Learning Gaelic - Irish Language Thread

[Fionn MacCool]

Are there any real benefits, and do they outweigh the time/costs?

I'd like to learn it, just to understand some of the songs and read some literay works (e.g Behan) in their original form.

I think I'll leave it until I have less going on though (A-Levels, Uni etc) but I'd like to get around to it before it dies out (which looks to be the case aparantly).

I've noticed a few people on this board are pretty well versed in it, Fintan for one. Is it hard to learn? Well, I'll rephrase that... how hard is it to learn? I can't speak any languages other than English but that was mainly because I was forced to learn French and didn't want to so put no effort into it.

[CraigBatty]

Do it. When you have the time, do it. Why? Because it's there. Why? Because it deserves it. Why? Because it will improve you as a person. And if you don't, who will? And with attitudes like those prevalent in our species, is it any wonder we lose so much of our rich panoply of cultures to apathy? Notice how my reply is entirely in English? I wish my Irish was better...

How hard? As hard as you make it. THere are now some fantastically easy learning materials for the self-taught; and being, as you are, in the UK, you have far greater access to classes and native speakers than we poor antipodeans. Go to it, a mhic.

Cén fáth? Is teanga bheo go álainn í, labhair í. Bain sult asti. Why? It's a beatiful living language. Speak it. Enjoy it.

[Simon Maguire]

My cousin takes Gaelic lesson she needs it for her job in Dublin (some Public service gig I dunno) any way shes one one of about four Irish there. The rest are apparently East European, African or Asians. So I think its about time the Irish caught up.

[philipchevron]

Are there any real benefits, and do they outweigh the time/costs?

I'd like to learn it, just to understand some of the songs and read some literay works (e.g Behan) in their original form.

I think I'll leave it until I have less going on though (A-Levels, Uni etc) but I'd like to get around to it before it dies out (which looks to be the case aparantly).

I've noticed a few people on this board are pretty well versed in it, Fintan for one. Is it hard to learn? Well, I'll rephrase that... how hard is it to learn? I can't speak any languages other than English but that was mainly because I was forced to learn French and didn't want to so put no effort into it.

It's unlikely to die out anytime soon. On the contrary, it has become so much the lingua franca, as it were, of Irish television, that's it tough to break into Irish broadcasting without it. This is mainly because the mostly-Gaelic channel TG4 (who co-Produced Sarah Share's If I Should Fall From Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story) is responsible for so much of today's most innovative and/or cutting edge television.

[Sober]

Is Gaelic used in common life? In Ireland, do they speak it in conversations they might have between each other? Or do they speak mostly English?

[philipchevron]

Is Gaelic used in common life? In Ireland, do they speak it in conversations they might have between each other? Or do they speak mostly English?

They speak English except in the small Gaeltacht areas, where the First Language is Irish. Outside the Gaeltachts, if you see people speaking Irish to each other in public, they are either fantatical, dangerous nationalists or, perhaps more scary, In The Media.

Increasingly however, we speak Polish, but I recently saw a statistic that over 150 languages are now spoken regularly in Ireland. We can't help it - we are genetically compelled to fuck with words.

[Simon Maguire]

My cousin make's her daughter go to the Gaeltacht every summer. Not a popular decsion mind you.

[georgecat]

Is Gaelic used in common life? In Ireland, do they speak it in conversations they might have between each other? Or do they speak mostly English?

They speak English except in the small Gaeltacht areas, where the First Language is Irish. Outside the Gaeltachts, if you see people speaking Irish to each other in public, they are either fantatical, dangerous nationalists or, perhaps more scary, In The Media.

Now I'm curious about the people I've talked to because I heard them speaking Irish at the pub.

[CraigBatty]

...that's not the most useful language in the world. Unless you live in a little Irish village in the middle of nowhere, that is.

An unkind person could say the same of the Quebecois dialect of French that many Contimental Francophones seem to find quaint and retrograde.
Irish is a living language; in use daily by tens of thousands of people, known by hundreds of thousands, and being learnt by anything up to a million globally. It is not quantity, but quality, that is the issue here.
The politicising of the language itself, in a modern context, can be laid at the feet of many people, mainly Irish nationalists; but, I restate, it is a living language, not a cultural curiosity trapped in amber spoken only by leprechaun-hunters and wild-eyed hazel-wand bearing mystics. Mind you, there's a few of them about in the language movement. Still...
Learning any language gives the student an insight into the mindset or gestalt of the culture in question. I originally set out to learn Irish purely for the sake of enjoying singing in the language and more fully appreciating the sheer beauty of the tongue. What a long journey of learning and growing it has been over the last ten years... this is definitely a language that has endured deliberate suppression and disapproval, and many efforts made to 'save' it (a confused concept in itself), or at least nurture and sustain it, will often be coloured by a certain misguided 'fanaticism'. Especially when you get governments involved. Anyway, in ainm Dé, I'm going to try and stop foaming now... tá tinneas chinn orm, agus pian i mo chroí. Slán agaibh.

[Sober]

Technically, our French is closer to the French they were speaking before the conquest. Besides, some regions in France are not really better. And our French/country musn't be that bad when I wander in the streets of Montreal and I see so many French people who came to live here because they love it.

Oh, and Mexican Spanish is very, very different to Spanish from Spain. I had a friend from Spain who barely could understand it. American English is pretty different to UK English too. But we are more used to hearing an American accent in movies and such, so we don't really notice it. Saying that our French is not good is really bollocks, it's just different.

Finally, with all the laws here, that's the place where the French language is the most protected in the world. With all the efforts to protect the Irish language in Ireland, I think you should understand that.

Other questions?

But I am not into the subject of this thread at all. Sorry about that.

[Behan]

Is Gaelic used in common life? In Ireland, do they speak it in conversations they might have between each other? Or do they speak mostly English?

I recently saw a statistic that over 150 languages are now spoken regularly in Ireland. We can't help it - we are genetically compelled to fuck with words.

And how many of them do you speak Mr. C?

[philipchevron]

Is Gaelic used in common life? In Ireland, do they speak it in conversations they might have between each other? Or do they speak mostly English?

They speak English except in the small Gaeltacht areas, where the First Language is Irish. Outside the Gaeltachts, if you see people speaking Irish to each other in public, they are either fantatical, dangerous nationalists or, perhaps more scary, In The Media.

Now I'm curious about the people I've talked to because I heard them speaking Irish at the pub.

Definitely media types then. Unless - and this is where I have occasionally found Irish useful in Britain - they're talking about you and would rather you didn't understand.

[Heather]

Is Gaelic used in common life? In Ireland, do they speak it in conversations they might have between each other? Or do they speak mostly English?

They speak English except in the small Gaeltacht areas, where the First Language is Irish. Outside the Gaeltachts, if you see people speaking Irish to each other in public, they are either fantatical, dangerous nationalists or, perhaps more scary, In The Media.

Now I'm curious about the people I've talked to because I heard them speaking Irish at the pub.

Definitely media types then. Unless - and this is where I have occasionally found Irish useful in Britain - they're talking about you and would rather you didn't understand.

Have you been taking tips from the Welsh?

[georgecat]

Liverpudlians! I can't understand a word of that either. My mouth was agape when I first heard it spoke.

Thanks for the tip Philip, it makes sense I was being talked about as once in particular I was dressed a bit...er...umm...oddly from being at a punk festival that holiday... and sitting in a local pub listening to traditional Irish music in the middle of the afternoon isn't very common I suppose. Ended up hanging out with the guys all evening, who in fact taught me a few words of Irish.

[Heather]

Actually you should be able to understand me, my accent isn't as bad as some.