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The role and usefulness of Irish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| boon Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6163 days ago 91 posts - 177 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Mandarin, Latin | Message 17 of 162 30 March 2010 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's partly it. On the other hand many natives learned English to "get ahead" in society. If you only spoke Irish you couldn't get too far. This link seems to have all the info we need! http://www.gaeilge.org/irish.html Edited by boon on 30 March 2010 at 10:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6015 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 18 of 162 30 March 2010 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
Not only that, speaking Irish at all was a sign of poor education and lack of sophistication. I was once told of an Irish-language writer who was visiting another Irish town and was mocked for speaking a "peasant" tongue. His response: "did I come here as a pedestrian or an equestrian?" The other was confused. "Sir, do not mock me for speaking two languages when you cannot even speak one!" 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| JS-1 Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5987 days ago 144 posts - 166 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), German, Japanese, Ancient Egyptian, Arabic (Written) | Message 19 of 162 31 March 2010 at 6:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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Answering the original post:
How well do you speak it and when do you use it? I never speak it. I know some native speakers, but my level of Irish is embarrassing compared to theirs, so we speak entirely in English. Do you think it's good or bad to study it? I think it is good to study it, but not the way it is taught currently. Would you like Irish to make a comeback as the first language on Ireland? I would not like Irish to replace English, but I would like everyone to be bilingual - especially considering the amount of work most people put into it. How common is it for people to be better at Irish than English? Most native speakers are fully bilingual. Apart from the normal preference for their native language, I would say it is quite rare. Edited by JS-1 on 31 March 2010 at 6:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Khublei Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Yugoslavia homestayperu.net Joined 5351 days ago 90 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English*, Irish*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Khasi, French, Albanian | Message 20 of 162 19 April 2010 at 12:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm an Irish teacher at the moment. I feel my standard of Irish is equal to my English.
As much as I hate to see the decline of the language, I understand that our country benefited greatly in the last few decades from having an English speaking population. We'd still be struggling as we had been doing in the 50's - 80's if it hadn't been for foreign companies being enticed by our educated, English speaking population. For those of us who speak Irish, it's a great advantage in Ireland. Many teachers are out of work right now as supply is far greater than demand, yet Irish teachers are hard to come by so I found a job quite easily. There is a lot of translation jobs in the EU, and again, translators are hard to come by. To become a primary (elementary) teacher one must have a good level of Irish, I made a lot of money while in college prepping people for these courses. For the civil service we get extra marks in the interviews for speaking Irish. There are more examples. Just can't think right now. Basically, it's a language well protected by law, with few people who are truly confident in their abilities - so there are many opportunities for those of us who like to swallow grammar books. Every year there's the Seachtain na Gaeilge as well, (Irish Week), and it seems everyone likes to use their few words then. If you're interested in Pop Music in the Irish language check out Ceol 10. I was at a party last night with French, Italians and Spaniards, and the Irish spoke Irish all night, was great to hear. 12 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5532 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 21 of 162 19 April 2010 at 10:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for your posts in this thread, everyone.
I sympathize deeply with the Irish who wish to retain their language. Partly because, as a foreigner, I appreciate the immense beauty of it, as it is in a rephrase of Teango's very moving posts, the soul of the Irish culture. Partly because I fear Danish will be a minority language in less than a generation. So true, so deeply true, and so sad. The Irish are not Irish because they can speak English but because they have a unique history. Culture is hard to define and even harder for foreigners to know intimately but every time I have spoken with an Irish woman or an Irish man, they have been Irish and not English even though we spoke in English. Our local mailman is actually an Irish woman. She speaks Danish and her mother tongue is English, so we communicate in both Danish and English, even in the same conversation which is quite fun. After I discovered HWTLAL I told her about my dreams of speaking more foreign languages than just English. And told her that Irish was on my list - and why. She said that she didn't speak any Irish at all, that she had studied it at school, but added that she would find it embarrassing if I learned to speak it better than her. A couple of days later she gave me a CD with an introductory language course. And greated me in Irish. She had a sense of pride and that very special look in her face that I see in people when I talk about their native language (which I have done with Swedes, Germans, French and two Cuban women) that tells me that their native language is the path to their soul. Even for this Irish woman who at first claimed she didn't know Irish. We live in an age of both sleep and awakening. And while it seems that there are still more people asleep than awake, more and more people are waking up to the fact that something is wrong with the way things are, and that something needs to be done, and can be done. People's awareness about their priceless heritage is part of this and that the awareness is growing and that the sentiment is that something can and should be done before it is gone and lost forever. I would rather drink a glass of guiness and some mead, celt to viking, anytime. When I spoke at a conference about coaching and "the battle of life", the attendees from Ireland, Sweden and Germany smiled back at me in that special way that revealed a certain understanding, and in a way that was markedly different from the response of the English attendees. This, I believe, is not a coincidence. You, the Irish, are of course free to choose your own destiny. If I could wish you good luck in Irish I had done so. But since I haven't learned to speak Irish yet, my English greeting will have to do it. For now. Edited by Rikyu-san on 19 April 2010 at 10:08pm 13 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 22 of 162 19 April 2010 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
A fine post, Rikyu-san. I would be proud to clink Guinness glasses or drinking horns with you anytime. Sláinte and...going out on a limb here, so do please forgive me if I didn't get it right... bunden i vejret eller resten i håret! [Bottoms up or the rest in your hair!] :) Edited by Teango on 19 April 2010 at 10:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6607 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 162 21 April 2010 at 12:14am | IP Logged | |||||
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Make sure to have a look at the entertaining, if depressing, episodes of No Béarla [No English], broadcast a few years ago on TG4, the Irish television channel. The host, Manchán Magan, travels throughout the Emerald Isle to see how he would fare speaking only Irish. The first series is on YouTube.
You can also access these episodes from Magan's website -- scroll down until you find the links to the first series, which are posted in their entirety. Only clips are available from the second series. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6015 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 24 of 162 21 April 2010 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm... not much point watching a series that keeps going on about "nobody" speaking to him in Irish if he's not going to include the interviews with the people who did in fact speak to him in Irish.
4 persons have voted this message useful |
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