mainoff.gif
lastdyoff.gif
lastwkoff.gif
treeoff.gif
searchoff.gif
helpoff.gif
contactoff.gif
creditsoff.gif
homeoff.gif


The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 2005- » 2006 (March-April) » Archive through April 18, 2006 » Irish in the US and beyond « Previous Next »

Author Message
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Antaine
Member
Username: Antaine

Post Number: 696
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Saturday, April 08, 2006 - 08:38 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

I got to use cupla focail with 3 customers today, and no, they weren't all together (tho two were) and it got me to thinking...

I have been able to have at least a short exchange with nine or ten customers in the past ten months at the retail store where I work while finishing my masters (I started there last June). That's about one a month, which I figure isn't bad for a central Jersey audience (only one was a Daltaí person, and he's not in the count so as not to skew the frequency. I mention that because my area is kind of a hub of Daltaí activity.)

...How many of you out there who don't live in Ireland even attempt to use Irish with coworkers or customers? Those who do, what kind of response do you get? What's your approach? Usually, when I get a customer with a brogue I'll ask them what part of Ireland they're from, and then "an bhfuil Gaeilge agat?"

Usually, their jaw drops and their eyes pop out a bit as they try to formulate a response, having never expected this young yank 3000 miles from the nearest gaeltacht to even know the language existed, much less actually speak any...

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Aindréas
Member
Username: Aindréas

Post Number: 62
Registered: 09-2005


Posted on Saturday, April 08, 2006 - 08:51 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

You ran into Irish speakers in a retail store in New Jersey?? Woha. I'm lucky if I run into anyone who can speak something other than English. I've never even met anyone from Ireland, and hardly anyone who knew Irish existed, so my experience with the language has been only online.

Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Antaine
Member
Username: Antaine

Post Number: 697
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Saturday, April 08, 2006 - 10:53 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

granted, I had more Irish than they did, and I'm a far, far cry from fluent, but they'd been here for between 10 and 30 years, most never speaking it once out of school, so remembering anything is a boon. and if only one would have a heart-pang and try to brush up...

but anyway, I find that there are more out there than you think, it's a matter of being brave enough to ask. I mean, virtually every irish person alive (who grew up in ireland) had to take it in school (those too old for that are likely very veeeeery old by now) - so hear an accent, figure they had at least some at one point...

like i said, most are surprised to find that the trend of their youth of avoiding the language is changing in some circles - and unlikely ones to boot. then i tell them about daltaí and brookdale and the weekends and totally blow their minds...

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Caitriona (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From:
Posted on Sunday, April 09, 2006 - 12:46 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

Antaine. It's usually the opposite for me. They hear my accent and I get a few words of Irish from Americans and foreigners first. The favorite here is 'Erin go bragh' which most people know from Paddy's Day and then there's the famous Póg mo... Oops. I've met some priests from the Vatican (not Irish priests) who could carry on a conversation in Irish.
I'll introduce some Irish at the end of an Irish dance course when I teach the kids to say 'Go raibh maith agat' when they get a little prezzy. They also say 'Slán' as they leave. If I'm teaching a foreign language course I introduce myself telling them that I'm from Ireland and that I speak Irish. They ask how it sounds. I give them a phrase or two and move on to what I'm supposed to be teaching. If a word comes up that is similar to an Irish word eg Cara I'll say, 'That means friend in my language.' They look puzzled and then remember that I told them Irish is a language. I explain names, like why Sean is pronounced Shawn etc.
My students of Irish are an inspiration to me. They are wonderful, intelligent, fun people who work hard at the language and hearing them talk to one another makes my heart sing.
Yes it's a great idea to use the Irish you have Antaine. That's how we keep it alive

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Riona
Member
Username: Riona

Post Number: 108
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Sunday, April 09, 2006 - 11:30 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

I always use the words I know with the people with whom I associate. Now granted they're all American and so the only reason they have any idea what something means is because I've told them. Some people will even try to use some of the words themselves. My good friend next door has a 4-year-old daughter and I expect her to say "slan" to me when I leave, none of this "goodbye" business. I rarely say I want water to drink when I'm with someone I know its always uisce that I want and some people will ask me if I want uisce. I say thanks and your welcome and what not, but noone seems to be able to pronounce those and I'm not good at trying to be patient with them and teach them. Then there's my mother who always makes fun of me when I try to use any Irish words around her. She thinks its a riot to poke fun at my efforts of using it.
Well done you, Antaine, I fear that I havn't the guts that you have. I'd be too nervous to ask someone whose Irish, in Irish, if they had any Irish. Sure and that was a ridiculous sentence.

Beir bua agus beannacht.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Antaine
Member
Username: Antaine

Post Number: 698
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Sunday, April 09, 2006 - 11:55 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

That's great. I train the people around me too. I can have short conversations wtih my mother now, and my best friend has been coming to the weekends and is working ever-so-slowly on progress in irish.

one of my goals is to become fluent. should i ever have children i'll never speak to them a word of english. my feeilng is they'll pick that up plenty of other places.

i long for the day i no longer have to wear holes in my pants carrying around an irish dictionary everywhere i go.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Riona
Member
Username: Riona

Post Number: 111
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Monday, April 10, 2006 - 01:24 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

A Antaine,

Kids are clever, they'll pick up Bearla everywhare so I think you definitely shouldn't speak it to them if you'll be clever enough to not by that time. None of my friends care about Ireland or Irish with anymore than a vague tollerance of my ramblings. Although I suppose that's not entirely true because I do have one friend who likes Ireland but not with any seriousness beyond the occasional conversation about it or going to an Irishy pub, and wanting to visit it once more, having visited when she was young in the 70s.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Antaine
Member
Username: Antaine

Post Number: 701
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Monday, April 10, 2006 - 04:33 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

ah. among immediate family and friends whatever I can manage to say in Irish gets said in Irish first, then repeated with gestures, and only then translated into english if need be

trust me...they love me for it ;-)

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

James
Member
Username: James

Post Number: 339
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Monday, April 10, 2006 - 04:48 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

We had a Steeplechase trainer here, Tom Foley, who would bring jockeys and exercise riders over for the winter months. About every 2 to 3 weeks I'd run into one in the local feed store. We'd strike up a little conversation that would go "bearla" within a few words. Probably as much my fault as theirs. Sadly, Tom has moved on and taken his Irish riders with him.

The mother of one of my co-workers is from Mayo and she has more Irish than she lets on. We trade phrases and such when I see her, but that's not as often as I wish. I'm sure that if I could spend some time with her she would recall more and I would learn more.

As a general rule, I never let an Irish accent go unchallenged!

(Message edited by james on April 10, 2006)

Is minic a bhris beál duine a shrón.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Drochfhuaimniú
Member
Username: Drochfhuaimniú

Post Number: 57
Registered: 07-2005


Posted on Monday, April 10, 2006 - 11:30 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

I used to work in retail and once or twice this guy with a brogue would come in. I always tried to strike up a conversation but he was very quiet and very introspective. So I didn't really want to press him . . .

Last year in an english class of mine our teacher told us to pick an ongoing problem in the world - I chose the decline of Irish. I read something aloud, I think the Lord's Prayer, in Irish, and everyone was pretty astounded. They must've thought it was very difficult to pronounce because a lot of people clapped.

I bring it up with my friends a lot too. Doing my part I guess.

Rinne Máire gáire gan náire ag an fhaire i nDoire anuraidh.

D'ith damh dubh ubh amh ar neamh.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Riona
Member
Username: Riona

Post Number: 115
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 12:22 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

I suppose doing one's part here in America includes educating the people one knows. So many people don't even know its a language. That condition doesn't exist very longthough if someone spends any time with me because I talk about it and issues related to it far too often.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Máirín
Member
Username: Máirín

Post Number: 25
Registered: 11-2004


Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 08:01 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

I was in the hospital for knee surgery and I was very bored. One day when I was going down to rehab(very painful),to the transporter duirt mé Dia dhuit. She said
Dia is Muire dhuit agus Conas tá tú. I almost fell out of my wheel chair, because the woman was from Haiti. She told me that someone who worked in the hospital was teaching her.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Robert (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From:
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:38 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

Last Saturday after delivering my talk on second language acquisiton in Maynooth, I was buying the Times when the shop keep responded with 'Gura maith agat' so I switched. He told me that his teacher from tír chonaill told him, if they (the students) were to just say go raibh maith agat he would be happy. Not shooting 2 high was he, I thought?

Anyway, today, between classes an ex-gaelscoileanna student saw a briathra book I had and asked me about it. We switched and conversed. His vocabulry was larger than mine; mine his fuimeanna. Tuché i'd say....

that is 2.

I know Kildare and Dublin are not structly foreign but a) I'm from Conn's half b) I was in the Pale



©Daltaí na Gaeilge