Lonely Planet
Out of context: Reply #15
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- rafalski0
If someone says I was being a prick asking that question, LP had said it was official already!
If you look at Catalans, being under Spanish reign helps them greatly to resurrect their language. Young people actually use it, even if only in some pub situations.
I'm usually keeping my "apparently you need the Brits back in order to revive your language" joke to myslelf to avoid the risk of it being misunderstood you know..
But it's not as easy as it looks. The comparison to Catalan is not a fair one, as Catalan is very similar to Castellano (a.k.a. Spanish). So similar, that tourists without any Spanish in Barcelona can't tell the difference when they hear or see it. It's hard to mistake Irish for English though. They're from different galaxies. In fairness, it probably would be technically easier for Dubliners to learn Catalan than Irish.On the other hand, the Irish adopted the English language in their way, contributing to it greatly, picking up the game and making it theirs. Actually some of the finest books in it were written by Irish writers.
It's just seems that people have no idea what to do with Irish language. Or I am exaggerating. It is actually spoken in the west of Ireland, Maybe it's just the way it's taught that needs refinement.
To be honest, I feel bad for living here for quite some time and not speaking Irish at all.
- There are lots of places that do night classes and the like - if you fancied it.kinross