For those of you who watch TG4, what do you think of Alex Hijmans? He's the Dutch guy who is a fluent Irish speaker. I catch him doing news reports on TG4's WebTV from time to time. How's his pronounciation? Could he pass himself off as a native speaker?

His bio says he spent a month in An Cheathrú Rua (Carraroe in Galway) learning Irish and has been living in Ireland for about nine years. Doesn't mention how much Irish he had before that though.
http://www.rte.ie/tv/turasteanga/guest17.html

Fair play to him. Too bad more immigrants (and Irish born people) don't show the same initiative.

From RnaG/RTÉ where he reads the news:

quote:

How's his pronounciation?

Good to perfect.

quote:

Could he pass himself off as a native speaker?

No. He has an accent.

I've heard him doing reports as gaeilge and in English on TG4 and RTE. I didn't realise he is Dutch because his English is flawless. You would know that he is not a native Irish speaker, but his Irish is quite impressive

Ar an téad sin, bím ag éisteacht le Pádraig Breathnach ar Arts Show RTÉ 1 istoíche. An mbeadh fhios ag éinne nach cainteoir dúchais béarla é?

"Ar an téad sin, bím ag éisteacht le Pádraig Breathnach ar Arts Show RTÉ 1 istoíche. An mbeadh fhios ag éinne nach cainteoir dúchais béarla é?"

maith thú a fhirn :)

A Fhirn

Bfheidir gur Breatnach e ;)

hí hí, a shúnáis! ;-)