Dia Dhuit (Hello)

Compared to my last study abroad trip to the Czech Republic, there really isn't a big language issues here especially when it comes to communicating with locals. Ireland is primarily an English speaking country with only about 35% of the people still speaking Irish today. Where we are living in Spiddal is located in a region that is filled with many Irish speaking people and they speak it on a daily basis. Many of the primary schools located in the area taught in Irish. So even though the language appears to be dying out there are many people still trying to keep it alive and bring it back. You can see rock/signs around and in Spiddal that are only in Irish. I wasn't sure what they said but I found them interesting and took a couple pictures of some that I saw.

Signs in Irish down by the harbor.

Marking a path near the harbor.

When traveling throughout the country you will find signs that have both Irish and English on them. From our little trip to Cork we also found out that the buses and trains use both names of the cities on their signs as well. This was slightly confusing for us at first because we weren't aware that Corcaigh and Cork were the same city. We thought we were going to get on the wrong bus! No worries, we didn't and we make it to Cork. There we had a great weekend exploring the city, visiting with locals and even speaking and learning some Irish from them.

Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Twomileborris_signage.JPG

From my language class I am finding out that the language is very hard to learn because words don't look anything how they are actually pronounced.  Dia Dhuit ,which means hello, is pronounced gee-a-hutch. Many other phrases are hard to say just by looking at the spellings. Thank you for example is pronounced go-ra-ma-aw-got but is spelled go raibh maith agat. It really is a beautiful language with many religious meanings in the phrase but not a language you can learn a lot of in a short amount of time.

Notes from language class.

Something else I noticed that even though they speak English the Irish speak very fast which makes them hard to understand especially if they have a very thick accent. I've visited with many locals and have to have them repeat themselves because their English is hard to understand. One man we sat next to on the bus home from Cork admitted that he talks very fast and that's why he is hard to understand. So if you visit Ireland you won't have any problem getting around and communicating with people but be aware that you might have to ask them to repeat what they say.