I am going to be in Galway City for a couple of days in July. Could anyone suggest a good town to visit to meet native speakers that might not mind me engaging them in some beginning-level conversation?

go raibh maith agaidh,
Jim

Yes!!! Go west, young man...namely, go to Spiddle and anywhere west. There's a pub in town (not the Cruiscín Lán)that has great Trad music and everyone is speaking as gaeilge. You'll hear it in the shops too, but don't expect it to stay as gaeilge once you are noticed. They'll drop to english as soon as they see an American.

You may get some of the horse carriage drivers on Inis Mor to give you some Irish conversation and maybe in a few of the B&B's.

I love that area of Ireland. You'll have a great time!

"They'll drop to english as soon as they see an American."

James, that makes me sad. What makes them feel at ease? Like greeting them in Irish? I know the feeling … it's just unfortunate. I always get super super selfconscience if I'm not positive everyone within earshot can speak the language … but I can never figure out why … I'm not at all ashamed of speaking another language, sometimes quite the opposite, but I don't get why I clam up when others are around. It's a shame. =/

That's a whole topic in and of itself. Part of it has to do with the Second Class Citizen stigma that was associated with Irish in the past. Then again, there's also a certain segement that feels like it's their language..not anyone else's. And then there's the other crowd that's really just trying to be polite by switching over to your first language.

You'll find Irish and you'll find some conversation...just don't expect to be able to immerse yourself in it in the truest sense. It'll be more like you can sprinkle yourself with it...

okay...out of curiosity...if you start speaking irish to a shopkeep, and they answer you in english because it's clear you aren't a native...

...what happens if you simply keep using gaeilge?

After going to Spiddle you might drive on and hit a small place called Screeb. Watch Out! Áire! After many detours centered around this joint, we found ot that the signpost with all the directions on it was being painted at a locals garage. Try taking R336, R340 and R341 as well. The views were beautiful. Ádh mór leat agus bain sult as!

Antaine,

Good question. To be honest, I was (and still am) to naive in my language skills to go that route. I guess it was a combination of not being sure of my pronunciation and the shock of actually hearing it spoken first hand for the first time.

I'll go back one day with the specific intent of learning rather than touring.

A Aindreas a chara,

It makes me sad too. I wish it was not that way. I'd hate to think that just because of my presence everyone drops down to English. This is unfair and wrong, but I suspect that in some situations one must just keep quiet and out of the way so noone notices you and then they'll keep speaking to each other in Irish. I don't like that solution either, but it may in some places be your only chance. I know that negative attitudes towards Irish by people who don't like it are ingrained deep and so people to this day may not like speaking it in front of people who can't. That is really the saddest part of this all.

Beir bua

learn a little bit of something very few people in ireland speak (estonian, for instance), and claim that as your first language. with no english possible they may as well use the gaeilge (tongue in cheek, of course...knowing you speak irish they'd probably switch to english to talk about you =P )

I remember Jonas mentioning that he got people to talk to him in Irish by claiming that he was from Finnland (true) and he didn't know English well (false, not to mention all the other languages he speaks). I'm sure he came out with it later on with people but that's what it took to get some of the people to use Irish with him, quite sad and depressing.

Beir bua

I suppose that would be a bit easier for Jonas than for Americans … his strongest language is Finnish (from what I understand), so he can more easily have a claim to speaking Irish over English. A simple "sorry, my English isn't so good. Can we speak Irish?" or similar may suffice to stimulate conversation and all future dialgue to be as Gaeilge. I remember becoming a little frustrated when I wanted to practice German in Austria, yet got so many replies in English. I thought about pretending to not speak it, but I figured I looked so American that no one would buy it.

quote:

Part of it has to do with the Second Class Citizen stigma that was associated with Irish in the past.

This was an issue decades ago. If anything, it's completely reversed now.

Irish speakers will speak English to you in the Gaeltacht for one reason: They don't feel you're competent enough at Irish. What's the point in talking to someone if they don't understand what you're saying?

Interesting point A Fhearna_mbrog, did I spell your name right in the vocative, ... except for the missing fada I mean You may be right about the younger crowd, but the older people remember what it was like for themselves in the past. I'd much rather hang around people in Ireland who speak Irish than someone who is embarrassed of it.

The Irish youth are mad about nationalism, the IRA in particular! If you ever hear "The Fields of Athenry" sung by young Irish people, it sounds something like this:

Our love was on the wings... Sinn Féin
We had dreams and songs to sing... IRA

I've heard this as far away as in an Irish bar in Spain.

Plenty of Irish teenagers have Irish flags and celtic harps and IRA slogans tattoed on themselves. They'd learn Irish too if they just weren't so lazy.

Of the friends of mine who speak Irish fluently, I speak Irish to them -- not English.

Wow, it looks like Sinn Féin and nationalism in general are on the rise in Ireland. That certainly bodes well for the Irish language (if history is any indication).

Careful....we're going down a road we really shouldn't..

oops!
Thanks for the heads up, James.

It is a lot easier to get some tatoo or other to represent nationalism than it is to go learn a language. Good for you, Fearnambrog, for speaking it whenever you can. James is right that there are predictable patterns which often lead to predictable topics which often lead to closed threads. Its frustrating but that seems to be the way it is.
Beir bua

Go raibh maith agaidh!

You know its funny, until rcently I thought "Cois Fharraige" was a town. I surmise that actually refers to Conemara- have I got that right?

Actually it refers to that part of Co Galway immediatly west of Galway City on the coast out as far as Baile na hAbhann where Conamara proper could be said to start...somepeople say it stretches as far as Casla...and it includes Bearna, Na Forbacha, An Spidéal, Indreabhán...

The other areas beyond that would be Na hOileáin - west of Béal a'Daingin, Camus, North of Casla, Ros Muc north, west of that (Scríob, Gort Mór agsu Ros Muc fhéin) and Ioras Aithneach (Cill Chiaráin, Carna 7rl)...

The other parts of Conamara include Clifden, Leenane and Letterfraic Ballyconeely where for some reason Irish did not survive as the lingua franca..

agus inniú anseo tá an ghrian a scoilteadh na clocha...