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Unlikely speakers of a language

Ubbquittious

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.

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[Deleted User]

maudgonner wrote: »

Yu Ming!

OK, he may not be real. I do know an Australian girl who speaks fluent Irish though.

I'm only surmising as I don't know the creator of Yu Ming is Ainm Dom, but I'd be very surprised if the idea for the film didn't come from a real experience, given this very memorable (for me, anyway) letter from Hong Kong, published in The Irish Times on Thursday 17 July 1997. I had to delve deep into the archives to find it again. The similarities are striking, except for in the film Yu Ming is working in a shop in Hong Kong rather than as a police officer there.

Edgarfrndly

Ubbquittious wrote: »

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.

Was probably Scottish Gaelic. The outer hebrides is like Scotland's gaeltacht. A friend of mine is from the isle of Barra and he speaks Gaelic as his first language.

Edgarfrndly

Also - a friend of mine from online spoke Irish fluently before she ever step foot on Irish soil. She's from Brazil and now lives in the gaeltacht with my other friend who's now her husband.

[Deleted User]

feargale wrote: »

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.

Then there's Victor on Raidió an Gaeltachta on a morning, RnaG's Russian correspondent giving all his reports in the Irish with a lovely Russian accent.

On the following page press 'ctrl' and 'f' and type in 'Victor' to hear one of his reports: Victor Bajda

Actually RnaG is class in that it has Irish speakers giving reports from all over the world. Dutchman Alex Hijmans is another with a native-like proficiency in the Irish; he has reported and published in it for years.

And google Panu Petteri Höglund from Finland. I've seen him justify sayings and synthetic structures in Irish with native speakers of Irish by referencing their use in Irish literature at different periods of history. A thoroughly impressive man.

And check out the Czech Michal Boleslav Měchura, a man whose talent has made an enormous contribution to digitalising resources as Gaeilge online.

There are loads more people like this deeply involved in the Irish language- check out the American in Mayo, Michael Emerson, and of course the Englishman Nicholas Williams, who needs no introduction.

feargale

Avatar MIA wrote: »

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

I haven't been in Dingle for years, but I had a passing acquaintance with it in the nineties, and while English was undoubtedly the dominant language then, there was a good deal of Irish to be heard from young and old.