Should Irish be mandatory at second level?

'Twas ****, hated it really, think most people forget 99% of Irish after they leave school, besides the 'aul "Ciúnis Bothar Cailín Bainne" for the roide

Grimes wrote: »

So lets give it another 70 years of forced Irish classes and hope a couple pick it up? How exactly do you plan on revamping the language?

Forced is an emotive word. If you read my post, you'd see that I'm not against optional Irish for the leaving cert. I do however feel that it should be a core subject up until the junior cert however.

How do I plan on revamping the language? That's a good question, and allow me to answer it. But forgive first if I explain how I came to my conclusion.

Like most on this thread (and the 20 odd more pages of people who post on it) - I studied Irish all throughout school, but was left with an inability to speak Irish and a distaste for the Irish curriculum. 3 years ago, I wanted to learn the language. But I knew that I couldn't go down the class-route to learn it, as it never worked for me.

So I checked my local community for an Irish conversational group to focus on spoken Irish, as I felt that was the most important part of any language. After weeks of searching, I found none - so I started my own, and we've been going strong ever since.

In that time I learned one thing - if you want to learn the Irish language, you have to speak it - routinely. Books can only teach you so much, but they do not teach you how to use what you learn and construct it in a meaningful sentence. Nor do they prepare you for people saying things in different ways.

So what's my proposal? For the Irish classes (I believe there is still 4 a week) to be divided into two. One for grammar and such, and the other for purely spoken Irish.

Encourage activity between the students - give them a topic of conversation and allow them to discuss it. Get the teacher to provoke thought by asking questions. Have round tables between groups of 5 students, where they ask each other questions and then tell the class what they have learned about their classmates.

If I can learn the Irish language in 3 years to a reasonable level by just speaking it, then children can learn it in class also.

Irish shouldn't be mandatory, it should be a choice for people to learn if they want to. Most students will see it for what it is, a language that you will never even speak a word of outside of school. Its unfortunate but its true.

I understand the passion some people feel for the language and their efforts to keep it alive, but forcing it down peoples throats isn't going to prolong its lifespan. And the reality is that nobody outside of the designated gaeltacht areas has any need for it, its simply a redundant language in modern times.

Shouldn't be mandatory. Having it as an option will guarantee that people who are genuinely interested will take it up, and exam papers won't be dumbed down for those of us who don't bother taking the subject seriously.

You should be able to choose it along with other subjects.

I think Irish, along with maths, is taught badly in schools.

There should be more emphasis on spoken everyday Irish and less of the grammar, just the basics, which quite frankly, is an obstacle to second - level students and just bored the sh!t out of me, even though I got a B+ in LC Higher Level.

Irish is well worth learning. Have to learn any 2nd lauguage is an asset. Pity its not used more. but its worth learning.