Best way to learn Irish

upinsmoke wrote: »

Should be stop been thought after primary school and be swapped with an IT class.

Top work with the help for the OP there.

I think the department of education decided a long time ago that the best way was to get an angry drunk fella to shout a cupla focal at ye in an aggressive manner then tell ye what it meant in English but with an accent you can’t understand.

Just head down to any secondary school man.

Most of us did Irish classes every school day for 15 or so years. Aren't we all totally fluent

I worked for a large multinational where speaking anything other than English was forbidden by the management because the perception was that some foreign natives in the workplace were communicating secret intentions about another employee in their vicinity and they did not want that employee to know what their intentions were.

Some nationalities can be worse at this than others and it can be intimidating to be a third party to a discussion taking place among two other employees, for example at a meeting, when you do not know their language, as most Irish wouldn't know foreign languages especially the more obscure ones.

I have seen foreign speakers being told "In English Please" when they would hold such conversations among others of their nationality present at the meeting.

I also remember having difficulty understanding some people and colleagues and being very self conscious and fearful of asking them to repeat their requests or clarify their requirements until I was told I was not to blame as English was the only language to be used in our company and it was up to them to become or be proficient in English. It was not up to me to try and decipher unintelligible gibberish especially if the non native speaker was in a position of superior authority to me such as an engineer or inspector or auditor.
I was at risk of failing many inspections and questionings until I learned to complain about the manner and poor standard of English among some non native employees.

I have been told that many Irish nurses experience similar problems dealing with non native English speaking colleagues and Doctors and have to fight their corner when misunderstandings and mistakes happen due to poor levels of spoken English among some non native speakers. Written instructions are often insisted upon now to protect the professional integrity of the individual nurses conduct and working performance while they are on duty. Medication changes, for example, all have to be written down and are no longer taken verbally as would have happened in the distant past.

As a social construct, language has been used in our past as a weapon to keep certain classes apart and to oppress non conforming elements in a given society. We first had the ascendancy of English over Irish when the speaking of Irish was subject to sanction and severe corporal punishment in our National Schools since their formation by the English ruling class in 1833.

On Independence and gaining self rule the tables were turned.

Monoglot English speakers were treated like dirt and punished severely by fanatical Irish speaking teachers who did not realise the level of difficulty in learning Irish and assumed that the English speaking pupils were being difficult and awkward about acquiring for what to them was a completely alien language. It is my opinion that the desire to learn Irish is not strong enough in a significant number of people to be successful. Compulsory Irish is resented by many people as a waste of precious and scarce educational resources and seen as a handicap by others who compare our educational performances to other English Speaking countries.

However countries such as Canada have to accommodate French in their education systems and the US increasingly looks to proficiency in Spanish, especially among most aspiring public officials and functionaries dealing with all sectors of their countries. Ireland is not unique in requiring a second language in their Educational systems. I don't believe that Irish language instruction "handicaps" Irish students in any way because competing countries have their own cultural material to learn and get through in their respective education systems. These things tend to balance out.

Two of my nephews had exemptions from Irish due to spending their formative years in the UK. However they had to learn and pass French in order to gain access to university places because of the strict requirement to have a second language pass in the Leaving for university matriculation. Knowledge and a pass in LC Irish can be used to satisfy this second language requirement and is compulsory for gaining entrance to the National University or Ireland for those not possessing the Irish language exemption. It meant that the lads HAD to pass French, at which they were relatively weak, there being no backup for them in the form of Irish.

Regarding TG4, I find their level of public broadcasting and quality to be very good compared to RTE 1 and 2. Many intelligent programs are broadcast on this channel, far superior to the lowest common denominator stuff that appears on RTE 1 and 2. I like to think they use their erudite and eclectic programmes as bait to get people to take an interest in Irish, even if only at a superficial level. For me the tactic works.