Why can nobody speak Irish?

No. I say most of us forget unless we speak it often. I've forgotten some of it but I remember the basic Irish alright but rarely use it.

An Coilean wrote: »

Sorry, unless you'v just come out of a coma, I don't believe you.

That's up to you then, think I'd know myself what I'd know and don't know... :rolleyes:

An Coilean wrote: »

So you've never heard of the Dáil, or the Gardaí?
You must have gone through great lenghts to avoid watching the news or reading any Irish newspapers over the last 15 years, the Taoiseach gets mentioned often enough, but you don't know that word, do you?

You probally don't go to the toilet outside of your own home either because if you did you would have probably run accross 'Fir' and 'Mna' along the way.

Getting around the country must have been very dificult without looking at any road signs too, or perhaps you suffer some kind of rare selective blindness?

There are hundreds of Irish words that you simply can not avoid in daily life in Ireland. To claim not to know ANY Irish word after living in Ireland for 15 years + is simply false.
The claim to not know any

Well, if you put it that way - yeah sure. But those are used in everyday life and integrated with English, be it in the news or whatever.

Anything else I'd come out with a complete blank. :pac:

shane9689 wrote: »

europeans are **** at english too, youre just meeting the young ones in big tourist cities...or the ones that come here for the sole reason of learning english..most of them arent really that great at it, i learnt this while learning their languages

You've obviously never been to Scandanavia or the Benelux countries. That said, it's only the younger generations that actually studied it at school in the other countires.

Comparing Europeans speakign English with the Irish speakign Irish is a dead argument.

1 - They are learnign a second langauge for practical usage, we are not.
2 - They only start learning a second language at the age of 10, we do not.
3 - The countries that have the highest profiuciency in Englush are the ones where the popular media is in the second langauge and is subtitled and not dubbed. This, more so than education, is the overriding factor.

BognarRegis wrote: »

Are they allowed a choice? That could be another reason why it works so well.

English compulsory in Sweden , didn't look up other Scandinavian schools, so that's that theory. standard of English is excellent in Scandinavia.

seems so in Norway too, possibly not in Finland- hard to locate exact information.

BognarRegis wrote: »

Are they allowed a choice? That could be another reason why it works so well.

Don't think so, but it would make no difference - there's be pretty much 100% taking it.

KIDS know its of no practical,use ,in normal life ,unless you need to be a teacher.
When i was going to school, the irish books were, miserable, eg peig,
all about country people, in the 18th century, eg miserable reading.
eg nothing to do with modern life.
it was like an irish speaker was a sad person ,who went to church,farmed
and died of starvation in the famine or emigrated.
there were no realistic people in those books.
I liked all the english books .
ITs like spending 5 years learning how to read latin,
of little use to 95 per cent of students.
Unless you need 400 plus points in college ,the exam result won,t matter.
AT least if you learn french, german it may help you to work in the eu.

i think irish is like being a true catholic ,
less than 10 per cent of the population speak it ,
less than 10 per cent of irish people go to church every week,
and follow all catholic teaching.
Like most people dont follow the rules of the church eg they use contraception etc
most people do,nt go to mass every week.
i don,t see too many women having 6 kids nowadays.

EG they are catholics ,when they want to get their child into a school.
or maybe get married in a nice church.

OF course theres always people who say,
i speak irish every day,good for you.

i might like playing the violin ,

I,M NOT asking the government to spend billions and teach every child the violin or classical music for 10 years.
MAKE it a voluntary subject, and say give an extra 50 per cent points for learning it.

This country is in the middle of a financial crisis,
at least this is chance to change the system.and reform schools .

OF course we also spend millions every year translating documents ,
from english to irish,
god forbid we might spend it on nurses, teaching special needs assistants or improving the
environment.

KIDS turn on tv, radio , almost everything is in english .
WHY SHOULD THEY have any interest in speaking irish ?
STUDENTS know unless you live in the gealtacht ,
or work in the media , its of no practical value.

And i think its totally not cool,
you can,t force young people to like something.

ONCE something goes out of fashion ,its very hard to bring it back.
its like poetry ,its good, but it has a limited appeal in 2013.

How many kids these days sit down and write poems?

Mr. G wrote: »

At LC level, I think Irish should not be a cumpulsory exam, because some find languages incredably difficult (me included).

I completely agree. I think Irish on roadsigns should be kept. Its part of our culture and its no harm either

'LANA BUS' is really helpful, I'm sure glad they spent good money placing it beside the ludicrously cryptic 'BUS LANE'.

FOR leaving cert no language should be compulsory,
if you are gonna study to be a programmer ,chemist, engineer ,
learning french or irish is of little use to you.
LOOK at countrys like japan, south korea,
They would not think of spending billions teaching a language with little economic of practical value.
i SEE no harm in irish signs as long as there,s an english translation avaidable where its necessary .
we can,t expect tourists to understand all irish signs.
I,D be more annoyed by ridiculous cliched estate names lakeview etc where theres no lake in sight.
I think at the moment we spend about 3 per cent of our total budget ,
on teaching irish ,at at time when we are cutting healthcare,and basic services .

riclad wrote: »

FOR leaving cert no language should be compulsory,
if you are gonna study to be a programmer ,chemist, engineer ,
learning french or irish is of little use to you.

you might get a job as an engineer or chemist in france! you could end up doing graphics design and numerous other things for TG4.

many 17 year olds think they'll be one thing and end up doing another, not wise to close off options.

i never used algebra or Pythagoras after school either, didn't kill me to know it though.

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

having anything as compulsory closes off options going on that logic, can we boot maths and english too?

They have practical every days uses, Irish has none. It's the most useless subject in the LC.

For the LC, compulsory subjects should be maths, english, one EU language and at least one science subject. The rest up to the student.