An Seomra Dorcha

challengemaster wrote: »

Ciúnas bóthar cailín bainne

I was going to do that but I didn't have the guts

D'fhreastal mé ar scoil lán Ghaelach.

Níl taithí agam, mar sin, ar caighdeán múineadh i scoileanna eile, ach cloisim scéalta uafásacha faoi easpa béim ar an teanga labharta. Ní thuigim sin. Munar féidir leat an teanga a labhairt, conas ar féidir leat aistí a scríobh faoi litríocht?

I don't hate Irish at all, I'd love to be fluent, but I have a few problems with the way it's presented within the society. Firstly, and most importantly, the way it's taught is atrocious. It's a language which works much better spoken than written, but all the emphaisis is on the written element. Irish should be spoken throughout the Irish class (in fairness, the way languages in general are taught in this country is awful), with more of a focus on conversation and craic rather than on poets and writers who are (I'm sorry) absolutely woefully uninteresting for the most part.

Secondly, and I'm not trying to be annoying, Gaelgóirs don't help their own cause. There's a bit of an elitist "oh my goodness why can't you speak Irish, why aren't you learning it right now, why wouldn't you want to speak it?" kind of a vibe, and two fluent Irish speakers in a room of non-Irish speakers will, for some reason start talking to each other in Irish once they discover they both can, even if it's not their first language, which is very show-offy.

Thirdly, the language and its image needs to be modernised. It is, in many people's minds, linked with the Gaeltachts, which, beautiful though they are, are generally in the middle of no-where with few facilities and an older population. It's also, inevitably, tied in with nationalism, and given the national lack of self confidence (the image of ourselves which we most frequently project abroad is "Yes, we may be ugly but at least we're drunk!", or we only identify ourselves within the context of the conflict with Britain-watch any Irish comedian,they'll go on about one or both of those things), I'd say a lot of people are uncomfortable with that. The trendy-uncle efforts of the government (i.e seachtain na gaeilge) to try and do this are chronically out of touch wit da kidz.

That's all I got for the moment like I said though, I genuinely wish I was fluent in the language.

Piste wrote: »

Well isn't it lucky for this thread that one of the mods is a Gaelgóir

Yup.

Grammatical error = infraction tbh.

sofa kingcool wrote: »

Tá sé an leadránach, gan mhaith AGUS marbh.

sí

Ná labhair faoi chailín deas mar sin.