Honestly how amazing is it that we have fluent English?

BabyE

It's unreal tbh, while in some sense Id like if we spoke Irish, the fact that we are fluent at English is amazing.
God bless the Anglosphere seriously, anyone who has lived on European mainland knows we are about as European as kangaroos, it's weird that we can feel way more at home in a place thousands of miles away than we would in a European city a couple of hours away by flight.

Charles Babbage

Shouldn't that be "Honestly, how amazing is it that we have fluent English?"?

Senna

Man, like look at my hands man, their like, like hands, cool.

Miss Demeanour

It's so amazing I have to calm myself down every night before I sleep.....I pat my back and say " there they're their.....you are fluent in English but it's time to sleep"

BabyE

One of the most amazing facets of being fluent in a language, any language is your ability to craft it in anyway you wish, that is what make someone fluent. The complete and utter 'dominio' is something that a foreign speaker of whatever language will always struggle to contend with. They did a study years back about the complexity of the speech of African Americans living in ghettos, it showed that their speech was more complex than higher classes. As anyone can attest who has learned a foreign language, you aren't really fluent until you can understand the language of the steee, something that takes a long long time.
Has anyone heard mainland Europeans these days? Their English is so good but they can never compete with a native speaker, it will always sound phony or stilted and lacking in authenticy that we in Ireland have. It's cooler for us because it's very probable that today we may not have had English as our primary language, a blessing and a curse I guess.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Spend half an hour on Facebook and then tell me that the Irish people are fluent in English.

Half the population it seems can't spell words like "this" and "that"... Instead you get "dis nd dat"

Honestly if you're one of those people who spells "and" as "nd" I sincerely hope you die of a flesh eating disease...slowly.

BettePorter

I find it more amazing that we spend 8 years of primary and 5 of secondary school learning Irish daily and yet 'most' of us leave without being able to hold a basic conversation in it. Something ain't working somewhere.

Arghus

I do be doing well speaking the lingo.

BabyE

Hugh Mungus wrote: »

Spend half an hour on Facebook and then tell me that the Irish people are fluent in English.

Half the population it seems can't spell words like "this" and "that"... Instead you get "dis nd dat"

Honestly of you're one of those people who spells "and" as "nd" I sincerely hope you die of a flesh eating disease...slowly.

I am of the school of thought that language is something that evolves and changes, we don't have the equivalent to Spanish and French who have a central body that reviews the language and decides on what is and not acceptable. Fluent Speakers can mould the language any way they wish and still convey their point and be understood on context, a foreign speaker doesn't have the mental dexterity to mould and adapt to a language. The very fact they write in such a way shows just how fluent they are. The very fact we can react to bad grammar without it impeding our understanding is a testament to our dominance over it. You can't teach that.

BettePorter

Hugh Mungus wrote:

Honestly of you're one of those people who spells "and" as "nd".

My sister has a friend who is a secondary school English teacher.... and she uses text spk in messages. I just can't get my head around that at all!

BabyE

I think that is incredible that we are so good at a particular language, we can literally write **** and still understand each other. We don't think about simply speaking a language as being good at it, but ultimately that is its function; to communicate. The use of "txt wb" achieves this, unless you are autistic or some ****,

nhunter100

Hugh Mungus wrote:

Honestly of you're one of those people who spells "and" as "nd" I sincerely hope you die of a flesh eating disease...slowly.

"Honestly *if* you're one of those".... fixed it for you. ;-)

riffmongous

BabyE wrote: »

It's unreal tbh, while in some sense Id like if we spoke Irish, the fact that we are fluent at English is amazing.
God bless the Anglosphere seriously, anyone who has lived on European mainland knows we are about as European as kangaroos, it's weird that we can feel way more at home in a place thousands of miles away than we would in a European city a couple of hours away by flight.

Well speak for yourself there, there's plenty of us doing well on the mainland.

BabyE

I don't doubt it man, fact is though once you get past Brittany, the continent becomes strange as ****.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

nhunter100 wrote: »

"Honestly *if* you're one of those".... fixed it for you. ;-)

I'm just gonna blame the terrible text prediction tool my phone uses on that one :pac:

And also I'm gonna ninja edit that post.

Junkyard Tom

If the language hadn't been killed by colonialism we'd probably speak English fluently as a second language.

artanevilla

As someone who travels a lot around Europe it's hugely beneficial.

sondagefaux

You're from a country where the vast majority of the population speak English as their main/only language and you find it amazing that you're able to speak English fluently?
Freak.

maudgonner

sondagefaux wrote: »

You're from a country where the vast majority of the population speak English as their main/only language and you find it amazing that you're able to speak English fluently?
Freak.

Yeah, I think you might be missing the OP's point a bit there.

Professor Moriarty

BabyE wrote: »

I don't doubt it man, fact is though once you get past Brittany, the continent becomes strange as ****.

Yes, too many furriners.

RasTa

It's a disgrace that we don't have a second or third language like most of our Danish, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, French and German neighbours.

dd972

Feel entirely European fyi OP, if we spoke Irish as our principal language we'd still speak English for commercial reasons much like they do in the Benelux or Nordic countries, it's a piddling little kiddies nursery rhyme of a tongue so knowing it or learning it isn't a big deal.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

BabyE wrote: »

I am of the school of thought that language is something that evolves and changes, we don't have the equivalent to Spanish and French who have a central body that reviews the language and decides on what is and not acceptable. Fluent Speakers can mould the language any way they wish and still convey their point and be understood on context, a foreign speaker doesn't have the mental dexterity to mould and adapt to a language. The very fact they write in such a way shows just how fluent they are. The very fact we can react to bad grammar without it impeding our understanding is a testament to our dominance over it. You can't teach that.

This is sort of true. The more text speak in a Spanish sentence, the less I can understand it but a native speaker can always understand it. They know the language well enough that mistakes and abbreviations are obvious to them, whereas I don't understand them at all.

whoopsadoodles

RasTa wrote: »

It's a disgrace that we don't have a second or third language like most of our Danish, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, French and German neighbours.

Ah yeh but their second language is usually English so why do we need to learn anything else?

The King of Moo

Hugh Mungus wrote: »

Spend half an hour on Facebook and then tell me that the Irish people are fluent in English.

Half the population it seems can't spell words like "this" and "that"... Instead you get "dis nd dat"

Honestly if you're one of those people who spells "and" as "nd" I sincerely hope you die of a flesh eating disease...slowly.

In fairness though, such spellings would affect accuracy, but not fluency, unless they render the text difficult to understand. But if they do affect comprehension, then fair enough.

Paddy Porter

Would e a very good and readable post if you put in paragraphs.

Wall of text is a no no .....

The King of Moo

Paddy Porter wrote: »

Would e a very good and readable post if you put in paragraphs.

Wall of text is a no no .....

Have our attention spans become so diminished that four lines counts as "a wall of text!?"

Chuchote

BabyE wrote: »

It's unreal tbh, while in some sense Id like if we spoke Irish, the fact that we are fluent at English is amazing.
God bless the Anglosphere seriously, anyone who has lived on European mainland knows we are about as European as kangaroos, it's weird that we can feel way more at home in a place thousands of miles away than we would in a European city a couple of hours away by flight.

How amazing is it that most Europeans are fluent in at least three languages and we can't speak anything except English?

Not only amazing, deadly dangerous. We're going to need to trade with Europe more as Britain and the US close themselves off; we badly need to get our national thumb out and start becoming fluent - really fluent - in other European languages and in Chinese and Japanese, and a bit of Hindi wouldn't hurt either.

We do have one advantage: having learned Irish from an early age (and most people who claim to have no Irish at all after years of schooling surprise themselves by how much they know if they go and take a couple of adult classes) - having learned Irish since we were sprogs, we're already mentally well prepared for the different thought processes used by different languages; for instance the French use "c'est" like Irish uses "is" and "il est" like Irish uses "tá". So it's actually easier for us to learn languages if we put our heart into it.

Incidentally, see how long "English for commercial reasons" lasts after Brexit and the American self-hugging insularisation.

BabyE wrote: »

One of the most amazing facets of being fluent in a language, any language is your ability to craft it in anyway you wish, that is what make someone fluent. The complete and utter 'dominio' is something that a foreign speaker of whatever language will always struggle to contend with.

Yeah, poor old Nabokov and Beckett, they struggled

sondagefaux

maudgonner wrote: »

sondagefaux wrote: »

You're from a country where the vast majority of the population speak English as their main/only language and you find it amazing that you're able to speak English fluently?
Freak.

Yeah, I think you might be missing the OP's point a bit there.

Freak.

sondagefaux

BabyE wrote: »

I don't doubt it man, fact is though once you get past Brittany, the continent becomes strange as ****.

God love you. You'll find a cure one day.

sondagefaux

Is this thread an entry for the Most Stupid Bloody Thread Ever Anywhere Award?

Sam Kade

sondagefaux wrote: »

You're from a country where the vast majority of the population speak English as their main/only language and you find it amazing that you're able to speak English fluently?
Freak.

Maybe because of the fact that English is the most difficult language to learn and the op is elated about being able to speak it. Spanish is the easiest to learn by all accounts, I might try it sometime

Steve012

BettePorter wrote: »

I find it more amazing that we spend 8 years of primary and 5 of secondary school learning Irish daily and yet 'most' of us leave without being able to hold a basic conversation in it. Something ain't working somewhere.

Top quote

Cee-Jay-Cee

BabyE wrote: »

It's unreal tbh, while in some sense Id like if we spoke Irish, the fact that we are fluent at English is amazing.
God bless the Anglosphere seriously, anyone who has lived on European mainland knows we are about as European as kangaroos, it's weird that we can feel way more at home in a place thousands of miles away than we would in a European city a couple of hours away by flight.

You mean places like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA where they speak the same language as us????

DrumSteve

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

You mean places like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA where they speak the same language as us????

Considering the difficulty a lot of people have understanding me overseas I'd be inclined to disagree

Boggy Turf

I do think English is a great language and we are lucky to be fluent in it.
I am learning German at the moment but it's hard work.

nhunter100

RasTa wrote:

It's a disgrace that we don't have a second or third language like most of our Danish, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, French and German neighbours.

Why? Is it so all the foreigners wouldn't have a clue about the slagging we're giving them. They speak English in Kerry, do you believe someone from Germany/Denmark can understand a native Kerry person in full flow?

endacl

Paddy Porter wrote: »

Would e a very good and readable post if you put in paragraphs.

Wall of text is a no no .....

Double negatives are a no no.

_Brian

BettePorter wrote: »

My sister has a friend who is a secondary school English teacher.... and she uses text spk in messages. I just can't get my head around that at all!

I had to stop my wife from correcting spelling and grammar mistakes our 8YO's teacher keeps making when correcting homework. It's sad but no point in getting on her wrong side either.

Pinch Flat

An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas?

doolox

....about his travels throughout Great Britain. He recalled visiting the Channel ports on the South East coast of Britain and marveling at being able to see the coast of France from Dover and being able to pick up radio stations from France on his car radio. But that the locals were totally indifferent to their proximity to France and only had a vague notion of the language and customs of their near neighbour.

Britain seems to have a cultural and linguistic distance from Europe out of all proportion to their actual physical distance, having more in common with such distant places as California, Australia and South Africa than they do with Belgium, Netherlands or France, physically much closer countries.

It takes a considerable educational effort, for example, to emigrate to those countries because of the language barrier while going to the Anglophone countries appears to be much easier. The big problem is the need for visas to visit or settle in the Anglophone countries as opposed to the free access Britain and Ireland have to Europe. In reality the language barrier precludes us from all but the most menial and low paying of jobs, as it does the other way around for non English speaking people coming to Britain or Ireland to work.

As a nation we should be looking at making things easier for people to go to the English speaking countries as most of them are very highly developed and rich and short of workers. Europe is badly affected by unemployment in comparison. The Irish government do not have a commercial interest in doing this however because they would have to raise the wages they pay workers here to keep the good ones and do something about the housing transport and services crisis.

Edups2.0

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

You mean places like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA where they speak the same language as us????

No no no, Americans speak American. Examples:

Taser - Irish
Tazer - American

Colour - Irish
Color - American

Favourite - Irish
Favorite - American

Pretty normal Friday - Irish
Black Friday - American

November 24th - Irish
Thanksgiving - American


Do you understand, yes?

Edups2.0

nhunter100 wrote: »

Why? Is it so all the foreigners wouldn't have a clue about the slagging we're giving them. They speak English in Kerry, do you believe someone from Germany/Denmark can understand a native Kerry person in full flow?

People in Ireland don't understand Kerrymen in full flow tbf

osarusan

Sam Kade wrote: »

Maybe because of the fact that English is the most difficult language to learn

That isn't a fact in any way.

BettePorter

BettePorter wrote: »

I find it more amazing that we spend 8 years of primary and 5 of secondary school learning Irish daily and yet 'most' of us leave without being able to hold a basic conversation in it. Something ain't working somewhere.

You mean our education system is useless and not fit for purpose? :eek:

Perish the thought. :P

Chuchote

doolox wrote: »

As a nation we should be looking at making things easier for people to go to the English speaking countries as most of them are very highly developed and rich and short of workers. Europe is badly affected by unemployment in comparison. The Irish government do not have a commercial interest in doing this however because they would have to raise the wages they pay workers here to keep the good ones and do something about the housing transport and services crisis.

As a nation we should be able to talk to our neighbours and not look like idiots! Down in my local cafe, the two waitresses - one Portuguese, one Spanish - are teaching each other their own languages. Both already have fluent English. The Portuguese one is learning Croatian for fun. They're intelligent. Their customers… less so…

jimmy blevins

It would be more amazing if we all spoke fluent klingon.

Chuchote

jimmy blevins wrote: »

It would be more amazing if we all spoke fluent klingon.

Go to Kerry, you'll find they do.

Irish Stones

RasTa wrote: »

It's a disgrace that we don't have a second or third language like most of our Danish, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, French and German neighbours.

As a matter of fact we have only ONE language. And most of us aren't fluent in it either. THIS is the real disgrace! I will never understand how it is possible that so many people aren't able to wite or speak their only language, the only one they have ever heard since they were born.

Irish Stones

Sam Kade wrote: »

sondagefaux wrote: »

You're from a country where the vast majority of the population speak English as their main/only language and you find it amazing that you're able to speak English fluently?
Freak.

Maybe because of the fact that English is the most difficult language to learn and the op is elated about being able to speak it. Spanish is the easiest to learn by all accounts, I might try it sometime

Are you sure?

Chuchote

Irish Stones wrote: »

As a matter of fact we have only ONE language. And most of us aren't fluent in it either. THIS is the real disgrace! I will never understand how it is possible that so many people aren't able to wite or speak their only language, the only one they have ever heard since they were born.

Weird, really, when you consider that during the early 20th century Irish people were noted for their huge vocabulary in English, far higher than people in Britain, and their sophisticated phrasing.