Gaelscoil for already bilingual child?

Kusinna

Hello. I am originally from Russia and my partner is Irish. Our son is due to go to school in September and we are facing a dilemma: large national school vs small Irish school.
Gaelscoil has more to offer, however, I am concerned how learning through Irish might affect my son’s ability to speak and understand Russian.

At the moment my son understands everything I say in Russian, but he answers back in English, though can make an effort and use Russian words. My partner has very little Russian, so we speak English as a family, but when alone I address my son in Russian.

I am interested to hear from parents/teachers who can advise from experience on the following:

1. Neither myself nor my partner know Irish. What happens if our son needs help with his homework?
2. Would his Russian suffer as a result of learning Irish and English in school?

If you are in a similar position as a family, I would love to hear your story!

Dostoevsky

Kusinna wrote: »

Hello. I am originally from Russia and my partner is Irish. Our son is due to go to school in September and we are facing a dilemma: large national school vs small Irish school.
Gaelscoil has more to offer, however, I am concerned how learning through Irish might affect my son’s ability to speak and understand Russian.

At the moment my son understands everything I say in Russian, but he answers back in English, though can make an effort and use Russian words. My partner has very little Russian, so we speak English as a family, but when alone I address my son in Russian.

I am interested to hear from parents/teachers who can advise from experience on the following:

1. Neither myself nor my partner know Irish. What happens if our son needs help with his homework?
2. Would his Russian suffer as a result of learning Irish and English in school?

If you are in a similar position as a family, I would love to hear your story!

Sorry, but that sort of post really makes my blood boil.

If your partner is Irish, he could improve his Irish. It will take effort, but so does everything worthwhile.

There are far, far too many parents who love Irish and who want to send their children to a gaelscoil but they are oversubscribed by people who don't have the grá/love for Irish and, consequently, the parents who do actually love Irish have to send their children to an all-English school. Taking up spaces in our gaelscoil for the wrong reasons - e.g. smaller numbers - is absolutely wrong. Gaelscoileanna are there to serve people who love the language, not people who want to get supposedly smaller classes. I detest this thinking. Those spaces are very valuable for those of us who love Irish. Very valuable.

When making a decision, think about how choosing a school where neither of you are willing (and it does come down to will) to learn Irish and support your child through it will deny those of us who actually are willing to support our kids through a gaelscoil of places.

Send your child to the English school if neither of you have the motivation (and it does come down to motivation) to improve your Irish. After all, English is the "world language"....

spurious

Dostoevsky, the OP never mentioned small classes as being the reason for choosing a Gaelscoil. Your response is a little over the top.

Kusinna, another language will not make any difference. He may take some time to separate them all in his head and may use all sorts of combinations for a short while, but an extra language will be no problem for him. This is exactly the age to start him learning them.

You could take the opportunity as a family to start learning some Irish. It is not a difficult language to learn, despite what all sorts of people say. If you have managed Russian, you won't find Irish hard.

Знание многих языков позволяет иметь много ключей, чтобы открыть двери
"Knowing many languages allows one to have many keys to open doors".

JuliusCaesar

I'll contribute my experience, although I'm a single parent. We spoke a different language at home, and my child learned English from other children and at the nursery. I enrolled her in the Naoinra (pre-school) which was attached to the Gaelscoil for a year before starting. It ran from 9am till 11.30, when the nursery would collect her. I used my very poor Irish but that was ok because I bought a book of phrases useful with children. (Stop that! Close the door! Would you like to help me? What would you like to play? etc. This was in the late 90s) Just hearing Irish improved mine, and I tried to get to the Irish classes run by the school when she was in 1st class. Unfortunately I had really bad luck with babysitters, and only got to about 3 classes.

She went to an English-speaking secondary school but retained her love of Irish, getting a B in Hons Irish in the LC. And yes, she is still trilingual.

Oh, yes, homework. Wasn't much of a problem at all. Maths is maths. Spelling is spelling. I couldn't help much with the Irish though, but she usually translated what she needed to know.

The Languages forums under Soc might get you more answers as many of the bilingual people are over there.

byhookorbycrook

It is not "your gaelscoil!" Dostoevsky.Your post, to be honest, has me wondering if you are trolling. Thankfully, you do not decide who attends the school. Why should your family get priority just because you speak Irish at home?

If most Gaelscoileanna operated that way,they would soon die out, Gaelscoileanna exist to make the language accessible to anyone who wants it. They have brought Irish to a wider and diverse population and this is why they are so sucessful.

Perhaps you'd consider setting up your own version of a Gaelscoil with your own elite method of selction.
All we ask of our parents is that they are favourable to the language and use what they can even if it's only slán or go raibh maith agat.

Dostoevsky

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

It is not "your gaelscoil!" Dostoevsky.Your post, to be honest, has me wondering if you are trolling.

By "our" I clearly meant the gaelscoileanna of those of us who do love the language and are passionate about it. Gaelscoileanna were set up for these people, not for people who choose it for the wrong reasons, such as the school being a smaller size. People who send their children to a gaelscoil for the wrong reasons - e.g. size, fewer immigrants and whatever other canard might be in fashion - are taking up spaces in these schools from people who want to send their kids there for linguistic/cultural reasons, the very reasons for which these schools were established.

Why you chose to read the post differently I don't know but I hope you feel better after letting off all that steam.

seavill

Dostoevsky wrote: »

By "our" I clearly meant the gaelscoileanna of those of us who do love the language and are passionate about it. Gaelscoileanna were set up for these people, not for people who choose it for the wrong reasons, such as the school being a smaller size. People who send their children to a gaelscoil for the wrong reasons - e.g. size, fewer immigrants and whatever other canard might be in fashion - are taking up spaces in these schools from people who want to send their kids there for linguistic/cultural reasons, the very reasons for which these schools were established.

Why you chose to read the post differently I don't know but I hope you feel better after letting off all that steam.

From my reading of this thread the original poster clearly has an interest in languages. They state how they are obviously interested in their son speaking Irish but worried about being able to help if it were needed.

They already speak a second language in their house and are obviously interested in keeping that going, by continuously speaking Russian to their son.
A genuine question in relation to would speaking another language regularly have an impact on the uptake of Russian.

I fail to see how you can attach this person for wanting to send their child to a gaelscoil for other reasons. They do not mention other reasons, you do.

They clearly had two genuine questions in relation to language development and you go off on your high horse attacking them for obviously personal issues you have.
I have met some parents like you from gaelscoil and I have also met some lovely parents. It is your attitude that gives off the wrong impression of kids and parents from gaelscoil.

Not so long ago I was speaking to a principal of one of the first lot of gaelscoil that was set up, and their view was that the school was opening yes for people who have a love for the language but do not live in a gaeltacht but ALSO for those who do not come from an Irish speaking background and would like to immerse their kids in the native language and maybe build it up in their own homes, including learning more Irish themselves.

I do not believe you are trolling but I do think that you obviously have a bone to pick with someone within your own school, but that does not mean there is any need to attack someone with what is obviously a genuine interest in languages.

If I were this person I would certainly reconsider sending my child to a gaelscoil if you were the sort of parent I was going to be in contact with regularly or that my son was going to be exposed to.

byhookorbycrook

The OP has reasons for wanting to send a child to a Gaelscoil and are entitled to do so, You are ascribing reasons not mentioned at all. I work in one of the biggest Gaelscoileanna in the country and am glad to say we do not encourage elitism and our school is open to anyone who chooses to make the commitment of sending their child to a scoil lán-Ghaeilge.

D4RK ONION

That's enough chat about "the kind of people who put their children in Gaelscoileanna etc.". Let's please focus solely on answering the OP without judging his/her decision or the reasoning behind it.

Kusinna

Thank you very much for your posts!

Tell you the truth, I was taken aback by the reply from Dostoevsky - and here me, looking at the nickname and thinking this is a post from a Russian speaking parent of a Gaelscoil pupil . I’m very happy though that the other contributors had more useful (to me) things to say.

In our rural town Gaelscoil, regretfully, is struggling to get numbers this year, so this is not the case where precious spaces are taken up by people who do not care about Irish.

I do have an interest in Irish, done it for 2 semesters as part of my professional development, but I do not speak it, hence my worry about the homework. Gaelscoil is a big commitment in my eyes, hope you can appreciate that.

Thank you for the encouraging stories and support, Gaelscoil is a real possibility now. I will visit Languages forums for more information.

Go raibh maith agat!

byhookorbycrook

Kusinna, we have a number of children who are multi-lingual and they are all flying.

Bazinga_N

As a past student of the Gaelscoil I might be able to help.

Learning Irish from an early age ensured it stuck with me today. It's also noticed that generally speaking Gaelscoil students tend to better at languages in the future. I personally have as much Irish as I do English, something I'm very proud of!

However, neither one of my parents could speak much Irish, nor did many of my fellow student's parents. But, we all managed grand! The teacher's are brilliant. Also, my school (not sure if they all do) offered a free Irish learning class after school once a week for parents to learn a bit of Irish. Only thing my parents didn't like was the annual school plays, and that was only because the couldn't understand them :P

I did have a fear of the transition into English education for Secondary School but it's no problem, it's seriously an advantage. I often find myself (in subjects such as Science and Geography) thinking in Irish. And Irish classes are of no difficulty which is always an upside.

On another note, my Primary experience was amazing. I never had a problem going into to school. We all loved it! Every student I meet are always complaining that they didn't get to go to the Gaelscoil, as they are brilliant schools.

Seriously GO FOR IT!! You won't regret it by any means.