seamus wrote: »

Things I do find myself doing though are seeing a placename in Irish on a road sign and then translating it and thinking about the root of that name, or when Nuacht or TG4 are left on the TV by mistake, I'm surprised by how I can still get the gist of what's being said, even if I don't fluently understand it.

What shocks me most is that nearly everyone spends 13 years learning the language and the vast majority of people leave school barely able to string a sentence or two together. In 13 years we should all be fluent.

splanc, on newstalk on friday evenings is very easy for people to understand with the basics. they've a little bit of béarlachas going on too which makes it a tad easier than rnag.
the only way to really learn a language is by full immersion. 2 weeks in a summer course as a teenager and you'd be fluent. it'd make it easier since you aren't learning literature, but just going about everyday life.

it's actually one of the easiest languages to learn, with 10 or 11 irregular verbs, unlike english, which had loads!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_irregular_verbs

AngryBollix

screamer wrote: »

I'm actually pretty fluent in Irish, even after all these years. When we go for abroad on holidays, we always speak Irish, no one understands us, it's magic. I hope that there will be a revival for the Irish language soon, we need to realise that speaking Irish isn't backwards or shameful, is mor an gra ata agam don teanga nadurtha.

We also need to realise that Irish is a dead useless language

allquestions

Tá mé beagnach líofa; my spelling is poor (but it's poor in general) and my grammer isn't too bad, but I don't use it as much as I could/should. I do talk to a few people every week 'as Gaeilge' but all conversations usually start in English unless someone makes the point of putting in the effort or asking for the conversation in Irish.

ballsymchugh

AngryBollix wrote: »

We also need to realise that Irish is a dead useless language

and that you're just an angrybollix!

retalivity

Ta Gaeilge liofa agamsa, mar ta me as an gaeltacht. Ta mo gramadach f*cked though....
Speak it every week over here, as I help giving lessons to people (or their kids) who left ireland a long time ago and want to relearn the language

AngryBollix

ballsymchugh wrote: »

and that you're just an angrybollix!

Nice

AngryBollix

retalivity wrote: »

Ta Gaeilge liofa agamsa, mar ta me as an gaeltacht. Ta mo gramadach f*cked though....
Speak it every week over here, as I help giving lessons to people (or their kids) who left ireland a long time ago and want to relearn the language

Why?