Time to dump Irish

Bobtheman

I see it's in the news again. Various groups giving out about the curriculum

Im sure it's justified their complaints but I think it's time to realise that after 100 years we have failed to revive the language despite it being mandatory in school.

Someone could land in Ireland and spend a year here and not hear a word of it spoken.

It's mainly a make work scheme for people with Irish degrees.

I think after primary level it should be totally voluntary. Give extra points for LC etc but otherwise make it voluntary with a reformed curriculum.

Yes I know there are people who genuinely love and speak the language for a couple of hours a day but you are under 2% of the population.

The people have spoken and it's English.

sniperman

yes dump it,except for the irish news i dont ever hear it,anyone that goes on holiday abroad for the first time,youll almost always hear the term,..hi do you speak English,,never, hi do you speak irish

TheRiverman

I have always hated Irish since those awful school days back in the 1960's and early 1970's when teachers tried to beat it into me, especially in Secondary School where I had a fanatical Irish teacher priest. It was hell.

I find it so ridiculous watching and listening to Sport in particular on TG4 pundits/ co commentators putting in english words particularly " you know" when commenting and repeating the same few Irish phrases multiple times.

It should be scrapped.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058290281/time-to-dump-irish

And what would you put in its place? When it comes to learning a foreign language, the big difference I see between Irish people and people from the UK/USA, is that they don't have to spent ages trying to learn English grammar before you can explain German grammar them in my case. I'd only agree if you replace it with an EU language.

sprucemoose

make it non-mandatory in second-level or at least structure it so it is more similar to how french etc, are thought, with more of an emphasis on the actual 'language' so-to-speak and less of an emphasis on 'literature' - thats an overly simplistic description but you get what i mean. it makes no sense to me that there is poetry etc takes up such a large amount of the curriculum when id imagine the general understanding of the mechanics of the language are fairly poor

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058290281/time-to-dump-irish

There shouldn't be any extra points for it in the LC, nor should it be mandatory at primary level either.

If people want to learn it, they should do so on a voluntary level...full stop. But at this point it's a practically useless language and one that's spoken on a pigeon level by most of its practitioners. We need to stop inflicting it on kids who will end up having no real world use for it after they leave school.

redlough

Why would we dump our language? Irish schools are on a massive revival with spots ag a premium and the education model is finally a model which means young people can pick up Irish easily

Saying someone could land and not hear Irish is true but that’s a bad reflection on the Irish people and also the education system which has failed the people.

But from what I can see that has chnaged and now is the ideal time to double down on Irish and not remove it at all

English 🤣 we would be better off learning German or French with the UK now running a solo trip and the relationships our children will have to build will be in mainland Europe

Bobtheman

No real argument above

FoxForce5

Immigrant kids and additional needs are probably less likely to end up in Irish speaking schools I would hypothesise.

Flinty997

I do think Irish is part of our culture and history.

But it's taught so badly with so little support for students who struggle. I think it's time to put it out if it's misery in schools. It's torture for kids.

Some sort of critical thinking / philosophy / even home ec lessons would be more pertinent than Irish.

Glaceon

I'd be delighted to see it made optional and less of an emphasis put on it. It should be taught more like other languages. Focus more on the fundamentals of how to speak the language rather than assuming everyone is fluent by second level and piling on poetry and prose.

I had an awful experience with Irish at school to the extent that I ended up resenting the language. In the area where I grew up the schools didn't really bother with it too much. In fact, in one year in primary school the teacher only had a couple of Irish lessons with us that entire school year. I then moved to an area where they took it much more seriously and my lack of Irish often brought me into conflict with the teacher. Then in secondary school I had an Irish teacher who spent much of the class just roaring at students, including me. So when I think of Irish now I associate it with authoritarianism and aggression.

redlough

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120417443#Comment_120417443

It is totally different now to what I was taught in school.....no more sitting getting it hammered into you..

Also if you pick up Irish you will find it easier to pick up German and languages like that.

Dr Turk Turkelton

Seen a clip recently of that Xiamoi guy who learns a language in a couple of days and goes to the country and speaks to the people.

He landed in Dublin and about all he got was a pog mo thoin and fu(k of back to America.

It needs to start being taught at a conversational level in primary school and then leave it as an optional subject for secondary school.

edit; here's the clip.

http://youtu.be/u6sOPMwSh78

dory

Here for my annual "Teachers have been begging for years for the government to take literature out of the curriculum and just do spoken Irish" post.

Government won't listen. Too many people whose family members write Irish novels / poems make decisions in the department of Ed / NCCA.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120417624#Comment_120417624

If the teachers make no effort its doomed.

SuperBowserWorld

Dumping our language, culture and history ... because we can't teach it properly. Too busy watching influencers and pulling up property ladders to care about anything else.

A couple of years in a Gaelscoil and kids would be pretty fluent in Irish.

It's not rocket science.

tayto lover

I'm 70 and i'm learning Irish at the minute. I think we should keep our language and be proud of it. I struggled with it in school but the beatings then didn't help. I'm over them now and i'm learning it from my grandkids Irish school books and i'm enjoying it but find the tenses and the pronouns fairly difficult.

SuperBowserWorld

I think it won't be very long until a ChatGPT / Duo Lingo like system will create personalised, always available, language tutors/companions.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120417561#Comment_120417561

German is a Germanic language, like English, and you have more of a chance of picking up German if you're an English speaker. Learning Irish will do bugger all for you in that regard.

endacl

Somebody should definitely start a thread on this…

cbreeze

Where I went to school we had Irish first thing in the morning every xxxking day. I hated it so much that I always volunteered to do the flowers on the altar on our corridor to dodge at least half the class. When I could not find enough wild flowers in the ditches to fill the vases I used to rob the flowers from the graves in the local churchyard to do the job. Not very nice I admit, but saved my sanity!

.Donegal.

I could speak more conversational German after 1 year than I could Irish after 9 years by that point. Why they never overhauled the way they teach it is beyond me. My niece goes to a G.S and is practically fluent.

French Toast

It'll never be dumped. The government who makes it optional will be driving a sizeable nail in it's coffin and they don't want that on their CV.

Instead they'll hack away at reforming the curriculum. As long as there's literature involved it's going to be painful for students.

Beechwoodspark

We would be better off dumping some of the more niche foreign languages off the curriculum and spending more resources on the Irish language.

Get all the new Irish to learn it fluently, then teach the older generations.

Bobtheman

I think the General consensus seems to be in language circles that if you just do conversational Irish you are finishing it off. It would be a death knell.

From international experience.

We have had a 100 years. Time to mark the official time of death

Let your Gael scoils flourish. People will still want to study it but forcing it on people is unfair.

If the language ever revives it will be in spite of official intervention.

It's most successful period was before we made it the official language

AerLingus747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120417873#Comment_120417873

I got stuck in a few Gaelteach's fixing storm damage over the years... I used Google translate to refresh some basic phrases with the Gaeilgeoirs. Got a few doors slammed in my face too until I made the effort :-D

Literally the only time I have ever had to use Irish.

Furze99

Good luck with this agenda OP! Two many sacred cows and vocal vested interests.

As the GAA like to tell us 'It's part of what we are' - Whether you like it or not, so suck it up!

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

As this is in the Teaching and Lecturing forum, are there any teachers (primary or secondary) who have more direct inputs and viewpoints into this? Other that the banal "it's our langauge..." rubbish

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120418532#Comment_120418532

If people want to preserve and encourage a rich part of our heritage and culture why wouldn't they be vested in that? Why is that a bad thing?

Sure they have gotten many things wrong but trying to revive a language that was wiped out by design and neglected doesn't have many handbooks.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120418635#Comment_120418635

Allow the students who want to learn it the facility to do so, and leave those who have zero interest in it alone.

Most people will think that's fair enough, but it is unacceptable to language lobby groups.