Do you Speak Irish?

biko

foxyboxer wrote: »

can u txtspk n irish?

t

Insect Overlord

"Tá" isn't a catch-all word for "yes".

(And neither is 'sea...)

pragmatic1

Yeah use it all the time when I go home as I live in the gaeltacht.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Insect Overlord wrote: »

"Tá" isn't a catch-all word for "yes".

(And neither is 'sea...)

Si?

Jess16

Is grá liom ár dteanga dúchais agus measaim gur cuid dár n-oidhreacht í. Labhródh mé í i ngach deis a bhuailfinn agus le déanaí, bhí comhrá fada idir mé féin agus cara agam ar líne trí mhéan na Gaeilge amháin -beadh na féidearthactaí ann má fhéachann tú! Cuireann an méid diúltas a ghabann leis an nGaeilge isteach orm, go háirithe nuair a bhíonn gach tír eile fíor bhrodúil as a dteanga náisiúnta.

I love Irish as our native language and see it as a true part of our heritage. I speak it at every available opportunity and just recently, my friend and I conducted an entire online conversation exclusively through Irish -I think opportunities are always there if you seek them! The negativity surrounding Irish in this country bothers me, especially when other countries regard their national language as something to be proud of.

JohnMearsheimer

I repeated Leaving Cert Irish in 2010, 8 years after I originally did my Leaving. I was surprised at how much of it came back to me. Unfortunately my spoken Irish isn't the best but I think my understanding of it is ok. I might not understand a sentence word for word but I understand enough to piece together what it means.

Fromthetrees

Cuirim mo penase isteach sa cailin alainn gach la. :cool:

Wibbs

Jess16 wrote: »

The negativity surrounding Irish in this country bothers me, especially when other countries regard their national language as something to be proud of.

Why? Because for a large chunk of Irish people it is quite simply not their language. It clearly isn't, not when compared to any other actual national language you care to mention. So comparisons with Swedes, Dutch or whoever and their own languages is a dead end argument. So because many Irish people have little cultural attachment to Irish, they feel disconnected from and by it, even alienated by some of the more ardent Gaelgoirs who insist it should be theirs when it's clearly not and hasn't been for many generations.

However it is most certainly a part of our language heritage and should be preserved, even fostered, but not used as some exclusive holier than thou cultural stick to beat people with. As waaay too often it is. This tends to result in two attitudes; a complete even vitriolic rejection of the language, or some quasi nod to the language out of guilt without ever bothering to speak it. Get away from these notions and then we may find more people more conducive to overall positivity about the language and more people up for speaking it.

LordSutch

biko wrote: »

Last years numbers in case anyone is interested.

Last years Poll was much more comprehensive, (see link above) as posted by Biko.

Jess16

Wibbs wrote: »

Why? Because for a large chunk of Irish people it is quite simply not their language. It clearly isn't, not when compared to any other actual national language you care to mention. So comparisons with Swedes, Dutch or whoever and their own languages is a dead end argument. So because many Irish people have little cultural attachment to Irish, they feel disconnected from and by it, even alienated by some of the more ardent Gaelgoirs who insist it should be theirs when it's clearly not and hasn't been for many generations.

However it is most certainly a part of our language heritage and should be preserved, even fostered, but not used as some exclusive holier than thou cultural stick to beat people with. As waaay too often it is. This tends to result in two attitudes; a complete even vitriolic rejection of the language, or some quasi nod to the language out of guilt without ever bothering to speak it. Get away from these notions and then we may find more people more conducive to overall positivity about the language and more people up for speaking it.

If you wish to read into things to condone inferiority complexes, that's your issue, not mine

Yakult

I'm currently learning it again as a past time. Left school 5 years ago and hated the subject. This time its different, I'm actually enjoying it and learning more than I had in the 13 years of studying it. I wouldnt blame some people for not speaking it or being able to after doing it in school but if you cant and you have time, you should learn it.

Storminateacup

I don't, I can barely speak English but my OH grew up in a gaeltacht area in Donegal, and so he does (and sounds very sexy I might add). He'll make sure our children will speak it fluently too.

policarp

Fromthetrees wrote: »

Cuirim mo penase isteach sa cailin alainn gach la. :cool:

Nice one bod. . .

Vicxas

Went to an irish primary and secondary school, ruined the love of the language for me.

sam34

yep, i speak it fairly regularly with family and one or two friends.

I read books written as gaeilge too and would watch tg4 a lot

Wibbs

Jess16 wrote: »

If you wish to read into things to condone inferiority complexes, that's your issue, not mine

Well done. You might have engaged or even debated the point, instead you've made my point for me. QED.

LongTail

Started going to Irish classes recently and I'm finding it tough but enjoying it immensely. There has been a big drive in the north with Liofa 2015 which aims to get more people speaking Irish in the next few years.

Sky King

I like throwing in a few (probably grammatically horrific) Irish sentences for the laugh in a bogger accent most days.

e.g. "Oh sin é bejaysis, sin é go direach." [/nods knowingly]

Napper Hawkins

Wibbs wrote: »

Why? Because for a large chunk of Irish people it is quite simply not their language. It clearly isn't, not when compared to any other actual national language you care to mention. So comparisons with Swedes, Dutch or whoever and their own languages is a dead end argument. So because many Irish people have little cultural attachment to Irish, they feel disconnected from and by it, even alienated by some of the more ardent Gaelgoirs who insist it should be theirs when it's clearly not and hasn't been for many generations.

However it is most certainly a part of our language heritage and should be preserved, even fostered, but not used as some exclusive holier than thou cultural stick to beat people with. As waaay too often it is. This tends to result in two attitudes; a complete even vitriolic rejection of the language, or some quasi nod to the language out of guilt without ever bothering to speak it. Get away from these notions and then we may find more people more conducive to overall positivity about the language and more people up for speaking it.

Well said, Wibbs! Nail on the head.

RussellTuring

Vicxas wrote: »

Went to an irish primary and secondary school, ruined the love of the language for me.

Why was that?

Mr Benevolent

To answer the OP's question, no. Never will, just don't like it, it's outdated and refuses to go with the times. The fact that most colleges haven't required it for years seals it. Frankly I'd rather we adopted German or Spanish or Esperanto as our second language, at least they'd be useful in real life on holidays or jobs needing a language.

Captain Darling

I wonder would the fact that we speak one language make it more difficult to learn Irish in school. We all did years and years of Irish but only a small percentage of us can speak it fluently.

Anecdotally from friends who are teachers i have heard that kids who are bi-lingual already (from parents who are polish, russian etc and speak their parents language and english) take to learning Irish way easier then the Irish kids.

PrincessLola

Does anyone know why after 14 years of educacation, people still can't speak much Irish??
I'm sick of the whole "bad teaching" excuse, I give our teachers a little more credit than that.

maupat

sam34 wrote: »

yep, i speak it fairly regularly with family and one or two friends.

I read books written as gaeilge too and would watch tg4 a lot

I'm much the same in that I use it every day at work but not with family as they don't have the cúpla focal.

Have read some Irish books and tune into TG4 now and again.

I have to say that it has been a great asset in the line of work. Almost every post (in both the private and public sector) I've had since leaving college has incorporated the use of the Irish language (be it spoken and/or written). For me, it's neither a redundant or useless language to have

Jess16

Wibbs wrote: »

Well done. You might have engaged or even debated the point, instead you've made my point for me. QED.

Make of it what you will Wibbs. I've already had this debate more times than I care to mention, not engaging with you because you decide I have to, does not make you automatically right. It simply means that I have more cop on than to be drawn on a subject with somebody who clearly has an axe to grind.

My post was neither inflammatory nor directed at you and the fact that you have deemed it so makes it abundantly clear that you're simply sniping for an 'I hate Irish' argument and I'm not going to be your sounding board for that.

later12

I could speak it quite well five or six years ago, but I feel like I am losing the speaker's grasp of it.

I can understand Irish and read Irish, but I struggle to speak it because the initiative is on the speaker to produce the grammar and vocabulary as opposed to merely recognizing the grammar and vocabulary, which is an easy process.

If I felt I were losing my French, or my rudimentary Spanish, I would immediately do something about it.

But I can see absolutely no use for Irish in my everyday life, apart from occasionally consulting the poetry of An Dealg Droighin or Peig Sayers's autobiography, which as I said only requires recognition of the language, and not an active need to initiate a conversation in it, as would be required in living languages like French and Spanish.

I say let the thing go the way of Latin.

Funglegunk

I speak more Irish when I'm away from home than I ever do here. It's broken, pigeon Irish and usually just for a bit of craic (see what I did there?) but foreigners are often fascinated by Irish culture, so it's often a bit of a boost to a conversation if you're able to stumble through a few words. That Carlsberg ad might be a bit silly, but there's definitely an element of truth to it. That said, I really wish I could speak it fluently as it's only since I've gotten older that I've gotten interested in Irish history and traditional Irish culture; in school it bored the tits off me along with everyone else.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

PrincessLola wrote: »

Does anyone know why after 14 years of educacation, people still can't speak much Irish??
I'm sick of the whole "bad teaching" excuse, I give our teachers a little more credit than that.

More because ofthe curriculum than the teahcers, although tat has improved. the real trick here is to make it interesting and get kids to like it because it's fun and interesting. The phrase "cultural identiy" is not going to mean much to a neutral seven-year-old facing the langueg for the first time,

Jess16 wrote: »

Make of it what you will Wibbs. I've already had this debate more times than I care to mention, not engaging with you because you decide I have to, does not make you automatically right. It simply means that I have more cop on than to be drawn on a subject with somebody who clearly has an axe to grind.

So where, exactly, does your point about the inferiority complex come from? I mean, if you don't relate to something that is suppose to be cultural, how does this make someone think they're inferior?

RussellTuring

PrincessLola wrote: »

Does anyone know why after 14 years of educacation, people still can't speak much Irish??
I'm sick of the whole "bad teaching" excuse, I give our teachers a little more credit than that.

It isn't taught properly because of the curriculum, not the teachers. All I remember from Irish class in primary school is mindless repetition of vocab and key phrases with little emphasis on getting children to converse with each other and actually utilise what was drilled into us. This was followed by secondary school and learning how to read a text to pick out the parts that corresponded to the questions. None of this inspires someone to learn.

Just like history and geography lessons are soon forgotten by those who don't have a particular interest in those subjects, so too is Irish by many kids who aren't exposed anywhere other than school. It needs to be made more relevant to them and they'll pick it up like the intellectual sponges they are, especially if there's a focus on oral use.

Wibbs

Jess16 wrote: »

Make of it what you will Wibbs. I've already had this debate more times than I care to mention, not engaging with you because you decide I have to, does not make you automatically right. It simply means that I have more cop on than to be drawn on a subject with somebody who clearly has an axe to grind.

Mind reader too?

My post was neither inflammatory nor directed at you and the fact that you have deemed it so makes it abundantly clear that you're simply sniping for an 'I hate Irish' argument and I'm not going to be your sounding board for that.

Nope, wrong. Again. I'd just looooove for you to show any post on this website where I came within sniffing distance of a "I hate Irish" statement. You'll actually find quite the opposite. However I have stated that I find some personal commonality with Gandhi's comment on Christianity if paraphrased onto the subject. I like Irish, it's some of those self described defenders of same I take issue with. Much I find personally odd, nay ofttimes irritating with some Gaelgoirs out there, particularly the one track mind evangelistic ones or the culturally exclusive ones. TBH if the OP was (pretty much exclusively) starting recurring threads on the subject of how great Israel is, he'd likely be thought a Mossad shill, though not a culturally exclusive one to be fair.

In any event J maybe your english needs a little work too as quoting someone and then suggesting it's their issue is kinda directed at that someone. N'est ce pas?

Jess16 wrote: »

If you wish to read into things to condone inferiority complexes, that's your issue, not mine

I suspect if tree felling implements are being honed I'd respectfully suggest I'm by far the lesser one on this particular subject.

RussellTuring wrote:

Just like history and geography lessons are soon forgotten by those who don't have a particular interest in those subjects, so too is Irish by many kids who aren't exposed anywhere other than school. It needs to be made more relevant to them and they'll pick it up like the intellectual sponges they are, especially if there's a focus on oral use.

+1000 RT. That would certainly increase fluency compared to the current daft way of teaching which always seems to have accepted or assumed that "ah sure they'll pick it up, after all they're Irish, it's their language". Not unlike English has been taught actually. The difference being of course that the latter language was/is relevant as it's the language the vast vast majority function primarily in. The bit I underlined in your post sums it up. Kids (and adults) will pick up pretty much anything relevant to their lives. The problem is even if it becomes relevant within ones schooling translating that into the wider society may still be the sticking point. People tending towards laziness will usually gravitate towards the easy way out.

I still think that rejig of how it's taught very worthwhile though. It would increase it's use, even if it "only" reached 10 odd per cent actual daily penetration into wider Irish society. It would be worth that. IMHO and of course it's only my humble I reckon 10% daily and natural fluency(with another third having more than a gist) is likely it's sustainable level. A lot higher than now though. Plus the wider and more useful it became the less it would be restricted to a cultural enclave and all that brings with it. That I'd love to see. It may happen yet RT, though like you say the teaching of it would need to seriously change across the board in all schools, not just Gaelscoils.