Unlikely speakers of a language

Avatar MIA · 31-03-2018 10:57PM

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

If I recall correctly, David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party and a Loyalist paramilitary was a Gaeilgeoir.

I was wondering why his wife Linda has such a grá for it (see what I did there :pac: ) She's quite an advocate for it. Believing that Irish is their language. too.

As per thread - QEII

MightyMandarin · 31-03-2018 11:14PM

Hapax Legomenon wrote: »

Pity he didn't learn how to pronounce his own name.

Says here his mates actually called him 'Coe-lin' as a kid so he just stuck with it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/gop2000guide/powellpost.htm

Powell's parents, Jamaican immigrants and subjects of the British empire, pronounced their son's name KAH-lin. But Powell's childhood friends in the South Bronx, impressed by the heroic exploits of World War II flyer Colin P. Kelly Jr. (known as KOH-lin), altered the pronunciation and its been KOH-lin Powell ever since.

robindch · 01-04-2018 12:28AM

Walked out of my office one evening a few years back on South Anne Street, crossed the road and at the corner with Molesworth Street, saw two people in a rental car about to turn left the wrong way up Dawson Street. I waved and, luckily, they saw me and stopped and wound down the window to say, loudly and with some irritation, "Wear Kyemdyen Stryet?"

So I stepped over a little closer to the open nearside window, switched to Russian, asked for some paper and a pencil, which they produced, drew a map and generally explained how to drive to where they needed to go and where to park when they got there. When they said they were happy, they suddenly drove off without waving goodbye or saying thanks or looking surprised in the slightest.

Вот жизнь!

Canard · 01-04-2018 12:41AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Strange... I've started and restarted Spanish about a dozen times, and I just can't get my head around it enough to have decent conversations. And yet, Chinese (and the Shaanxi Dialect) I found reasonably comfortable to learn. (Still nowhere close to being fluent but getting there)

I suppose I did generalise a bit! I tend to see Chinese etc as very difficult because I’m in no way artistic, I never handwrite notes, so I’d be awful at it. But spanish has tons of verb forms which I personally have gotten used to, but it would probably be very different for others. Spanish is quite user-friendly though since it’s entirely phonetic and very logical, but maybe Chinese is logical in its own way!

JohnnyFlash · 01-04-2018 01:06AM

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

If I recall correctly, David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party and a Loyalist paramilitary was a Gaeilgeoir.

His daughter/wife still runs Irish language courses in the very heartland of loyalist Belfast. There was a documentary about it on Radio 1 recently. And some Presbyterian secondary school up there had also started giving Irish language lessons.

irishrebe · 01-04-2018 01:04PM

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Ever meet someone who you never expected to speak another language?

Back in the tiger times I was sitting in a pub in South Korea beside this English lad who as far as I could tell was as English as any other English lad I've ever met in England. I had assumed him to be the stereotypical bored expat who was begrudgingly sent over to "this sh1thole" for work. Until he started talking away to the girlie behind the bar in fluent Korean. Told me then his wife was Korean and that it rubs off

Some lad I know told me about a time he was on the bus in the Outer Hebrides and this youngfella covered with tattoos gets on, sits beside some ouldwan and starts chatting away As Gaeilge. I suppose this lad wouldn't be too unusual around those parts but here we're fairly accustomed to lads not being too fond of the Gaeilge especially if they're rebellious enough to get a load of tattoos.

I was in a pub in South Korea where I knew the bar staff well thanks to my frequent visits, sitting at the bar having a drink and waiting for my mate, when a Korean man of around 60 sat down and ordered a drink. Seeing the big foreign head on me, he asked where I was from, and I said Ireland. He casually started talking away in Irish, asking me what I was doing in Korea and what part of Ireland I was from. I was stunned speechless for a few seconds before I replied. Turns out he'd always been interested in Ireland and had taught himself the language and all, but he had never actually been there. His Irish was way better than mine.

arctictree · 01-04-2018 03:22PM

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

His daughter/wife still runs Irish language courses in the very heartland of loyalist Belfast. There was a documentary about it on Radio 1 recently. And some Presbyterian secondary school up there had also started giving Irish language lessons.

Maybe out of my depth here but loyalism does not necessarily equate to a fondness of the English or the English language. Britain is a union of 4 nations in which each nation has their own sub culture, identity etc. It is certainly possible to square that circle.

irishrebe · 01-04-2018 03:43PM

arctictree wrote: »

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

His daughter/wife still runs Irish language courses in the very heartland of loyalist Belfast. There was a documentary about it on Radio 1 recently. And some Presbyterian secondary school up there had also started giving Irish language lessons.

Maybe out of my depth here but loyalism does not necessarily equate to a fondness of the English or the English language. Britain is a union of 4 nations in which each nation has their own sub culture, identity etc. It is certainly possible to square that circle.

But it is quite unusual for Unionists in Ulster to have an interest in the Irish language. Hence why the recent(ish) upsurge of people from unionists backgrounds taking Irish classes was so newsworthy. It's considered a Nationalist thing by many. Most of the Catholic schools teach Irish but the Protestant ones don't.

Big Nasty · 01-04-2018 03:48PM

I get great enjoyment of hearing second generation immigrants, especially African or Asian kids speaking English with an Irish accent.

Stroke Politics · 01-04-2018 03:52PM

Back in the day, there was a maths lecturer in U C G who would lecture as Gaeilge. Tony Christofides(Sp?)....

Paddy Cow · 01-04-2018 04:54PM

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Got talking to a dude outside a pub who had full on Boston accent - sounded like a full on wise guy out of Goodfellas. Turns out he was German, never set foot in the US and learned to speak English by watching gangster movies. Strange character.

I was working in a B&B, checking in some Canadians and their accent was so strange because it was distinctly Irish mixed with Canadian. I actually thought they were taking the p!ss or something so I had to ask them about it. They said they were from New Foundland and it's quite a common accent over there due to the huge amount of Irish immigrants in the past.

byhookorbycrook · 01-04-2018 05:15PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I was sitting in a pub in Daingean Uí Chúis years ago and got talking to this guy who had the most gorgeous Irish. When I put a question to a friend from Ard na Caithne about him she told me he was an American who was a bit of a 'fear ardéirime" who came to Corca Dhuibhne in the 1980s when he was a student in Cornell University and never went home.

Is é seo an fear atá i gceist.

Pósta le gaol m'fhear céile.

Ken. · 01-04-2018 05:18PM

Anyone mentioned Trump and English yet.

Mountainsandh · 01-04-2018 05:28PM

Not so much surprising as she's so smart, but Jodie Foster has quasi-native French, it's always a bit unsettling to listen to her in interviews over there. She went to school in France for a while too I think.
(am French, so it's the same as people hearing Irish spoken by some foreigner, sort of)

Varik · 01-04-2018 05:33PM

Japanese Empress speaks Irish.

Mountainsandh · 01-04-2018 05:33PM

Paddy Cow wrote: »

I was working in a B&B, checking in some Canadians and their accent was so strange because it was distinctly Irish mixed with Canadian. I actually thought they were taking the p!ss or something so I had to ask them about it. They said they were from New Foundland and it's quite a common accent over there due to the huge amount of Irish immigrants in the past.

Yeah Mr M has travelled there a few times, and we have friends who come over once in a while , St Johns and many areas over there have a distinctly Irish heritage, and the older folks often have a striking Waterford accent. One of our friends in question still has a good hint of it, although he's of the younger generation.
This is Graham (a Newfie), the singer, judge for yourself

https://youtu.be/YkHKnL3GJp4
https://youtu.be/YJv94-bqMvQ

iomusicdublin · 01-04-2018 06:38PM

I had a friend years ago from Leeds / Hull area, very strong northern accent. We were abroad and a group of Germans came in and he started speaking fluent German. He had moved to Germany aged 8 for 7 years (father was UK military). The Germans said he spoke flawless German with a very posh accent from Münster.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 01-04-2018 07:09PM

There's a Japanese salsa band who perform entirely in Spanish. To hear them perform, you would assume they were Latin American.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32p0h8wNOtk

thomil · 01-04-2018 07:33PM

Bit of a long one, but I have to get into the background a bit.
I used to work as an armed guard for a private security company that had been contracted to guard US Army installations in Germany. Ironically I was also one of the few guards at my post who were reasonably proficient in English. Anyway, one day, security at the garrison I was working at had been tightened significantly, with no reason given, as usual, and we had to search EVERY vehicle that wanted to come on base. As luck would have it, it was exactly on that day when one of our tenant units returned from one of the German training ranges, I think Grafenwöhr, but I'm not sure. Tailbacks were already impressive, and when you add a forty vehicle army convoy, it quickly became mayhem.

My colleagues were working feverishly to get those vehicles processed as quickly as possible, when the hatch of the command vehicle of the convoy suddenly flew open. Out came the most massive soldier I have ever seen, in full combat gear, built like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, and with the skin colour and facial expression of a VERY pissed off Samuel L. Jackson. He came stomping towards us, and started chewing us out in Bavarian German, with the thickest Bavarian accent I have EVER heard. Mind you, I'm half Austrian, so I'm more than familiar with some of the "alpine" dialects, but he was something special.
Turns out he had been raised in Bad Tölz, a town in Bavaria that until a few years ago housed a sizeable US Army garrison, right at the edge of the Alps, and had not only picked up German, but the local dialect as well.

Patrick_Swayze · 01-04-2018 07:46PM

Was on a school trip in Croatia about 10 years ago now, Dubrovnik to be exact. Was walking through the streets and next thing some croatia guy just stops us and starts speaking irish and inviting us to see his pub. Went inside to see a load of hurls signed by DJ Carey and other jerseys. Said he went to Connemara to learn irish when he was here for 2 years. Apparently was his dream to get drunk in every county in Ireand which led to him staying longer

irishrebe · 01-04-2018 07:52PM

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

There's a Japanese salsa band who perform entirely in Spanish. To hear them perform, you would assume they were Latin American.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32p0h8wNOtk

She has a very obvious accent, especially at the beginning. Cool concept though.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 01-04-2018 08:03PM

irishrebe wrote: »

She has a very obvious accent, especially at the beginning. Cool concept though.

Depends on the song. I've played them to Colombians before and they couldn't tell.

feargale · 01-04-2018 11:16PM

I met a Polish visitor in the Galway Gaeltacht and I reckon he had better Irish than any of the locals, and very precise Irish.
On Radio Eireann years ago I heard a woman living in the Pampas in Argentina who had never been to Buenos Aires and had never been abroad. If I hadn't known I would have said she was from Westmeath.
I met a man in Buenos Aires and when I heard his accent I told him it was not from Westmeath but further north. He said his parents were from Ardee Co. Louth.

Avatar MIA · 02-04-2018 07:36AM

Apparently there's surprise at English being spoken here...

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/nobody-speaks-irish-there-nobody-seems-embarrassed-about-it-tourists-slam-gaeltacht-status-of-town-36753669.html

Shenshen · 02-04-2018 09:23AM

Wibbs wrote: »

An ex of mine from many moons ago who spoke latin.

That's not an unlikely speaker of a language, that's just a language unlikely to be spoken

ted1 · 02-04-2018 11:10AM

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Most of the Cuala team that won the all Ireland have fluent Irish. Most went to the same Gael Scoil and then to the same GaelColaiste

garbo speaks · 02-04-2018 11:14AM

My girlfriend is able to speak shyte fluently.

OldMrBrennan83 · 02-04-2018 11:16AM

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Avatar MIA · 02-04-2018 11:30AM

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

A lot of elite schools around the country are Gaelscoil, so you'll hear a lot more of it.

irishrebe · 02-04-2018 11:52AM

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yeah they would have been the main ones I'd have been thinking of too, would never expect any DL-R heads out of anyone to be able to speak it. Stupid thinking really, I just remember being surprised when I heard it.[/quote]
I remember being on a red line Luas years ago and two college aged lads sitting down were speaking Irish to each other. Two other lads similar to the one you described in your story got on and stood near me and one of them immediately started shooting dirty looks at the two sitting down and mumbling to the other one about fcuking foreigners and would their ever fcuk off with their stupid foreign languages and other insults. Very amusing for those of us in earshot.

Unlikely speakers of a language

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