Irish language

Spenguin

The worst thing is that if you take higher and fail in Irish you fail your leaving cert. And irish college is bad. So very bad.

lordsippa

Y'see the main problem with the Irish course is that it's not like, for example, the french course where you learn the language. Oh no, this course is all about learning poems and stories which is utter arse tbh. It might help a little if what we had to learn were in ANY WAY decent but alas!

I figure that if Irish wasn't assumed to be covered decently in primary (all I learned were the irregular verbs) and if teachers weren't so insistent that you could all get A's if only you got your asses in gear (i'm sorry but words don't stick in my head all that well - just lucky i read a fair bit) then the curriculum would be a tad more approachable and interesting and (gasp!) people might not grow bitter and hate it.

But what do I know... <sigh>

this post is NOT a <troll>

but still :ninja:

It wasn't me!

Irish is pointless, hate it.

And Garog, I don't know about mortars, but I could get you a pretty endless supply of petrol bombs if the money was right.....

Oh.. Don't mortar my school too badly, just enough to keep me out for a few extra weeks....

malecO

I was going to post a big long message discussing various problems in the curriculum but my pc crashed so I'll say my point very quickly.

BAD TEACHERS SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mentalimplosion

Originally posted by lordsippa
Oh no, this course is all about learning poems and stories which is utter arse tbh. It might help a little if what we had to learn were in ANY WAY decent but alas!

hey, i know the whole of faoiseamh a gheobadsa off by heart and i think that's darn cool.

Crash

tbh the problem with the irish language is the curriculum. NO language should be taught purely or mostly written, and this problem is further compounded by teachers who fail to see that the only way to get their students A's is to step outside of the curriculum and teach it as a spoken language as much as written, rather than just memorising.

mentalimplosion

i don't like this. it sucks that everyone hates irish so much. i'm tempted to march around to all your houses (including yours garog, it's near enough for me to walk without getting too tired) and teach you all a little irish.

like we did with the americans.

yes, irish is a language you have to work at but its YOUR language so it should be important to YOU, important enough for you to want to work at it, ya big lazy people.

Liquorice

I don't hate Irish, I actually really love it, but I really frickin' hate the curriculum. I learn most of my spoken Irish and vocabulary in other classes, what with being in an all-Irish school, it's really only grammar that I learn in Irish class. The curriculum is in need of a complete review because it's causing students to hate the language and that's ridiculous.:mad:

Alaronshannara

Personally, I love Irish. I love the sound and rhythm of the language itself, and I love the fact that we have a language at all. I think it is imperative that we learn it in school and I approve of the necessity to have Irish to enter University.
That said, the curriculum sucks a bit and there's no use in learning poetry when you're still struggling with the grammar.
"Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam"
'nuff sed :cool:

neko-chan

I hate irish because, as has been mentioned before, I hate being *forced* into anything. also, I don't think I've ever had an irish teacher who really liked teaching it, so that sucked too. it's boring and hard and I DON'T WANT TO KNOW. I wouldn't have minded if it's been optional - hell, I'd probably be taking it! - but it wasn't, and I've been set against it since day 1.

grr.

mentalimplosion

my opinion on the teaching of irish at 2nd level is that class time should be didvided between stuff like grammar, sentence structure, verbs etc and poetry/other cultural stuff. i feel it's extremely important that we learn poems and the like written in our native language and be able to write about such. not everyone seems to agree with me but i'm always right, so leave me alone.

Outcast

Irish is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Far nicer than English anyway! I'm sick of people all over the country going on about how much they hate Irish when they've never even had a conversation in Irish! There's more to it than grannies pretending to be fifteen year olds!

claire h

The problem with the Irish course is that it doesn't seem to be entirely sure what it is. I mean, at times it's more like the English course (what with the poetry and drama and short stories) than it is French or any other language - it's assumed that because we've been studying it for fourteen years by the time the LC rolls around, we have a decent grasp of it, which most of us don't.

I think that it's important to have it as a compulsory subject - because it *is* part of our national heritage, and most people would avoid it otherwise (up until recently I probably would have), and you *do* have the option of taking it at ordinary level if you want - but it does need to be reformed. I'd love to see it as more of an Irish language/culture/history class - I mean, you do get a bit of that, with the history of the language and a couple of Irish myths thrown in, but it's a very small part of the course. The language itself is fairly impractical for anything other than being a cultural thing, so they might as well throw in a bit more culture and make it more interesting.

Garóg, re: the difference between the higher and ordinary level courses - it's the same with maths. It's because with Irish and Maths, 'ordinary level' is actually the standard level and 'higher' is higher, as opposed to the other subjects in which 'higher' is generally the standard. Or so I understand it, anyway. *shrugs*

Outcast

Great points Claire. The curriculum is pretty bad it would be great to have more cultural stuff! If you all got a proper grasp of Irish I can honestly say that you would love it!