Thursday, March 13, 2008
I think the internet is going to save Irish.
A buddy of mine is interested in learning a bit of Irish. Spurred by his questioning, I went to Google, entered "irish language podcast", and was bowled over by s list of sites like this one.
One of the podcasts I listed to was about Wikipedia. There was much discussion of search terms. Since the Irish word for "word" - "focal" (pronounced like "buckle", with an "f" for the "b"), I kept getting distracted. I discovered that the Irish word for "dot" sounds like "punk". Probably spelt "ponc" in Irish. Live and learn.
When I was a kid, Irish was dying. The way it was taught in school was horrible, the gaeltachts were reservations, and English was seen as a step to wealth. Now I can listen to podcasts of current affairs, and read the language as written. The site above sounds like Munster Irish, but I can get most of it. I now need to find a Connaught Irish podcast, and I'm good.
A buddy of mine is interested in learning a bit of Irish. Spurred by his questioning, I went to Google, entered "irish language podcast", and was bowled over by s list of sites like this one.
One of the podcasts I listed to was about Wikipedia. There was much discussion of search terms. Since the Irish word for "word" - "focal" (pronounced like "buckle", with an "f" for the "b"), I kept getting distracted. I discovered that the Irish word for "dot" sounds like "punk". Probably spelt "ponc" in Irish. Live and learn.
When I was a kid, Irish was dying. The way it was taught in school was horrible, the gaeltachts were reservations, and English was seen as a step to wealth. Now I can listen to podcasts of current affairs, and read the language as written. The site above sounds like Munster Irish, but I can get most of it. I now need to find a Connaught Irish podcast, and I'm good.
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