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Honestly how amazing is it that we have fluent English?

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    #32
    Sam Kade
    Registered Users Posts: 12,313 ✭✭✭✭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 :)


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    #33
    Steve012
    Registered Users Posts: 938 ✭✭✭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.

    :D Top quote


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    #34
    Cee-Jay-Cee
    Registered Users Posts: 12,235 ✭✭✭✭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????


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    #35
    DrumSteve
    Registered Users Posts: 10,799 ✭✭✭✭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


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    #36
    Boggy Turf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 427 ✭✭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.


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    #37
    nhunter100
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,990 ✭✭✭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?


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    #38
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,233 ✭✭✭✭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.

    :)


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    #39
    _Brian
    Registered Users Posts: 18,477 ✭✭✭✭_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.


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    #40
    Pinch Flat
    Registered Users Posts: 7,761 ✭✭✭Pinch Flat


    An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas?


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    #41
    doolox
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,350 ✭✭✭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.


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    #42
    Edups2.0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 256 ✭✭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?


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    #43
    Edups2.0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 256 ✭✭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


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    #44
    osarusan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,553 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #45
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    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


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    #46
    Chuchote
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭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…


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    #47
    jimmy blevins
    Closed Accounts Posts: 475 ✭✭jimmy blevins


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


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    #48
    Chuchote
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭Chuchote


    jimmy blevins wrote: »
    It would be more amazing if we all spoke fluent klingon.

    Go to Kerry, you'll find they do.


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    #49
    Irish Stones
    Registered Users Posts: 2,307 ✭✭✭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.


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    #50
    Irish Stones
    Registered Users Posts: 2,307 ✭✭✭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?


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    #51
    Chuchote
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭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.


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    #52
    furiousox
    Registered Users Posts: 6,894 ✭✭✭furiousox


    Not only can we speak the language fluently, we are actually improving it all the time.
    Who has time for "I saw" when you can say "I seen" instead?
    Likewise for "I did" & "I done" and of course, at the top of the pile "should of" and "would of".
    Bravo!

    CPL 593H



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    #53
    Dr Crayfish
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    Most of us come out of 12 years of school without being able to converse in Irish. Id imagine if Irish was our first language, our schools and teachers are so **** that we wouldn't have English as our 2nd language at all and we'd be even more isolated. A very hypothetical thread but yes we are lucky we speak English.


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    #54
    Irish Stones
    Registered Users Posts: 2,307 ✭✭✭Irish Stones


    Chuchote wrote: »
    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.
    You might have missed the fact that I made the word ITALIAN bold in the quoted text.
    I am Italian, I live in Italy. Many fellow citizens of mine have difficult with their own language. And this is the only one we/they have to learn.
    We recently found out that we rank 27th in a 28 countries list for ability, skill and knowledge of the English language.


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    #55
    Dr Crayfish
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    Chuchote wrote: »
    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.

    Where are you getting this idea that we were so eloquent from?


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    #56
    Irish Stones
    Registered Users Posts: 2,307 ✭✭✭Irish Stones


    Dr Crayfish wrote: »
    Chuchote wrote: »
    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.

    Where are you getting this idea that we were so eloquent from?
    Blarney stone legend?


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    #57
    Chuchote
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭Chuchote


    Dr Crayfish wrote: »
    Where are you getting this idea that we were so eloquent from?

    It was a standard fact among multilinguists… As far as I remember, the research showed that Irish people had an average in-use vocabulary of 5,000 words, compared with most other anglophones' 2,000 in-use words.


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    #58
    Dr Crayfish
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    Chuchote wrote: »
    It was a standard fact among multilinguists… As far as I remember, the research showed that Irish people had an average in-use vocabulary of 5,000 words, compared with most other anglophones' 2,000 in-use words.

    Oh sorry I didn't realise it was a standard fact. They do be always lying on the internet they do be.


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    #59
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,078 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    Just leaving Irish peoples language aside for moment, there are plenty of English people who also have issues with their 1st language!

    It's now commonplace on the BBC to hear such grammar as "I am stood here ...." or "I was sat over there" We was sat in the cinema! The standard of English in England has really dropped in recent years.


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    #60
    jacksie66
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,988 ✭✭✭jacksie66


    This post has been deleted.


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    #61
    take everything
    Registered Users Posts: 9,800 ✭✭✭take everything


    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. 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.

    Yeah my French teacher reminds us that we will never sound like the real thing. Maybe close but never like a real French person. Apparently, unless you're speaking it before 7, this will be the case.


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