Irish Oral Questions?

Dioluin

Just wondering what sort of questions were asked in the Oral?
What questions are normally asked, that sort of thing?
Thanks.

Doyler92

Last year we had a book called 'An Dtuigeann Tu?' and this covered everything would be asked.

Dioluin

I was wondering what that book was for. Ha. Thanks for the info.

felic

I did mine a few years back but from what I remember, for all those language orals, what really helped me was just seeing the oral exam as more of a chat with a stranger. The questions were very general and basically were open ended ones that allowed me to talk about what i wanted to.

So for example, I was asked about school, where I live, my family, college...
and so I was able to just chat about those things and throw in extra info that I thought was relevant. They're not going to go and ask you to spew out a load of info about World Peace, government policy or to talk about alien life forms building the Pyramids; unless of course those are topics you have a keen interest in and could talk about.
So basically, practice practice practice and have a think about who you are, your school, your life right now and where you see yourself in a few years from now.
The hurdle about the oral is getting over feeling embarrassed. Thats one good thing about it being one to one. So if you have an older friend who is good at the language, try see if you can practice with them. Practice is the only way to correct the language and get the flow of the lingo going.

Curlyhatescurls

Did my Leaving this year and got an A2 in Irish, and I think it's probably down to a good oral. The trick is to be able to understand basic questions-who you are, hobbies, where you live, your area, problems in your area, your school and what you want to do next year, and to answer these questions well and confidently.

They will test your past tense by asking q's like- what did you do last summer/last weekend/last night. They will test your future tense by asking-what would you like to do next year in college, have you any plans for the summer/next weekend. They will test your present tense by asking what do you normally do on an average day, or at the weekend or at lunchtime, whatever. Despite what people say, they really don't ask the modh conniallach(sp.?) and if they do a simple and confident answer using basic verbs will suffice.

The trick is to keep talking about what you know, leading the conversation to what you know and not lying and ending up in an awful situation where you have to speak in Irish about something you have no clue about. It's SIMPLE to lead the conversation. E.g 'Describe your area' 'Oh it's very scenic, the sea is very near to my house and there are always boats there, a lot of people go sailing and fishing' 'Do you go sailing or fishing?' 'Oh yes, I love sailing, my father has a boat and we go quite often. I was on a long fishing trip last summer with him actually' 'Oh really, how interesting, tell me about it' 'Well, last summer bla bla bla' etc you get my point.

It's a quick conversation with a person who has students of their own, they want you to do well and want you to say the stuff you know, if you make it obvious that you know a lot about something they will catch on and ask you questions about it. Same as if you make it obvious you don't know much about something they will move on and try to coax some Irish out of you with a different question.

The trick is simple, correct answers and steering the conversation to the subjects you know. Best of luck!!

An Fear Bocht

You can be asked nearly anything in the Irish oral, albeit my examiner steered away from politics and economics. The principle function of the oral is to test your communicative skills and grasp of pronunciation and idioms - it is meant to come across as a casual conversation. I wouldn't trust the approach of anybody who tries to get you to learn off paragraphs, because as far as I'm concerned, learning off paragraphs is for those who can't hack the oral. That said, you have maximum licence to make stuff up as you go along and tell the most outrageous stories possible - the examiner is there to see if you are a good communicator who knows how the language operates; the veracity of that you say is irrelevant in the marking scheme, unless it's used to mask a blatant lack of ability to engage with the question.

As for me, the hardest question I was asked was what is involved in theoretical physics; at Leaving Cert level, it's unfair for an Irish oral, but I've been doing Irish so long that it's simply like having a conversation in English - that's the real key to succeeding; you don't just speak Irish, you have to think in it as well. As for my answer to the question, I had to invent a couple of words, as there are no idiomatic Irish words for "atom" or "molecule". If they hit you with such a question (I had been talking about my college course), they're testing you to see if you're thinking on your feet.

Oh, just a little piece of information; unfortunately, not many teachers can teach idiomatic Irish (achieving an A1 in Irish is quite a feat, but I'd venture and say that only a small proportion of them would be able to read An Béal Bocht without considerable difficulty) - it was only when I read literary texts in Irish that I realised that my school had some very poor Irish teachers (although my Leaving Cert Irish teacher was quite a hero). If you want to speak idiomatic Irish, you'll find it in books written in Irish, not school textbooks; I cannot emphasise enough that there is a phenomenal difference between being able to reel off a load of solutions to the recession and actually being able to have a proper conversation in Irish. I recommend Máire Nic Mhaoláin's translation of the first Harry Potter Book (Harry Potter agus an [t-]Órchloch). The sheer difficulty of reading an Irish translation of a relatively straightforward book in English is normally a bit of a shock, but you'll learn things in it that you'll never learn from an Irish textbook.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

The exact same questions some one that never met you before would ask. Only diff would be that you dont get to ask him/her about themselves. Make sure you cover everything thats making big news too. However yeh can get out of any question by saying 'I dont really have an interest in that. Whenever I buy the newspaper I only read the .......(sports section)'