Gaeilge

óbriain1988

Now that the exam is but a distant memory and all that is anyone planning on keeping up the irish? not studying it in college myself like but i'm dismayed at the lack of outlets that there seems to be for it... can't think of any cafés or anything around the place where irish is the main language and that... anyone any ideas or anything?

fionated7

if i get my primary teaching place in college il be using it but if not i reckon tar eis tamaill it will just be a distant memory

remus808

Hmm, I don't know specifics but there are organizations out there trying to promote the language! You know those badges you can get? Theres like a bronze, silver and gold one depending on your profciency as gaelige.. Thats about as much as I know lol..

But I must say I came to really enjoy Irish around the time of the orals. Studying and practicing for it really made me realise how enjoyable it can be, and how much better we know it than we think. However this soon disappears when the poetry and everything comes back out! But I did feel for a while that I really enjoyed Irish, and perhaps I will try keep it up!

fionated7

id have no problem trying to use it if i had others to talk to...
walking around mumbling as gaeilge to myself might land me in the loonie!

Karlusss

There's a Club Chonradh na Gaeilge in Dublin, which is a Gaeilge pub. I dunno about Cork. It's kind of bizarre the first time, walking off the street into a pub where people are speaking Irish and nobody is asking any questions about it.

You'd probably need friends with Irish to do that properly.

I'll be trying very hard to keep and improve my spoken and written Irish even though I'm not doing it in college. No idea how, but hopefully it'll work out.

JC 2K3

Well, whenever I'm in the Conradh I guess.

I'm going to miss making bilingual jokes in my everyday life

E92

karmabass wrote:

Hmm, I don't know specifics but there are organizations out there trying to promote the language! You know those badges you can get? Theres like a bronze, silver and gold one depending on your profciency as gaelige.. Thats about as much as I know lol..

That would be the Fáinnes then. Theres LOADS of places to talk as Gaeilge if you're willing to give them a try, UCC run a load of conversational Irish courses in the evenings, if you get into UCC why not join all the societies, theres bound to be one for Irish, I know theres a German society, which I intend on joining, after going on an exchange to Germany it would be an awful waste of all the time I spent learning German not to make some effort to keep it up. And dont forget the Gaeltachts. And theres the fora on this website, Gaeilge and Teach na nGealt. Galway has asome sort of restaurant where you can do things as Gaeilge too.

jaydigity

Nice to hear other people with a bit of grá theanga aswell.I really don't want to lose my Irish so here's my plan:

-Join Club Gaeilge in UCD, there's one too in UCC, so I'd suggest you have look and see if there's one where you're headed.

-Get a subscription to Foinse/Lá if possible.

-Watch
Nuacht TG4 every night. The standard of Irish is quite high
on this, and there's no subtitles, but if it's not your cup of tea, just make an effort to watch more Irish language programmes.

-This is REALLY swotty, but I kind of liked Seán O Riordán and Cathal O'Searcaighs stuff, so I might try and read some more of their work.

-Do the Irish language week next year of this http://www.groundwork.ie/ volunteer organisation.

_Friends are the best way to keep up your Irish. Are you friends with any Gaescoilers?I'd say there's only another two of my friends who're also passionate about the language, but I hope I can organise things like an Irish speaking "piss-suas" sa Ghaeltacht, or something.THere's like 50 pubs in Dingle alone!So it'd be a good laugh.

-I don't really like Radio na Gaeltachta (their news is really localised and I'm not a trad fan), but give it a listen if you like it.ANOCHT FM is also on every night, I think from 9/10 o'clock, it plays some very good music too, but it's a little thin on the Irish!

-Maybe do classes or something in the future that are organised by Conradh na Gaeilge. And keep your eyes peeled during Seachtain na Gaeilge for activities that you'd like to do.

-Speak Irish with whoevers with you when you're abroad, because it's always more of a laugh when no one can understand you!

Anyone else any ideas?
Btw,What do people do at Conradh na GAeilge clubs actually do?
(besides speak Irish!)

madgal

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAYYYYYYYYY

lol, I'm going to a place I hope Irish never becomes an official Language ...

Steve01

I'm not studying Irish in college but I definitely want to stay familiar with the language. In the past year I've grown to actually enjoy Irish. Even the Irish language programmes on TG4 aren't half bad (Bean an Tí ftw!)

Mackleton

Ya Im planning on studying Irish next yr in UL, Im a bit of a fanatic actually and while Im not the world's greatest Irish speaker by any stretch, Im enthusiastic and passionate about it, so that counts.

And Jaydigity, not swotty at all, imo coz I absolutely fell in Love with Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill's poetry and watched an arts lives thing on her as well which was brill. Her quality of Irish is just amazing, and her other stuff are really good. The leaving cert just sucked all the joy out of what were otherwise great examples of irish literature, I mean Oiche Nollaig na mBan was a really deep, symbollic poem if we hadnt had to analyse the sh*te out of it.

Im probably babbling a bit but it really just feels more natural to speak Irish, for me anyway. So I'll definately be joining an cumann gaelach in UL and doing anything else involving Irish thats available to me.

Grudaire

And try getting all government things through Irish- Insist it's your right!

Not to mention Gaeilge forum and other stuff on the Internet- As Gaeilge!

Geranium

Try the Tri-D cafe in town. As for myself, I'm looking forward to never speaking it again. It was a complete waste of time for me.

jaydigity

Geranium wrote:

Try the Tri-D cafe in town. As for myself, I'm looking forward to never speaking it again. It was a complete waste of time for me.

It really is just the course though that puts people off. I did not enjoy studying Irish, but I certainly want to keep it up.
If, for all those long 13 years we just spoken the language all the time, we'd be fluent and people wouldn't despise Irish at all. Shame really. well, we'll wait and see what mary hannafin does about it.

fionated7

you'll be waiting a long time if you're waiting on mary hannafin to do something worthwhile about it.

JC 2K3

I dunno, she was an Irish teacher herself(asked me for my vote in Irish when she found out what school I was in ) and is enthusiastic enough about it. AFAIK there's already a reform of primary school methods of teaching Irish underway atm.

Naikon

I dont think I will ever again during my lifetime use the Irish Language.

*Shrug*

Insect Overlord

Hopefully I'll be doing primary teaching next year, in which case I'll be studying Irish regularly. If not, I'll probably end up in UL doing New Media & Irish or else I'll do an Arts course and pick Irish as a subject.

Oh, and if anyone fancies joining me on Inis Oírr for a few days of camping/drinking/speaking Irish this summer, feel free to join in!

Steve01

I'm gonna miss An Bhean óg

E92

fionated7 wrote:

you'll be waiting a long time if you're waiting on mary hannafin to do something worthwhile about it.

I dunno. I think she is one of the very few Fianna Failers thats actually any good. As she is an ex- Irish and History teacher I would imagine that she genuinely belives in doing something about Irish and to make it somewhat more interesting for Students in the future. She doesn't seem to me to be a Gaeilgóir who simply cant understanmd that its even possible to not like Irish.
The fact that she is going to be talking about what to do abnout the exams etc with ex Leaving Cert students I believe next week shows at the very worst that she has an interest in the job. She gives at the very least the impression that she is interested in Education.
When you consider who was there before in particular, she is a massive improvement.

Corruptedmorals

Well Irish Studies in Trinity is my second choice..

You could always go to Sin é on the quays..

colm-ccfc84

I am never going to use that 'language' again.

Diamond007

Mackleton wrote:

Ya Im planning on studying Irish next yr in UL

Me too! It my second choice, but i dont think il get my first What course did you apply for?

genericgoon

Never gonna speak it again if i can get away with it.

ethernet

It was one of my better subjects. I'm no fanatic either but I'd wouldn't rule out doing it.

Aard

colm-ccfc84 wrote:

I am never going to use that 'language' again.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be suggesting that Irish is not a language. If by that you mean that it is merely a dialect of "Gaelic" at large then I guess you have a fair point, Ulster Irish being mutually intelligible somewhat with Manx and to a lesser extent Scottish Gaelic. However I believe that it is more correct to name it a language as the languages are spoken in different countries, and, by and large, political reasons generally outweigh cultural reasons worldwide (cf the Slavic languages).

colm-ccfc84

Aard wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be suggesting that Irish is not a language.

I wouldn't regard it as a proper language myself. But, lets not digress in this thread, as it would be severely off topic.

JC 2K3

lol, bigotry.

colm-ccfc84

JC 2K3 wrote:

lol, bigotry.

It's not bigotry, this thread isn't the place for such a discussion.

Aard

colm-ccfc84 wrote:

I wouldn't regard it as a proper language myself. But, lets not digress in this thread, as it would be severely off topic.

Well this forum is quite slow these here days so I don't think anybody will mind.


Why wouldn't you regard Irish as a language? Do you believe it should be regared as a dialect of "Greater Gaelic" (or Goidelic even)? Or maybe you think that there is sufficient diversity in the language spoken here that it warrants being broken up into smaller different languages? Although I daresay we're back to the "a language is a dialect with an army" chestnut, wouldn't you agree? Any light you have to shed on this would be absolutely brilliant.

tolosenc

Here we go. What exactly makes Irish not a language? The fact that you didn't like it/weren't good at it in school?