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The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 2005- » 2009 (November-December) » Archive through December 30, 2009 » "Mensa" for Irish - cuir i gcas "Urlabhra"? « Previous Next »

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Acco
Member
Username: Acco

Post Number: 41
Registered: 04-2009
Posted on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - 07:07 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

Ta bron orm, a chairde ach nil aon sinti fada ar an mearchlar seo. Scriobhfaidh me an piosa seo as bearla da bharr.

What would you think about a sort of "Mensa" organization for the Irish language to become a member of which one would have to achieve a certain pre-determined strict standard? I am thinking maybe one could adopt C1/C2 category of the CEFR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Language s as an entry criterion.

I include C1 to make it possible for a greater number of non-native speakers to achieve entry. In the case of the Irish language with the inherent lack of immersion opportunities it would be too narrow to make C2 the criterion. A threshold-cum-atrium membership could be created for people in the B1/B2 category, but here very good fluency in speech would have to be prerequisite in any case. (The fainne exists already, but this would be more academical and hard-edged.)

It is obvious that an organization like this in the major languages would be of interest only to non-native speakers. In the case of minority languages, however, it could provide an incentive generating framework, even for native speakers within which to maintain standards and to provide the native speakers with a recognized certification of their rare and valuable facility - especially in the case of Irish with its recognition up to and including EU level as a working language.

Even though I am not the best judge of it, by listening to RnaG and from what I hear otherwise I get the impression that the present generation of Irish politicians is better than the previous generation in their ability in Irish, so it seems to have attained a certain status value amongst those people for whom such things are very important (I know that the first Dail generations were the best of all in this way). I believe that those politicians with language intelligence would make a big effort to gain entry to this Mensa-style organization "Urlabhra".

I know that this smacks of elitism but I don't mean that this should be the be-all-and-end-all and deter anyone else from speaking Irish. I, for example, wouldn't gain entry at the moment or in the foreseeable future for example. I would continue on anyway - but I would have a gold-standard on the horizon to aim for.

Another thing: I read on the internet recently that the most difficult place in the world to try to cultivate Irish is in the Galltacht - because one is constantly surrounded and crowded out by negative factors which suck up the old misneach. The big minority that Eamonn O Cuiv is trying to create in that very sensible plan of his would become a community within a community in a certain partial way - it would form an intelligent bi-lingual minority within a majority that speaks the mainstream global everybody-language. This need not be a bad thing. In certain schools on the continent in countries which loved to be in the limelight as the vanguard of progress they have started to re-segregate schools and to separate boys and girls again - because the girls feel daunted by the presence of the boys.

So, then, nothing should be taboo!

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Conchubhar1
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Username: Conchubhar1

Post Number: 236
Registered: 03-2009
Posted on Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 03:17 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

absolutely no need.



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