Micheál Martin wants 250,000 Irish speakers by 2030

I don't agree with your take on the Irish language DB74, I'm quite proud of it. But I do agree that this would be a very poor use of our limited funds. I think the state is spending far too much money on the language. If people are interested in learning the language they will do so off their own bat, the state should not need to be so heavily involved. I fully agree with the FG take on this - leave the language to those with an interest and a love for it and don't force it on anyone not interested.
 
Our language is an inate part of who we are, losing it would represent a huge cultural loss. We also speak "hiberno-English in Ireland, where English has been transformed by it's exposure to Irish, much to our benefit and to the world's, in the writings of various artists. It has also been shown that people who have more than one language more readily pick up another. The Israeli 's successfully re-launched Hebrew as a language, most Israeli's can speak it and often a range of other languages.
 
Yeah, I agree with the other posters. I have no problem with increasing the number of Irish speakers. I dont see it as a waste of time. I speak three languages but consider it a disgrace that I can't speak Irish but the love of the language was beaten out of me in school and can't face going back to it!
 
If people want to learn Irish let them do so by choosing it as an optional subject at secondary school level or outside of school entirely.

The way its taught in schools is clearly not working - how many people on this site were subjected to Irish in school and cannot speak a word of it now, and worse, as Sunny says, the love of it beaten out of her in school!!

Teach kids stuff that might help them go on to do something useful in life. A dose of basic financial management would have been far better than any Irish class for the many people with massive amounts of personal debt and no clue how they find themselves in dire financial straits.
 
Agree entirely that the way its being thought in school is not working!

I have sent my kids to the gaeltacht and it has had an amazing effect on them.
After those three weeks I would say their level of Irish had been improved a hundred fold.

One of my kids will be attending Irish secondary school.
It is interesting that this Irish school is one of the top preforming schools in Ireland!.And all through Irish..long may it live.

I have to admit I am dreadful at the cupla focal,but when I hear the local kids on the bus speaking in Irish,I feel very proud, especially when there are Spanish and French students around,in other words to be able to speak our own language is such a brilliant thing to have,we need to change how it is taught more than anything else.

Cant imagine making a suggestion to the French that they should get rid of their language!!
 
How many of the big multi-national companies require Irish? it cetainly will not help them to get a job.
What will the French speak if they get rid of french?
 
There's a point being missed here . Language, or life for that matter, is not solely about getting a job. We are human, not worker bees. I accept the point that foreign languages would be useful, and this is best done quite young. I know kids who were educated thro French, and you can also be taught thro the medium of German or Japanese, this opens them to all the cultures of those countries. All this enrichs people, and Irish does the same, but it also introduces children to one of the most ancient and richest cultures of Europe.
 
horusd said:
All this enrichs people, and Irish does the same, but it also introduces children to one of the most ancient and richest cultures of Europe.
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I dont disagree with this - but currently they way Irish is being taught in schools is having the effect of turning children off the language altogether. There is nothing stopping parents enrolling children in extra curricular Irish in the same way they do for a child who loves music or dancing. At the moment it just seems to be wasting classroom time.
 
truthseeker said:
I dont disagree with this - but currently they way Irish is being taught in schools is having the effect of turning children off the language altogether. There is nothing stopping parents enrolling children in extra curricular Irish in the same way they do for a child who loves music or dancing. At the moment it just seems to be wasting classroom time.
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Its not just Irish though. It't the teaching of all languages. I only learnt when I left school and worked abroad. Before that I hated languages. I don't know what happens in schools these days so can't really comment I suppose but I would like the teaching of languages (and science) to start earlier and get kids excited about it. No point waiting until they are 12-13 years old.
 
truthseeker said:
I dont disagree with this - but currently they way Irish is being taught in schools is having the effect of turning children off the language altogether. There is nothing stopping parents enrolling children in extra curricular Irish in the same way they do for a child who loves music or dancing. At the moment it just seems to be wasting classroom time.
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Or we could change the way it is taught??

Because the logic will become that all subjects not directly relevant to aquiring a job should be extra circular.

Here is something that could work
;[broken link removed]
 
thedaras said:
Because the logic will become that all subjects not directly relevant to aquiring a job should be extra circular.
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Do kids not do a variety of subjects (at leaving cert level), some of which have no impact on getting a job? For example, if you did Physics and Home Economics you could end up in a science lab and never use the Home Ec for the job - or end up in a restaurant and never use the Physics for the job?

Why couldnt Irish be optional at Leaving Cert level - such as the above examples? That way if a kid has shown interest in it they can continue to do it - also an overhaul to how it is taught is needed.
 
The Irish language has a value but it comes at a significant cost. IMHO, the devotion of significant state resources towards its life support has never been justfiable but in the current circumstances it's become nonsensical. In the public service, for example, the cost of producing publications is more than doubled because of the legal requirement to print an Irish language version. And for whom? The scattering of die-hards who insist on them as a right, even though they never get read.

Forcing anything on people, particularly kids, only serves to cause resentment. Those interested in the language's development need to go back to basics and adopt some innovative approach that doesn't involve force-feeding.

The time kids spend at school is limited. As a priority, you need to teach them the skills that will be actually be useful to them in later life. The Irish language is a luxury we can't necessarily absorb.
 
I think there is too much money spent on Irish (e.g. European law translations that nobody reads) and it should be completely optional at school. Irish became 'cool' during the Celtic Tiger but I think people will steer their kids towards more useful languages from now on.
 
roker said:
How many of the big multi-national companies require Irish? it cetainly will not help them to get a job.
What will the French speak if they get rid of french?
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Interestingly I work for one of those companies, we were recently asked to design a public sector website and it had to be in Irish and English. We dodn't have someone who could do it, ended up hiring a friend of mine who is an Irish teacher to translate it over a weekend.
 
Mpsox said:
We dodn't have someone who could do it, ended up hiring a friend of mine who is an Irish teacher to translate it over a weekend.
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And the same person could have put in a letter to Santa in Irish and nobody would know the difference.
 
The fact that Martin wants 250000 Irish speakers by 2030 is a complete indictment of the educational system seeing as most people study the language for 14 years already.

I am not against Irish and am in favour of it being taught.
However our highly qualified young people have to emigrate to Australia etc to engage in basis agricultural work while Intel, Dell Hewlett Packard are bring in graduates from France, Spain etc to service their international clients. High paid jobs the Irish could do if they had proper contintal langauage teaching
 
Staples said:
And the same person could have put in a letter to Santa in Irish and nobody would know the difference.
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I agree. Govt Depts now have to get certain documents and reports translated into Irish. They send them to a translator, get it back, no one in the area is able to check it or proof read it so God knows what it says.
 
Any Government overseeing an educational system that imposes the teaching of Irish over say French, German or Chinese is failing its citizens.
 
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