Irish Should be compulsory?? WHAT YOU THINK?

MiamiMortimer

Oh lord.
At the end of the day, Irish is a subject that isn't used unless you want to be a teacher, in which case you will teach it to students who won't use it or will become teachers, who will teach it to students who won't use it or will become teachers, who will.....it goes on forever!

How is it, then, that Irish is the subject that has the most exams at L.C level? You can complain all you like about maths (and I do) and English, but there's only two papers there. There's an oral, an aural, and two papers in Irish, the most obsolete subject of the bunch! And it isn't optional!
I will never use it ever again. It's absolutely craziness, and such a waste of my time. Why should someone like me be forced to study it? If you have an interest, then you should study it and not otherwise!

There'd be murder if history or georgraphy were made compulsory, but why not these if Irish is?!
Everyone should know their own history and not be ignorant about that of other countries. History is vital for understanding politics, the very thing that runs our lives. How do people vote if they don't understand politics?!
Everyone should be capable of recognizing basic features of their country and their environment. Especially as young drivers, we can't depend on Sat Nav!
Yet these subjects and the life skills they give are optional, and Irish is not!

Engineers won't use it. Lawyers won't use it. Doctors won't use it. Secondary school teachers (obv those who don't teach Irish) won't use it. What profession does use it, apart from primary teachers?

Irish should be optional.
And if you like it, you study it and get your own way. Either way, its a cushy number for those who actually enjoy studying it. I bet the people who would study it would be far more passionate about it, too.

!?!

I'm not Irish and I think it should be compulsory, it's a unique hertiage and a language different from any other. I do think that the manner in which it is taught should be revised though, with more emphasis on speaking it. What's the point of learning off essays on allegory in Úrchill an Chréagain if you're not sure how to spontaneously hold a conversation with someone?

_Chaos

I used to hate it, like really hate it, but in the past few months im realising how important it is. I think every irish person should have the cupla focail, i mean if we didnt learn it in school, when would we? It would be like a french person not being able to speak french. I think its pretty cool now, and people are normally impressed (esp forigners) if you can speak irish,,,,,im not near fluent, but i really would love to be.:)

Elmo

grrrrrrrrrr wrote: »

I find myself hating our native lanuage more and more.
Biology and chemistry- will be essential for any science course!
French- very useful for travelling and business abroad!
Maths- Fundamental in many corners of life!
English- so important for conversing and communticating!
IRISH- well eh, em, err......... (if its not complusary then you prob wont need it for primary teaching)

And it could be just that im annoyed that on top of many extremely important topics in other subjects ive to learn pages about poetry that seems to be completely pointless!!

Opinions?

May I appoliogise for my bed spelling and typos before I begin.

English would have been good but they thought us Shakespear, not how to spell or wrote proper grammar.
French would be good only we should be more focused on Chiniese or Spainish. Why is French on our passports?
Regardless of the language poetry is quite pointless.

But than me bad spelling and gramamar has got me quite confused.

Is maith liom on gealige (Just my speliing and gramar isn't that good)

I have yet to use Calculus in any real manner or form. But then having a Masters in Arts is quite pointless when it comes down to it.

Again sorry for the lack of coherishion due to my lack of commas I have also got a tendency to for get my -eds and -ings.

But all of this is quite off topic, wouldnt you think.

In relation to languages being taught in schools for the LC their should be 2 options.

1. Literature
2. Linguistics (Spelling, Grammar, Structure)

And yes both Irish and English should be compulsory, as should maths. Having studied to Masters level I realized that there are several subjects that were quite pointless. However Grammar in any language might have been a help.

lallychops

no it should not be compulsory. and the fact that those who do their exams through irish is a complete and utter joke. the language is practically dead. it cant be used outside of this country and even though it is taught from primary school upwards there are very few tsking honours irish. it should be taught as part of the history syllabus if people think its an important part of the heritage. i personally think it should be scrapped altogether. :rolleyes:

thegoth

fkt wrote: »

But some of us couldn't care less about this 'priviliege'. It should be available to those who have an interest, rather than force fed to all.

Sums it up in one.

thegoth

!?! wrote: »

I'm not Irish and I think it should be compulsory, it's a unique hertiage and a language different from any other. I do think that the manner in which it is taught should be revised though, with more emphasis on speaking it. What's the point of learning off essays on allegory in Úrchill an Chréagain if you're not sure how to spontaneously hold a conversation with someone?

While the Chinese, Europeans, Americans, and everyone else we compete with for jobs are expanding their teaching of science, engineering, and computing, we are still wasting time with a dead language. If someone wants to study it for the leaving, then fine, but dont FORCE someone who wants a career in science to study it. Making Irish compulsory only harms our competitiveness on the international stage.

Elmo

thegoth wrote: »

While the Chinese, Europeans, Americans, and everyone else we compete with for jobs are expanding their teaching of science, engineering, and computing, we are still wasting time with a dead language. If someone wants to study it for the leaving, then fine, but dont FORCE someone who wants a career in science to study it. Making Irish compulsory only harms our competitiveness on the international stage.

I think we are all to hung up on the LC. We should know some of our own language just like we should know our history and Shakespeare and other pointless pieces of information, it is called an education.

Often we forget that the LC isn't just about a college course or a job, actually very few LC course prepare you for the real world.

Languages are taught badly in this country from English to Spanish. We go though school not knowing what the past tense is in English let alone in any other language, things that are clearly taught in non-English speaking countries.

How do we expect to learn other languages if we don't know the basics of English?

There is actually a much wider debate about the teaching of languages in Irish Schools, and to be honest a much more important one.

And learning Irish doesn't harm us on the International stage.

dyeti

I think it's sad to see our culture, the only Celtic culture which is somewhat alive, being stamped out by first Anglo and now a mix of American cultural imperialism, a trend started about 500 years ago... I think there should definitley be efforts to revitalize and reform the Irish language.

It can get pretty tiring hearing foreigners say "you guys and the British are the same to me lol", because I'm not really the biggest fan of Britain.

But it's not like it really matters, culture in the western world today means nothing, it's only a nice thing to have.

I can't really be saying much about promoting the Irish language since I'm the lad who considered not even sitting the Irish exam, but I guess that's the result of the shoddy representation of Irish in our education. I mean, I can't even help my brother whos 11 do his Irish homework.

So, ideally, it should be mandatory. But realistically, sad to say, optional.