Why don't you speak Irish?

Stark · 30-01-2013 05:16PM

Because people speak English in this country. Teaching kids French in school isn't going to turn Ireland into a nation of French-speakers, don't know why they think that's what will happen by teaching Irish.

confuseddotcom · 30-01-2013 05:24PM

Is there an option for - having no-one to speak it with.....

Tá scamaill sa spéir.

4zn76tysfajdxp · 30-01-2013 05:33PM

Leftist wrote: »

it's a pointless dead language.

It's not dead... Dying, maybe. Not dead though.

OCorcrainn · 30-01-2013 05:39PM

Judging by some of the narrow-minded comments about our language on this thread I guess that Frank isn't the only plank here.

Iwasfrozen · 30-01-2013 05:40PM

OCorcrainn wrote: »

Judging by some of the narrow-minded comments about our language on this thread I guess that Frank isn't the only plank here.

Not our, yours.

OCorcrainn · 30-01-2013 05:44PM

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Not our, yours.

So you speak for everyone then? Last time I saw it was the official language of Ireland, so yes, it is our language.

Iwasfrozen · 30-01-2013 05:45PM

OCorcrainn wrote: »

So you speak for everyone then? Last time I saw it was the official language of Ireland, so yes, it is our language.

I don't claim to speak for everyone here, you do when you say our language. And it's one official language.

OCorcrainn · 30-01-2013 05:47PM

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

And it's one official language.

One of two, the other being english. I am impressed with your knowledge of Bunreacht na hÉireann. :pac:

Wattle · 30-01-2013 05:51PM

OCorcrainn wrote: »

So you speak for everyone then? Last time I saw it was the official language of Ireland, so yes, it is our language.

Judging by some of the Gaelgoirs that come out of the woodwork for these kind of threads (see above) I'm glad I have no part in it.

seamus · 30-01-2013 05:54PM

Lelantos wrote: »

It's just peoples attitude to the language, if an American comedian can pick it up in 6 months or so the rest of us should be able to do it within 6 years. It's easy to blame teachers, curriculum, the language itself, but not so easy to blame ourselves

Yes, damn those 10 year old children for not putting effort into a subject they hate and learning a language that's not used outside of the classroom.

Des Bishop learned the language in six months because he's an adult with a goal - to learn Irish. Children are taught Irish with no end goal and no reinforcement, so they don't give a **** about it.

You're right though - if Des can learn Irish in six months, then it can be taught to kids in 6 years. You just have to teach it properly and back it up with regular usage.

There's a universal rule with all languages, whether they're used for communicating with people are programming computers - use them or lose them. People even lose ability and vocabulary in their native tongue if they go significant periods without using it.

OCorcrainn · 30-01-2013 05:59PM

Wattle wrote: »

Judging by some of the Gaelgoirs that come out of the woodwork for these kind of threads (see above) I'm glad I have no part in it.

Judging by some of the non-Gaelgoirs that come out of the woodwork for these kind of threads (see above) I'm glad the majority of people still want it taught in schools and protected by our constitution.

Article 8
1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.

The national language, it is not just an official language.

Article 8
2.The English language is recognised as a second official language.

By the constitution the Irish language is YOUR and MY national language.

If people like you have a problem with that raise it with the Consitutional Convention, otherwise everything you say here is just hotair.

who the fug · 30-01-2013 06:01PM

emeraldstar wrote: »

Because I don't live in the Gaeltacht so there's no one to speak it to :rolleyes:

The inspector what comes round checking your grant money

Wattle · 30-01-2013 06:01PM

I rest my case.

Lord TSC · 30-01-2013 06:03PM

Oh, we've reached the constitution stage already, have we?

Usually we hit "obligatory vs optional" first, then have a few "West Brit" comments in as well before we start debating the relevance of the constitution.

OCorcrainn · 30-01-2013 06:03PM

Wattle wrote: »

I rest my case.

I am glad you are finished with your bland statements and generalizations, please run along now.

G.K. · 30-01-2013 06:05PM

I'm not Irish and have never been to Ireland.

who the fug · 30-01-2013 06:06PM

G.K. wrote: »

I'm not Irish and have never been to Ireland.

The good news and bad news post

OCorcrainn · 30-01-2013 06:09PM

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

Oh, we've reached the constitution stage already, have we?

Usually we hit "obligatory vs optional" first, then have a few "West Brit" comments in as well before we start debating the relevance of the constitution.

Those comments undermine the integrity and whatever argument a proponent of the Irish language has, much like comments such "GAA Head, RA head, muck-savage, country bumpkin, bogger" that a lot of opponents of the Irish language use.

mike65 · 30-01-2013 06:10PM

Its not much use in Lidl

syntax1 · 30-01-2013 06:10PM

I speak it - badly....

I am the everlasting learner. I get some passive exposure to the language through reading Beo and listening to RnaG every so often but my production abilities suck. I live abroad so never get to speak the language. In 2011 I got to speak Irish for 4 minutes. In 2012 I did two interviews with RnaG (25 or so minutes in total), plus I meet some Irish speakers from Galway in Germany. I got to speak (listen more so!) for about two hours. Before 2011, the last time I spoke Irish was during a weekend in the Gaeltacht in 2005.

I badly want to be fluent and to raise my children in Irish (as one of their three native languages, which will include English) but so little use over such a long time period means my Irish is worse today that when I sat my leaving nearly a decade ago! And not from lack of desire! (I have a bookshelf full of novels, comics, children's books, magazines, textbooks and grammar books in Irish and as I said above I live abroad).

Wattle · 30-01-2013 06:11PM

OCorcrainn wrote: »

I am glad you are finished with your bland statements and generalizations, please run along now.

No problem I spent enough time with joyless old f*ks like you in school. Good luck with your obscure language there.

dr.bollocko · 30-01-2013 06:17PM

mod:

Wattle banned.

O Corcrainn: Don't post in this thread again please.

enda1 · 30-01-2013 06:26PM

I don't speak it because I don't know it.

The primary purpose of language is to communicate. I communicate effectively through English and anyone who speaks Irish can speak English, so I'll speak English with them. For the few who's English is worse than my French, I will speak to them in French, but other than them, it's English all the way.

Irish is dead. It's time to bury it and stop throwing money at its festering corpse.

RayCon · 30-01-2013 06:31PM

Wait a minute .... you mean in school there was more to it than just learning how to ask to go to the toilet ?

68 lost souls · 30-01-2013 06:41PM

I regularly have conversations in Irish with friends and family. I am proud to be able to speak it but agree that the way that it is taught in schools is awful and needs to be looked at. I also speak French and Spanish and think that Irish should be taught as a foreign language in schools, first it would not exclude non Iirsh form the learning in schools and also people would be better at it and less bored by the literature end etc.

When I was in school my teacher tried to make us all learn off essays instead of learning the language and a lot of people were put off by the literature. In a year of over 120 suends only 8 of us did honors and most learned off the essays, I fought the teacher on this and wanted to learn how to write an essay myself. We also took way too long to do the literature and it took up too much time.

If there was one course for literature for native or fluent speakers and a second as a second language I think it would grow in popularity.

wolfpawnat · 30-01-2013 06:48PM

I use it as much as I can and my kid (who is four next month) has the cúpla focal as well. But I teach it to him via TG4 with his favourite programmes (He prefers Dora as Gaeilge) and I ask him to get the bainne and the uisce when we're shopping. I make it part of his every day life. School doesn't teach Irish in a way kids want to learn it, my son sees it as fun, I worry will he lose his love for learning it in the Irish school system tbh.

neil_hosey · 30-01-2013 06:57PM

for the 31 poor souls who were "forced" to learn it for 12 years.. do you hold geography, physics, or say even religious studies for example in such distain for your lack of ability to be able to recite certain psalms from the bible...

give me a break. It was taught badly yes, but its feckin hilarious when people say they hate the language because they couldn't pick it up or happened to have had a bad teacher. I struggled in school with it for the above reasons, but now that im a grown up! i can see the cultural and general importance of keeping a language like irish alive.

68 lost souls · 30-01-2013 06:59PM

I think if they are raised to enjoy it from the start he should be ok. I enjoyed Irish from a young age and that was one reason I wasnt put off later on when the rest of my year was. I speak it when I can with my nieces and nephews (they range from 1 to 7) and they enjoy singing songs in Irish or showing me when they learn new things like how to count or the names of the animals that they have on their toy farm.

An Coilean · 30-01-2013 07:09PM

seamus wrote: »

Yes, damn those 10 year old children for not putting effort into a subject they hate and learning a language that's not used outside of the classroom.

Des Bishop learned the language in six months because he's an adult with a goal - to learn Irish. Children are taught Irish with no end goal and no reinforcement, so they don't give a **** about it.

You're right though - if Des can learn Irish in six months, then it can be taught to kids in 6 years. You just have to teach it properly and back it up with regular usage.

There's a universal rule with all languages, whether they're used for communicating with people are programming computers - use them or lose them. People even lose ability and vocabulary in their native tongue if they go significant periods without using it.

Well, actually that does'nt really follow.
Des learnt some Irish over that six months, he was not fluent by the end of it (He has become fluent since).
Also, for that six months he was attending an all Irish school in a Gaeltacht, living with an Irish speaking family, and actively participating in activities through Irish outside of school time.
Put any student in similar circumstances and they will learn Irish easily, but that does not mean that they should be able to learn Irish even over several years in an English medium school where their only contact with the language is in class. No matter how good the teaching in the class is.

LordSutch · 30-01-2013 07:31PM

Judgement Day wrote: »

Agree that the poll should have been multiple choice as I could have ticked a number of reasons. I suppose my primary one would be that I'm a Prod so it's not part of my culture and consequently of no interest. I also find the constant preaching that's 'it's part of who we are' really insulting. I only had the misfortune of being taught Irish for a couple of years at secondary school but I hated it. These days I greatly resent the amount of time my children waste learning it at their primary school but what can you do. Anyway, in answer to the thread title - I can't - apart from a few words like Nuacht and choice phrases such as "Chucky ar lar/Tiocfaidh ár lá" !

Ditto.

Why don't you speak Irish?

Comments