Ways of reviving irish ?

KeyLimePie

So Does anyone here have any great ideas on how to revive irish ?

Personally ! I think the government should launch a nationwide initiave to get people working in service sectors to have some irish, like offer grants for employers to send like 3 staff on an irish language course so if someone wants to say ba mhaith liom thé to them they'll be able to say is ea =p

Or the leaving cert, I fully believe that it should be a compulsory subject but we should definitely change the way it's thought ! We need to know SOME bit about grammar, like how there's two common patterns and like 9 irregular verbs, and the male and female nouns too and the oral needs to be changed as well, not to have a great big spiel about where you're born and where you live but like an actual conversation, maybe with roleplays on inviting a friend to a cinema, or talking about a concert ye went to

Anyway that's my two cents...

conchubhar1

well i definitely agree about the grammar in school - its muck
i was in college before i knew the rules of the tuiseal ginideach or th g.c

markopantelic

its as tough as trying to figure out how to get the masses to go and watch the league of ireland, i don't think there is much than can be done tbh particulary in working class areas, there is an unnatural contempt towards the language but I see things progressing all the time, i'll definetly probably my future children to a non-demominational gaelscoil(lol long way till then 2040 prob :P)

dlofnep

Educational reform Introduction of conversational classes from an early age. As I've stated time and time again, I picked up most of my Irish through a conversational group. Much more than I ever learned in school. I think this would be of great benefit to students. Once they have the language, then the option is there for them to use it..

Poxyshamrock

They should make it optional in school.

Most people HATE irish as a result of the subject.


Although, the oral being increased to 40% is a great way of moving from written irish to spoken irish.

Redbhoy

Convert all pre-schools and primary schools to Irish Medium schools. 100% fluency within a few generations!
FF have had 80 odd years and fooked it up!

The public service do have schemes to promote Irish. Gaeleagras provide scholarships to the Gaeltacht. http://www.finance.gov.ie/gaeleagras/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/gaeleagras/home.asp&UserLang=GA

The more opportunities people have to speak the language the better. Conversational groups and other activities through the medium of Irish!

Happy Hour Prices to anyone who converses As Gaeilge in pubs. That'll have the nation speaking quicker than the Gaelscoileanna:D.

Damomayo

Has anybody done the Gaeleagras course .... or know the timetable for the week.
How about places to stay while there, go to the hotel or bean an ti (boards don't seem to like fada) gaire as ard

Baile an Locha

Total immersion in Irish from the start of school to second class,then 50% irish-english until the end of primary school. I actually believe this could revive the language, We would be fluent in irish by the end of primary school. It would force primary school teachers to improve their standard of irish and over time the national standard. Thats my opinion anyway.

LimeFruitGum

We're actually trying to promote the use of Irish at work amongst staff who are interested in the language. In our Outlook signatures, we have our job titles in Irish and English and customers rather like it .

By the way, I wouldn't consider myself a fully-fledged Gaelgóir, I still have to check "Cruinnscríobh", but I would definitely have the best Irish in the office.

Personally, I think there are too many books targeted at either beginners or fluent speakers. It is harder to find books that are suitable for intermediate level, i mo thuairimse.
Also, writing business emails in Irish can be trickier than you think, so I'd love a resource that gave some pointers on that. I remember Gaeleagras had a useful "nathanna" page, but I don't think it has been updated for a good while.

The Official Standard is scheduled for a revision within the next 2 years or so, but I don't expect any radical changes. I doubt they're going to get rid of the Tuiseal Ginideach just because students don't like it

Redbhoy

LimeFruitGum wrote: »

We're actually trying to promote the use of Irish at work amongst staff who are interested in the language.
Personally, I think there are too many books targeted at either beginners or fluent speakers. It is harder to find books that are suitable for intermediate level, i mo thuairimse.
Also, writing business emails in Irish can be trickier than you think, so I'd love a resource that gave some pointers on that. I remember Gaeleagras had a useful "nathanna" page, but I don't think it has been updated for a good while.

Fair play on promoting the language in your office.
Turas Teanga is geared towards intermediate level.
Id say if you contacted http://www.coimisineir.ie/ they could help you with the business emails.

piby

Well the first major problem to begin with is, as has been pointed out, many people actually have contempt for the language. I've lost count, as I'm sure many of you have, of hearing how it's stupid and useless in today's society etc etc. So we can talk about introducing all sorts of measures and while that may have a slight benefit over the short term, in the long term it's not going to do anything by itself.

What is needed is a fundamental change in attitude. You go about this in two ways. Firstly the school issue. We need to remove the dislike for the language that is instilled at that age and we need a much greater emphasis on spoken Irish (via methods discussed above). Think we all could speak English before we could write it and that's being completely surrounded by it from birth. Secondly, there need's to be the reason/oppurtunity to use it and now we see the things suggested above coming into play. One of mine is that I believe that all state bodies (military, police, government etc.) should conduct all affairs as Gaeilge although how realistic this is I don't know.

A combination of these two approaches is the best strategy IMO but we also have to realise that Irish isn't spoken outside this island and it's not endemic to begin with so it's always going to require a concerted and sustained effort to keep it alive.

lapses

Just thought I'd share a small story

Me and my gf were on holidays recently and there was alot of people from cuba and dominica republic etc... and constantly we would be with these people having the craic then suddenly one or two of them would exchange a few words in there native tongue... and both me and my gf knew that about 90% of the time they were talking bout us. So we started speakin Irish (our very crap Irish mind you) and eventually people stopped doing that on us.

Now we still do it here simply because people at bus stops and in shopping cues are deadly at eavesdropping...

And now 2 of our mates are getting in on it, simply so they can talk to each other in a packed room and not have everybody knowing their business.

Nuggles

In Dundalk?

Most probably have the same level of broken Irish as you.

They know!

Poll Dubh

These threads about reviving Irish always make me laugh. Those taking part get great practice of their English.

mega man

KeyLimePie wrote: »

So Does anyone here have any great ideas on how to revive irish ?

Personally ! I think the government should launch a nationwide initiave to get people working in service sectors to have some irish, like offer grants for employers to send like 3 staff on an irish language course so if someone wants to say ba mhaith liom thé to them they'll be able to say is ea =p

Or the leaving cert, I fully believe that it should be a compulsory subject but we should definitely change the way it's thought ! We need to know SOME bit about grammar, like how there's two common patterns and like 9 irregular verbs, and the male and female nouns too and the oral needs to be changed as well, not to have a great big spiel about where you're born and where you live but like an actual conversation, maybe with roleplays on inviting a friend to a cinema, or talking about a concert ye went to

Anyway that's my two cents...

The biggest obstacle in reviving irish is the native irish speaker

dlofnep

Poll Dubh wrote: »

These threads about reviving Irish always make me laugh. Those taking part get great practice of their English.

B'fhéidir nach bhfuil gaeilge go leor acu chun é a phlé? Tuigim cad atá a rá agat, ach tá a lán daoine míshásta le oideachas - agus tá an ceart acu chun rud éigin a rá faoi sin.

Redbhoy

mega man wrote: »

The biggest obstacle in reviving irish is the native irish speaker

Why is this?

FruitLover

KeyLimePie wrote: »

I fully believe that it should be a compulsory subject

:rolleyes:

How have you people not learned yet that the worst thing you can possibly do to 'revive' this language is to keep it compulsory?

You need a carrot, not a stick.

dlofnep wrote: »

tá a lán daoine míshásta le oideachas - agus tá an ceart acu chun rud éigin a rá faoi sin.

TBH, if they really cared that much about Irish, they'd have learned it on their own time. I've taught myself two foreign languages (one to fluency) without any formal classes in either.

Redbhoy

I think it should be kept compulsory but should be taught better.

dlofnep

FruitLover wrote: »

You need a carrot, not a stick.

That's a very apt phrase IMO. I think it should be compulsory up to a certain level, perhaps junior cert. But if you look at the language in the north, where it's going from strength to strength from people who are learning it of their own accord - it certainly says something about our educational methods.

However, Welsh is mandatory in Wales and yet - that seems to be going from strength to strength also. It's hard to judge what the best practice is. You want it in institutions to ensure that it's visible for all people, but you don't want to push people away.

Still though, I like the carrot not a stick phrase.

mega man

Look at the difference in dialect between the Northern and Western . Which one should we accept as textbook Irish?

I'll give you an example. Teach kids in the south southern dialect and come leaving cert test them in aural northern dialect? doesnt make much sense dose it? In my experience its quite different.

Hagar

Start here, start now. Don't wait on the Govt.
Use one short phrase as Gaeilge in every post you make, everywhere.
I bet it snowballs.
Bain tríall as.

mega man

dlofnep wrote: »

That's a very apt phrase IMO. I think it should be compulsory up to a certain level, perhaps junior cert. But if you look at the language in the north, where it's going from strength to strength from people who are learning it of their own accord - it certainly says something about our educational methods.

However, Welsh is mandatory in Wales and yet - that seems to be going from strength to strength also. It's hard to judge what the best practice is. You want it in institutions to ensure that it's visible for all people, but you don't want to push people away.

Still though, I like the carrot not a stick phrase.

I lot of that has to do with the political situation in the north

chalad07

Friend of mine has started a campaign: www.caintcampaign.com

The whole idea behind it is to encourage those who can speak Irish to help those that cant, and to encourage those people with a little bit of Irish to use it. There seems to be some sort of stigma attached to using our native tongue in Ireland. If people just went ahead and tried it, who cares if they make mistakes or not, then the language would surely grow?

It's funny - in Ireland speaking Irish is regarded as almost a negative thing. I'm now based in New York, and people are genuinely impressed if they know you can speak Irish. They are interested in the Irish from a cultural point of view. It's kind of embarrassing when some of these third and fourth generation Irish Americans are more enthusiastic about Gaelic than the Irish people.

dlofnep

FruitLover wrote: »

TBH, if they really cared that much about Irish, they'd have learned it on their own time. I've taught myself two foreign languages (one to fluency) without any formal classes in either.

I'm not sure about that - Learning a language is such a huge task. Sometimes there are no provisions for them to learn it. In my city, there were no courses or conversational groups for me to learn - so I went the extra mile and started a group, and read books until a course eventually became available. When it did, it was pretty expensive. Not everyone can really afford the time or money to do this. But if the provisions were there, and were advertised as such - I think that more people would engage with the language.

youngblood

Cuir cosc air chun é a úsáid.

Plain and Simple

No better way to revive it than ban it,
Would be hilarious

dlofnep

dlofnep wrote: »

That's a very apt phrase IMO. I think it should be compulsory up to a certain level, perhaps junior cert. But if you look at the language in the north, where it's going from strength to strength from people who are learning it of their own accord - it certainly says something about our educational methods.

However, Welsh is mandatory in Wales and yet - that seems to be going from strength to strength also. It's hard to judge what the best practice is. You want it in institutions to ensure that it's visible for all people, but you don't want to push people away.

Still though, I like the carrot not a stick phrase.

For most people the carrot is being able to speak the language (any not just Irish) and get some sense of achievment.

In the north and to a certain extent in Wales, the carrot is reclaiming a bit of national pride by speaking the original language, at the expense of english.

In the south that sense of pride appears to be missing. Ach tá mé ag foghlaim Gaeilge, mar sin.

LimeFruitGum

Hagar wrote: »

Start here, start now. Don't wait on the Govt.
Use one short phrase as Gaeilge in every post you make, everywhere.
I bet it snowballs.
Bain tríall as.

Aontaím.

The Government brought in the Official Languages Act so that anyone who wants to conduct their business in Irish can do so. Go to any adult Irish class these days and I can guarantee you'll find a couple of civil servants in it.

Since the OL Act, I understand there are only about 9000 people who request their ESB bill in Irish (I could be wrong, but this is what I was told by someone I know working in there). So the facility is there, but not that many people are using it.

I don't agree with the argument that the Govt should bring in a new scheme - we have all done the Leaving Cert Irish at various levels, we can all watch TG4 etc. So I think it is up to the individual to take it further if they want to. Plenty of non-nationals have tried to learn the language off their own bat, so I reckon there is scope for development there.

The bilingual email sig thing in my office is going down well actually. We're not making it compulsory, but if anyone wants a bilingual signature, I'll translate their job title for them. I'm not in the Civil service, btw. I'm in a multinational

Redbhoy

Hagar wrote: »

Start here, start now. Don't wait on the Govt.
Use one short phrase as Gaeilge in every post you make, everywhere.
I bet it snowballs.
Bain tríall as.

This definitely works. I stick phrases on my facebook account, on emails and texts and when Im chatting with people. They usually all make an effort to reply with the little bit of Irish they have.