Boards Referendum - English as the first language of Republic of Ireland

Mark200

themadchef wrote: »

Take away our language, take away our soul.

Well this saddens me. Take away a language that vast majority can not speak, and this somehow takes away our soul?

Riight

I do not hate it. I kind of like the language. But it's pointless and good for nothing besides history

themadchef

BrightEyes wrote: »

We should call ourselves Irish by virtue of where we live

So if i grow up in Ireland and happen to live in France now im French?

RandolphEsq

themadchef wrote: »

So if i grow up in Ireland and happen to live in France now im French?

It depends on how you would define yourself

themadchef

BrightEyes wrote: »

It depends on how you would define yourself

Living in Ireland makes me no more Irish than the people who have left this place to work and make a life in another country.

Speaking Irish makes me no more Irish than my neighbour that cannot. I am Irish because I love this country, it's history, it's people and it's culture. But take away my language, that language that generations of Irish people spoke before our "care less" generation decided it was uncool. Then yes, you will take not only from us, but from generations to come.

Who are we to say it's time to relegate Irish?

Mark200

themadchef wrote: »

Who are we to say it's time to relegate Irish?

The people of Ireland :cool:

Wibbs

themadchef wrote: »

Who are we to say it's time to relegate Irish?

Who? the overwhelming majority for which it has no useful daily role as a language.

Time Magazine

An old lecturer of mine made a very good point once.

"Can you think of anything more wasteful than trying to save a dying language?"

Terry

BrightEyes wrote: »

What do we want?

Fry's dog.

Voipjunkie

The Economist wrote: »

An old lecturer of mine made a very good point once.

"Can you think of anything more wasteful than trying to save a dying language?"

Trying to save a dying Motor Industry
Trying to save a dying Banking system
Trying to save an airline that does not need to be saved

And of course trying to save a language that is not dying that is far more wasteful

Not very bright or imaginative your old Lecturer ?

Mark200

Voipjunkie wrote: »

Trying to save a dying Motor Industry
Trying to save a dying Banking system
Trying to save an airline that does not need to be saved

And of course trying to save a language that is not dying that is far more wasteful

Not very bright or imaginative your old Lecturer ?

What are you on about?

Surely a thriving economy is a lot more valuable than being able to speak a language that no one else in the world understands

javaboy

Voipjunkie wrote: »

Trying to save a dying Motor Industry

People need cars. They don't need an almost dead language.

Trying to save a dying Banking system

People need banks. They don't need an almost dead language.

IsMiseConor

It depends. Maybe if more people actually bothered to learn Irish in school and use it we could have it as our official language.

KnifeWRENCH

Nah, leave it the way it is. Even if most people can't speak it fluently it's still nice to have it officially recognised in our constitution.
What exactly would be the point of amending the constitution? Gaeilge is dying as it is, let's not kick it while it's down.

Davidius

The Economist wrote: »

An old lecturer of mine made a very good point once.

"Can you think of anything more wasteful than trying to save a dying language?"

Leaving the lights on and the taps running? Buying new when you have reusable materials at your disposal? Cancelling out variables when you should be factorising?

square_igloo wrote: »

Gaeilge is dying as it is, let's not kick it while it's down.

Agree with this.

sock puppet

square_igloo wrote: »

Nah, leave it the way it is. Even if most people can't speak it fluently it's still nice to have it officially recognised in our constitution.
What exactly would be the point of amending the constitution? Gaeilge is dying as it is, let's not kick it while it's down.

I think leaving it as it is is a terrible option. Either it should be revived totally or let die. If we let it die people would study it like they do Latin now. Students would learn about Gaelic history, folklore and culture rather than just the language. Surely if you wanted to preserve our culture, this sort of solution would be better than what we have now.

Though I voted change it to English, I'd also be happy if a complete revival was attempted. If the Welsh can do it (while part of the UK) then we can. It'd take a lot of effort and looking at how few Irish people can speak a foreign language, it may not work. But I don't see the point in wasting money on paying Irish teachers, TG4, translating documents etc. for no actual benefit.

KnifeWRENCH

sock puppet wrote: »

I think leaving it as it is is a terrible option. Either it should be revived totally or let die. If we let it die people would study it like they do Latin now. Students would learn about Gaelic history, folklore and culture rather than just the language. Surely if you wanted to preserve our culture, this sort of solution would be better than what we have now.

Though I voted change it to English, I'd also be happy if a complete revival was attempted. If the Welsh can do it (while part of the UK) then we can. It'd take a lot of effort and looking at how few Irish people can speak a foreign language, it may not work. But I don't see the point in wasting money on paying Irish teachers, TG4, translating documents etc. for no actual benefit.

When I said "Leave it the way it is" I was referring only to the position of Irish as first official language. I didn't say it to mean we should stick with the current methods of teaching Irish.
I agree that a revival of the way Irish is taught is desparately needed, but there's no reason to go amending the constitution over it.

sock puppet

square_igloo wrote: »

When I said "Leave it the way it is" I was referring only to the position of Irish as first official language. I didn't say it to mean we should stick with the current methods of teaching Irish.
I agree that a revival of the way Irish is taught is desparately needed, but there's no reason to go amending the constitution over it.

Oh sorry misread you there. I want Irish to be our first language but if it remains as it is I'd just prefer to get rid of it altogether.

challengemaster

IsMiseConor wrote: »

It depends. Maybe if more people actually bothered to learn Irish in school and use it we could have it as our official language.

Maybe if it was taught right in schools people might learn it.

You don't learn a language properly by analysing poetry.
You don't learn a language properly by analysing stories.
You don't learn a language properly by memorizing letter layouts, or the history of the language.

It's being taught completely wrong. Thats why it is as good as dead. You can pump as much funding into it as you fancy, but until you change the way its done, you're pissing into the wind.

Steve

I went through primary and secondary school learning being force fed Irish every day.

I've been in German speaking areas for maybe 6 weeks of my life.

I can now speak better German than Irish so the school system is seriously flawed in it's approach.

I'm not saying that's a good thing, I'd love to be able to speak fluent Irish, it saddens me that I can't.

chops1990

Pog mo hon. The language stays. Why'd the lads of 1916 die? It was to keep our independent identity! You'd be wasting their lives and their fight by pissing away the language they fought to keep, amoung other things! So what if the vast majority of us cant speak it? Its OUR LANGUAGE. If we let the language go we're a step closer to losing our identity, a step closer to being unidentifiable from the Brits!

chops1990

challengemaster wrote: »

Maybe if it was taught right in schools people might learn it.

You don't learn a language properly by analysing poetry.
You don't learn a language properly by analysing stories.
You don't learn a language properly by memorizing letter layouts, or the history of the language.

It's being taught completely wrong. Thats why it is as good as dead. You can pump as much funding into it as you fancy, but until you change the way its done, you're pissing into the wind.

THANK YOU!!!!!

The Irish language has been done to death on Boards, do a search on "reviving the irish language", 23 threads.

None of them having any conclusive answer!

challengemaster

challengemaster wrote: »

Maybe if it was taught right in schools people might learn it.

You don't learn a language properly by analysing poetry.
You don't learn a language properly by analysing stories.
You don't learn a language properly by memorizing letter layouts, or the history of the language.

It's being taught completely wrong. Thats why it is as good as dead. You can pump as much funding into it as you fancy, but until you change the way its done, you're pissing into the wind.

I'd add to that, "Teach it like a modern foreign language"

Forget this crap about it being a native language* etc, for about 95% of the population, it's as foreign as Polish.



*native language; the first language you learn from your parants.

Terry

I was going to edit the poll to make it so that the majority of voters wanted to keep Irish as the first language, but then I re-read it and it seems that I don't have to do that.

Currently at 60.41% with 197 votes overall.

Steve

Terry wrote: »

I was going to edit the poll to make it so that the majority of voters wanted to keep Irish as the first language, but then I re-read it and it seems that I don't have to do that.

Currently at 60.41% with 197 votes overall.

As DeV likes to say, "One man, one vote, and I'm the man."

Democracy ftw.

Terry

I voted "Neither".

AckwelFoley

Je ne parle pas 'irish'
je prefè anglaise et un pue francaise.
Ca va?

Terry

snyper wrote: »

Je ne parle pas 'irish'
je prefè anglaise et un pue francaise.
Ca va?

I prefer Irish and am not fond of French.


Most European languages are similar and are quite easy to read if you know some of the translations.

I cannot speak French, but know what Snyper's post says.

TEH REAL CDP

Its our identity. FFS, why would you want to do that? If the syllabus is restructured in schools to make the language easier (and more interesting) to learn then I'm convinced that a lot more people would speak it.

AckwelFoley

Terry wrote: »

I prefer Irish and am not fond of French.


Most European languages are similar and are quite easy to read if you know some of the translations.

I cannot speak French, but know what Snyper's post says.

id love to speak irish.. But i havent a word of it.