Better off learning German as our masters are there !

It amazes me that Welsh children leave school fluent in their native language. The Dept of Ed should look at the model they use to teach their language and adopt it here.

My son left primary 2 years ago with little or no Irish,yet with just 2 years studying German in secondary he is more fluent in a foreign language than in his own native tongue. A shocking indictment of teaching standards at primary level.

Katie I agree absolutely that cronyism etc needs to be tackled and all spending aimed at supporting the language be carefully monitor. What I am objecting to is the. Vitriol spewed by the anti irish lobby as if supporting our language is intrinsically repressive of their rights. I tire of the negativity of the Anglophiles in d4

Well said Ross,

I have a friend who is fluent in it and he said that the biggest flaw in the Irish language is the way its taught. Too much time spent focusing on the theory and grammar and not enough on the practical and day to day usage of the language.

Joe

As it’s been said before the Welsh Language is booming, why can’t we send some officials on a ferry to see what needs to be done. Rhys Ifans, Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffydd, Gethin Jones and even RTE’s Bethan Kilfoil are all fluent welsh speakers. You can’t say that it was a waste of their education teaching them welsh, they’ve all done well. Even more astonishing is Alex Jones of the BBC’s One Show, she used to be a presenter on the Welsh Language channel S4C. Fluent in Welsh despite being born in a monogolt English speaking household, both her parents do not speak Welsh.

Can you explain how learning french before Irish can give a child a better understanding of ‘how languages work’?

Well french is thought in a more logical way as is german. Your thought it a way that gives you the basics say for example when you go on holidays. There is an air of excitement.
I just remember learning Irish in school and the teacher drumming it into ya and not having a clue or even the desire to learn more. Wrong wrong wrong
Its hard to explain, I think I could make a better fist of learning Irish now than say before I learned french.

Aaron, learning any second language gives an insight into how languages are generally structured above and beyond the intuitive nature in which you learn your first language as a child. If you learn a second language, it is generally easier to learn additional languages.

I never had a problem with Irish as I was immersed from a very young age in the language. French, on the other hand, i felt, was drummed into me. The only logical way to learn a language is immersion. And i do believe that being bilingual can help to become multi-lingual but don’t think we need to learn a foreign language before our own indigenous language.

Hi Páid, could you give some info on your perspective on the bill?

Please do not let the language disappear the way the native Indian languages here in the USA are vanishing, much to the regret of speakers who cherish their heritage. I’m happy to remember the Irish I learned through 1954 when the “MILE” (maths, Irish, Latin and English) we’re required for ‘matric’ at UCD. — Bill, Ridgeland, MS, USA

I’m sure you can speak a few words, don’t put yourself down like that, surely youre not that thick. You just havent applied yourself.

Embrace the few words you have, and add one or two new words a week. In a cupla bliain, you’ll have plenty of focail, and the trend will begin. You could caith in cupla focail in all your conversations, which will lead to more familiarity, for all, and before you know it, half your sentences will be as Gaeilge.

spot on mate….. spot on

Tell that to the folks that call Australia, the USA and Canada their home and see what response you get!

Cad e simples as Gaelige?

Simples – Shimplíthe?
Níl a fhios agam an bhfuil sheímheadh a dhith anseo.

They could begin by ceasing the attempt to force the language on the English-speaking population. This silly project is diverting much resource that could be better used protecting the language where it is spoken. Another FG promise broken.

The prejudice of non Irish speakers is unbelievable. Why is it other countries can appreciate the beauty of our culture but we as a nation revile it. The Irish language and culture is what distinguishes us from other English speaking countries and brings in huge numbers of tourists. Aside from that it has a intrinsic value other countries support there national culture and language. Wales support of welsh speaking areas and school has increased the numbers speaking welsh fivefold in the last twenty years. We need to grow up as a country we are not in school now being force fed peig we are adults and need to rediscover the beauty of our language and support the areas that keep it alive. Otherwise it will die and it will be to late to realise that we want it after all. Of course we could just turn into some generic quasi American outpost

You can love the language and the culture and still be aware that a lot of what goes on in the name of defending it is nonsense and costly nonsense at that.

At least digitisation may reduce the printing costs for the unread mountain of government documents that have to be published in Irish, even though hardly anyone ever requests them in Irish and nobody who couldn’t read them in English anyway. But it’s jobs for translators.

You can only be in awe of the lobbying that got this extended to the EU, where since 2007 all legislation is published in Irish, which isn’t even the primary language used in the parliament of the member state! Yeah – a career path for translators!

TnaG, Udaras etc are jealously guarded job schemes also and anyone who dares suggest they are over resourced is accused of being an enemy of the language and culture. Too easy.

you*

It’s the only language my phone understands.

@Paddy We all get it, you’re into Irish but its this holier than thou attitude which really rubs people up the wrong way! I support anyone’s right to use whatever language they wish to in their lives but I was born in a country in which the vast majority speaks English, I’ve never known a country that speaks Irish and to be honest after learning it for every single year I spent in school I still consider it a foreign language! This argument about people following an Irish team and not speaking English is mildly ridiculous but I’m sure you realise that yourself!

It’s not just about the language. It’s history, heritage, identity. Latin is dead but lives through culture and the arts. Irish can’t die. I don’t expect everyone to be fluent but don’t knock those of us trying to preserve it.

It’s not a matter of despising Irish but more about highlighting the idiotic obsession this state has with trying to preserve it at any cost when there are Irish citizens literally living hand to mouth..the pursuit of the focal is a nice little distraction for those who can afford it, but I personally want to see my kids learn German and Spanish, and may i add by flippantly dismissing a contrarian view to your own as ignorance is just insular

@ Paddy – I went through the Irish school system and so I was obliged to learn The Irish language. As an adult I’ve spent time learning German, modern Greek and Latin. Irish is a beautiful, but Latin is useful to me far more often than Irish. For the vast majority of people, Irish will not be a medium for business, legal or family issues. That is the fact of the matter and you cannot criticise people for this. That said, The Irish language is worth preserving and appreciating. Be pragmatic.

Paddy, if you lose the attitude you’ll probably find that people don’t ‘despise our native language’, they despise the way they had it knocked into them at school. For a lot of our fellow Irish people who were not raised in Gaeltacht areas, Irish was what was beaten into you in between religion being bet into you.

Enda Kenny speaks fluent(ish) Irish? As opposed to the flawless Irish tripping off the tongues of Michael Martin and Gerry Adams?

Why? They’d still get the same education (actually Gaeilscoileanna perform better).

@Alan

Hear hear! Enough of this gaelic fascism!

Sam, missing my point, I have a bit of Irish but the Irish I hear on the tv and radio is Donegal or Connemara Irish and that is completely different to what I was taught.
The whole educating of Irish in the schools is utter horseshit, if the gaelgoirs are so confident that they are in the majority, let the government put it to the people to decide whether this language should be compulsory or not along with religion too. If people had the opportunity in school from a reasonable age like 1st year to drop both and take up a language like German, French, Spanish even bloody Chinese they would definitely be fluent rather than the half hearted way foreign languages are taught now. Half my French ends up being broken Irish. About as useful in the middle of Paris as a bloody Hurley.

The gaelscoils only do better because of free marks in the leaving cert exams.

Pathetic.

Alan I agree it should be option in school, and other languages should be offered earlier. The point about Gaelscoileanna though is that Irish is just the language of instruction, Irish class could still be optional, language acquisition would be coincidental rather than the rubbish kids are taught in English-medium schools. I totally agree, let the people decide. I didnt even agree that with the point you were referring too, just intrigued to why you would homeschool you children so quickly just because hypothetically your only local school was a Gaelscoil!

If ignorance was an Olympic event you’d be a model for gold.

There’s no reason why kids can’t leave school with Irish and another European language. They’re not mutually exclusive

Copy Pasta isn’t an Irish name is it?

What exactly do you think should happen? That the language be allowed to die in favor of a language forced upon us by another government and state? Should we just let sleeping dogs lie and roll over to take the complicity of another nation on the chin? I for one welcome any attempts to preserve the language – and the State has every part to play in that preservation. Údarás na Gaeltachta might be a very very flawed institution but seeking its representation be constituted solely by county councillors – many of whom can’t even speak the Irish language let alone understand what its decline really means – is a stupid and self-serving idea.

I don’t understand your opposition to the State playing a role in the preservation of a language that I’m to only assume from your surname that your heritage had some part to play in the genesis of dealing that first savage blow to our ‘Teanga Dúchais’.

We are the state

Well said Diarmaid. A bit of heart at last. Eire Abu. No more of this West Brit, “stop making us learn stuff”- lazy b******d attitude

Who said anything about letting the language die?

If you have to force it on little children, then the language is dead.

Surely those people who want to speak the language can demonstrate a little more imagination?

And no, the people are the state. If they choose to speak English that’s their right. It’s the “we must all speak gaelic brigade” who partitioned this country.

@Diarmaid

And as for my surname, I’m as Irish as you are thank you very much. Irish and gaelic speaking are not synonymous.

Jaysus Diarmaid will you change the record on the invading power rhetoric its jaded at this stage. Before the Gaels arrived here from SPAIN may i add we had other native tongues so one could say if you go back far enough Irish or Gaelic is not our native language at all. A lot of bleeding hearts on here probably with little Fionns & Fiacras going to the local Gaescoil. Its all a tad pathetic really in the greater scheme of things people clinging for dear life to a language that is dead long since. The fact of the matter is that maybe a few hundred people on this island actually think in Irish and are indigenous speakers, that will soon be gone. I’m not celebrating the fact but just facing reality. The UN predicts 90% of present day languages will be dead in 90 years and the likelihood is that English, Spanish and Mandarin will dominate the globe. But so what its a means of communication period. Our Country is Ireland and our language is English get over it!!

Would that be matches involving IRISH teams?

TG4 are an Irish Language station. They can do what they want. If you dont want it in Irish commentary then watch the match where there is English Commentary.

I would add, Justin, that your failure to learn your native language if you are indeed Irish, shouldn’t mean that everything has to be in English so that you can understand it.

I loved Peig… everyone else hated her but I thought the stories rocked.

Also TG4 is a private station..

There is more to life than just simply working and paying bills, that is what life is not about. What’s wrong with spending extra time in the dail to try and sort out the gaeltacht issue. The Irish language is something to be proud of, its what makes us unique and different to many other countries. Instead of just giving out and making the easy decision of just getting rid of the language altogether, you should support ideas that many people and organisation have been putting forward such as teaching the language in a completely different way so people will actually be fluent after learning the language for 11 years which they should be.

He was welsh