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The role and usefulness of Irish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| CS Groupie United States Joined 4923 days ago 49 posts - 74 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Latin, French | Message 81 of 162 31 March 2011 at 7:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
I disagree. Look back a little further. There's a tremendous amount of literature in Irish (and quite a bit in Hiberno-Latin). Edited by CS on 31 March 2011 at 7:57pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gallo1801 Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 4697 days ago 164 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Croatian, German, French | Message 82 of 162 21 January 2012 at 10:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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I want to learn it along with some friends so we can converse in it secretly! There's
almost no chance that someone would understand you here in the states, or anywhere outside the British Isles. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| aodhanc Diglot Groupie Iceland Joined 6055 days ago 92 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish | Message 83 of 162 15 March 2012 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Cainntear, as an Irish person, sorry but I have to completely disagree with you on that point. Irish people are well-known for being among the worst learners of other languages. Our knowledge of European languages is the worst in the EU, and as for learning Irish, we are quite bad at that also, even though we study it for 13 years in school. How many Irish people do you know that competently speak the language? Very few. The reason that Amazon and all the other US companies come to Ireland (apart from tax reasons), is because it's an English speaking country with a well-educated workforce (science, maths, technology). But unfortunately that good education system doesn't extend to languages. Edited by aodhanc on 15 March 2012 at 5:09pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4851 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 84 of 162 15 March 2012 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
Are they taught badly or they do not want to study a useless language? What do most Irishmen think of Irish? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| aodhanc Diglot Groupie Iceland Joined 6055 days ago 92 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish | Message 85 of 162 15 March 2012 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Mapk, it's a mixture of both reasons.
1. The curriculum for Irish is not good. The focus is too much on intricate grammar, on history of the language, on poetry, and on prose / literature. There is little emphasis on the modern context, on current themes, on daily conversation. The curriculum needs a complete overhaul. 2. The motivation of the students is not very high, it is mostly seen as a compulsory (but irrelevant) subject which is needed in order to finish secondary school. The lack of opportunities for students to practice it outside school is another disincentive. With other European languages, students can go in the summer for a few weeks to France or Germany, but with Irish that option isn't available. The Gaeltacht areas are so small (and everyone there is fluent in English also) that practicing the language is difficult. Edited by aodhanc on 15 March 2012 at 6:04pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6498 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 86 of 162 16 March 2012 at 10:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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For me Irish is primarily something I study because it is a weird language with a grammar that looks like nothing I have ever seen before - right out of Tolkien's Middle Earth. But one important factor is that there is just enough materials and services on the internet to make it possible to learn it, at least as a written language which I probably pronounce in a way that no native speaker would condone. But given that my chances of having discussions in the language are minimal that doesn't deter me.
Btw. I'll be visiting Gailimh (Galway) later this year, and I have read that 10 % of the population there are native speakers, and there might even be a possibility to pick up some materials in the language. Edited by Iversen on 16 March 2012 at 10:13am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| aodhanc Diglot Groupie Iceland Joined 6055 days ago 92 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish | Message 87 of 162 16 March 2012 at 10:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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Iversen, that's excellent.
I'm glad that you aren't deterred by the negativity. Galway is indeed one of the main centres in Ireland for the language, but not so much in the city itself. I would recommend you venture out to the villages a few kilometers to the west and you will be in the Irish-speaking heartland..... Bearna, An Spiddéal, Indreabhán and further out to Ros a Mhil. Irish people will be so astounded to hear a Dane speaking Irish, they won't believe it! For practice on pronunciation, I would recommed watching some Irish-language TV online..... TG4.ie Edited by aodhanc on 16 March 2012 at 10:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5946 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 88 of 162 16 March 2012 at 11:15am | IP Logged | |||||
If you're in Galway you'll find plenty of Irish materials in Easons, and other bookshops. An old but very effective course is, Buntus Cainte Ceim a hAon: A First Step in Spoken Irish The full course costs only €25 and has six CD's of spoken Irish. I was at a wedding in Bearna, just outside Galway, last year where most of the guests were speaking Irish, and all the wedding speeches were in Irish. I ended up using Irish, English and Hungarian during that weekend. It turned out that a lot of the staff in the Twelve hotel were actually Hungarian. Edited by DaraghM on 16 March 2012 at 11:19am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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