phil
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The Irish Language.On the Pat Kenny show this morning they were talking about the future of the Irish language,children hate learning it, when they leave school its of no practical use for the majority,maybe the way forward would be to concentrate more on speaking the language instead of spending all their time in the early years, learning the theory side of it.
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MrsL
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I think you're right and agree with you; I seem to think it's the way that was used to keep Scots Gaelic going - get the children to speak it first, then apply the grammar/theories etc. Like a lot of things, language has to be sued to survive.
I hope to get around to learning some Irish one day, it's On The List.
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macconraoi
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I am not a fluent Irish speaker but all of my kids are in irish speaking schools,i think speaking it is far better than reading/learning in the early years of childhood.
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bref
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I agree, I remember hating Irish in school (probably the way it was taught rather than the language). Although thinking back, perhaps it was the saintly Christian Brothers that were trying to beat it in to us that I hated rather than any thing else (I remember one bastard that used to grab your ear and shake you if he didnt like what were, or were not doing, he actually picked a smaller guy up by his two ears one day.)
Right now though and for a long time I am somewhat ashamed that I can't speak my own feckin language and wished I had paid more attention in school....
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blowin
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I would have dearly loved to have learned at least enough to communicate in the language of this country which has been such a friendly host to me . Can speak a little French and Kiswahili , almost decipher the elements of Latin-based languages such as Italian and German but even the phonetics of Gaelic are a mystery to me .
There is a "Translation " thread someplace on this forum -- not for serious tuition in words or grammar but for the communication of words or concepts which might easily be misunderstood or misconstrued by a foreigner . We blowins could do with a few more lessons on there if you have the time . 
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MrsL
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I was thinking of whether we could get together and do some sort of communal learning type thing - mutual support and encouragement,althought the speaking part might be difficult, obviously. Off to look for the said thread.
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blowin
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Sorry , I wasn't being very helpful there . It is a whole section called "the Translation Service " , under the header of " Chat" in the main index .
You will note from one of the earliest posts that I got a good ( and justified ) telling off for using the phrase " Anglo-Irish " , which I meant only in the same sense as eg French - German dictionary . That was an eye-opener to some of the potential misunderstandings .
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pinkcow
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Hi all
I live in the Gaeltacht of Gaoth Dobhair in Donegal, as I fluent Irish speaker who works in a school, I can see that the way Irish is being taught is not working, Im not a teacher by the way Im a SNA  When you think about it children are being taught the Irish language from the ages of 5 yrs old to school leaving age and its very rare that they could have a fluent gaeilge conversation with someone.
Obviously its not working and the language is dying. A recent report showed that in fifteen years time not enough young people will speak Gaeilge to be able to pass it on to their children and eventually it will die out. The report also showed that when a child goes to school the first language they speak to another child will be the language they will converse in for the rest of their friendship. Of the 24 children in junior infants last year over half spoke no Gaeilge at all bar the few simple words, even through their parents are Gaeilge speakers, I think the parents assume that the school will teach them Gaeilge, which we do, but it really slows things down when you have to translate from English to Gaeilge all the time and some parents just dont care, which is their right, I suppose.
Anyway rant over  But I would recommend Des Bishops' In the name of the Fada or Tongues to anyone - he speaks the hilarious truth, you can probably youtube it
Gaeilge is a fascinating language but I admit it is hard to learn, but please try because it is part of us and as the saying goes - tír gan teanga tír gan anam - a country with out a language is a country without a soul
Bríd
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wayland
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Just to add my two pen`ath . I would not want to see accents let alone a language disappear from the common tongue. Unfortunately not many in the EU/world speak Irish, and the importance of doing business etc with others require some sort of common language. Rightly or wrongly English,French,and German seems to have the monopoly. So if Ireland wants to mix it with the rest then the kids would need to be fluent in one of these. Not many foreign firms would want to come to Ireland if only Irish was spoken here me thinks. Stating the obvious I know but it is a fact of life. Now!! Heritage/culture is a totally different story. In the UK some years ago there was a movement to get the kids to talk the Queens English!!! Accents would be a thing of the past. In Gloucestershire we had to recite the following line over and over again. "He hit him on the head with a hard hard hammer". In Gloucester speak this came out as " E it im on da ed wiv a ard ard ammer". after two days the teachers gave up . So don't let the Irish language die out either. We are not all the same and should celebrate our differences.
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blowin
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[quote="wayland"]...." E it im on da ed wiv a ard ard ammer". /quote]
The cad ! Very bad form , don't y'know , Old Boy .
Care for a little snifter before you hit the road ?
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