The Irish language is failing.

FunLover18

Trojan Donkey wrote:

Why would it be an important business language? Why would we have to learn their language? So, many English speaking countries will have to start learning Chinese just so they can do business with one country called China? Why can't China learn English? China isn't even good for business. It produces a lot of goods cheaply because there are slaves working in sweatshops.

No one is forcing anyone to learn Chinese

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Trojan Donkey wrote: »

NO! NO! NO!

No one should have to learn how to draw squiggles on a page and then make funny noises to represent those squiggles! Not to mention read those squiggles backwards.

Why would it be an important business language?
Why would we have to learn their language?
So, many English speaking countries will have to start learning Chinese just so they can do business with one country called China?
Why can't China learn English?
China isn't even good for business. It produces a lot of goods cheaply because there are slaves working in sweatshops.

Whoever came up with that idea should be shot.
This is one of those times when the no racism rule is annoying. :mad:

That's the logic - I never said it was sound.

People think education is solely about training for employment - which is unfortunuate and narrow-minded - and in this case they would have a point: learning a langauge that is internationally spoken would be more practical than learning Irish.

dissed doc

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Been through this. Forcing it on people doesn't work, primarily because the desire isn't there amongst parents and kids. Forcing it even harder will just make people reject it more.

People want to learn Chinese because they think it will be an important business langauge in the future. They are unlikely to be correct.

No-one is making anyone learn Chinese. But, if two non-Chinese people are looking to close a deal in China, whoever speaks Mandarin will have an advantage. Just like the much vaunted "English speaking" of Irish people in getting business in the US or UK. Speaking the language of the person who you want to do business with, is a major advantage, and crying about why can't they learn English will not go far, *IMHO!!*

Likewise, if you speak German, chances are, the employment and business opportunities open up considerably more opportunities with German companies, than for someone who only speaks English.

Trojan Donkey

FunLover18 wrote: »

No one is forcing anyone to learn Chinese

耶的波浪線！讓我們來迫使整個世界來寫，看起來像狗屎的話！我喜歡麵條！

Listen to the audio for Chinese translations on Google Translate. How the **** do you expect someone to learn that?

Trojan Donkey

That Chinese I put in my last post was originally:

Yay for squiggly lines! We should force the entire world to write words that look like sh*t! I like noodles!

But when I translated the Chinese translation back to English it became:

Yeah wavy line! Let's force the entire world to write, looks like dog feces, then! I love pasta!

WTF IS THIS BS?!?

EDIT: The Chinese word for f*ck sounds like "Her mother".

Iwasfrozen

dissed doc wrote: »

No-one is making anyone learn Chinese. But, if two non-Chinese people are looking to close a deal in China, whoever speaks Mandarin will have an advantage. Just like the much vaunted "English speaking" of Irish people in getting business in the US or UK. Speaking the language of the person who you want to do business with, is a major advantage, and crying about why can't they learn English will not go far, *IMHO!!*

Likewise, if you speak German, chances are, the employment and business opportunities open up considerably more opportunities with German companies, than for someone who only speaks English.

Point taken. What country speaks Irish?

Trojan Donkey

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Point taken. What country speaks Irish?

Australia.

Grayson

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Point taken. What country speaks Irish?

If I remember correctly there's a very small Irish speaking population in Argentina.
They also have a small town where everyone speaks welsh.

Icepick

tipparetops wrote: »

pointless post of the week.
Our primary school teachers can barely speak Irish, where would get the spanish teachers from.

That's still not a reason to teach Irish.

tipparetops

Icepick wrote: »

That's still not a reason to teach Irish.

New bizarre post of the week.
Just because you personally cannot learn the language, we should stop teaching it in our schools.

Dan_Solo

Banjoxed wrote: »

Think the problems that the Irish language have are too deep seated for it to matter a damn who the minister is. Generations of us under all governments were taught the language badly and left school with no love for what was an obligation.

Are there any circumstances under which Irish language promoters will accept people just don't want to speak Irish?

dr.fuzzenstein

Trojan Donkey wrote: »

耶的波浪線！讓我們來迫使整個世界來寫，看起來像狗屎的話！我喜歡麵條！

Listen to the audio for Chinese translations on Google Translate. How the **** do you expect someone to learn that?

I'm German, Irish sounds the same to me.

dr.fuzzenstein

dissed doc wrote: »

No-one is making anyone learn Chinese. But, if two non-Chinese people are looking to close a deal in China, whoever speaks Mandarin will have an advantage. Just like the much vaunted "English speaking" of Irish people in getting business in the US or UK. Speaking the language of the person who you want to do business with, is a major advantage, and crying about why can't they learn English will not go far, *IMHO!!*

Likewise, if you speak German, chances are, the employment and business opportunities open up considerably more opportunities with German companies, than for someone who only speaks English.

I work in tech support for EMEA and it simply is impossible to do it all in English.
We've not have yet had a call requesting an Irish speaker, but maybe next year.
Sweden and Holland have no problems, Germans are a mixed bag but France, Italy and Spain are impossible without native language support.
If you were to say to them "English, MoFo!" they would hang up and take their business elsewhere.

But I'm still holding out hope for Esperanto!

briany

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

We've not have yet had a call requesting an Irish speaker, but maybe next year.

I heard Blathnaid Ní Chofaigh likes to do her business in Irish whenever possible.

Aineoil

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Sweden and Holland have no problems, Germans are a mixed bag but France, Italy and Spain are impossible without native language support.

dr Fuzzstein

That statement is very true according to my experiences. Italians can be a mixed

bag too. Younger Italians (younger than 30 ish) have a lot more English.

whisky_galore

Dan_Solo wrote: »

Are there any circumstances under which Irish language promoters will accept people just don't want to speak Irish?

If you're Irish and don't want to speak the language you must be some sort of racially impure freak "West Brit".:D

tipparetops

whisky_galore wrote: »

If you're Irish and don't want to speak the language you must be some sort of racially impure freak "West Brit".:D

no just lazy/oafish

Grayson

tipparetops wrote: »

no just lazy/oafish

And people say that fluent speakers don't have a superiority complex.

tipparetops

Grayson wrote: »

And people say that fluent speakers don't have a superiority complex.

Is is like the mafia, take care of our own.:)

Grayson

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I work in tech support for EMEA and it simply is impossible to do it all in English.
We've not have yet had a call requesting an Irish speaker, but maybe next year.
Sweden and Holland have no problems, Germans are a mixed bag but France, Italy and Spain are impossible without native language support.
If you were to say to them "English, MoFo!" they would hang up and take their business elsewhere.

But I'm still holding out hope for Esperanto!

Nearly 15 years working in tech support for EU markets and I've never heard anyone ask for Irish service.

The one time I've heard of something like that was when a guy got arrested and demanded an Irish translator. He spoke English, he was just a dick.

tipparetops

Grayson wrote: »

Nearly 15 yeas working in tech support for EU markets and I've never heard anyone ask for Irish service.

The one time I've heard of something like that was when a guy got arrested and demanded an Irish translator. He spoke English, he was just a dick.

I did my driving test in Irish, oh happy days. ;)

whisky_galore

tipparetops wrote: »

Is is like the mafia, take care of our own.:)

Well, it is a sort of racket alright.

dr.fuzzenstein

tipparetops wrote: »

I did my driving test in Irish, oh happy days. ;)

That's actually impressive.
Did you pass?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

tipparetops wrote: »

no just lazy/oafish

The idea that people who can't learn it, or just aren't nterested? If the first, how do you know, if they second, I call hypocrit - again.

tipparetops

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

That's actually impressive.
Did you pass?

My brother passed as well and he is a dreadful driver.
Reasons to learn Irish if you get follow.

tipparetops

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

The idea what people who can't learn it, or just arent; interested? If the first, how do you know, if they second, I call hypocrit - again.

why a hypocrite of all things.

RecordStraight

tipparetops wrote: »

no just lazy/oafish

Anybody who has a different view to this poster is either lazy or an oaf.

Logic.

323

Trojan Donkey wrote: »

If our government really wanted us to learn Irish, it should have been the only language used by teachers in every subject in school.

I'm talking about reversing the system. The priorities of both Irish and English should switch.

It know it would be a big step since the majority of the population speaks only English. But after a while it would work. After all, English is supposedly a lot harder to learn than Irish. If a person from, for example, Japan came into the country and had absolutely no English or Irish, Irish would be easier to learn than English.
All teachers should speak Irish when teaching any subject. Sure, isn't listening to a language being spoken a great way to pick up words?

Please answer me this. Why should ANYONE have to learn Chinese? I have never heard that statement before. Could someone let me in on it?

Like many, don't care one way or the other. But as to the first paragraph above, I don't believe it would work.

I was fluent even before national school. Irish was the only language allowed inside the school grounds all my time there, reinforced with a piece of gas hose and brass tipped ruler.

Spoke it in Irish class through secondary school. Then probably spoke it a dozen times after my Irish oral about 25 years ago. OK, was abroad for a few of those years, where I became fluent in Spanish and reasonable with French, by listening to them as you say.
That's the problem with Irish that few seem to want to admit, its not been spoken. For the last 12 years or so I live a couple of mile from the gaeltacht and could count on my fingers the number of times I have heard the language.

Don't believe Irish is failing OP, it has already failed and no amount of money thrown at it will change anything.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

tipparetops wrote: »

why a hypocrite of all things.

The idea that people should either be inteerrested in something, or are "oafish".

Un Croissant

tipparetops wrote: »

I did my driving test in Irish, oh happy days. ;)

Jaysus, I did mine in a car. Fair play to you.