Irish Translation Forum

Do all schools in the gaeltacht teach everything thru irish, or is there schools that teach in english?

If not how do non-national kids in the gaeltach cope?

lassie

I think there are non-all-irish schools in the Gaeltacht.


Pwyll

Yes, there are schools in the Gaeltacht areas that are not all-Irish schools.

And if it's the case anywhere that an English speaking school is too far away from the non-national, that's tough for them. Same as anyone moving to another country with another language. Kids cope well with new lanagues anyway. My Irish secondary school accepted kids from English-speaking schools who would have taken Irish as one subject. They had as good Irish as anyone else at the end.

Same with my school. I'm in an All-Irish secondary where most of us would have gone to the All-irish primary, but there are people who didn't, and their Irish is just as good as must of ours at this stage!

Not only are kids great at picking up languages, there's something about just plain HAVING to use it that makes a huge difference. When I was in my second year in high school, several girls from Vietnam and one girl from Mexico joined our school (none of them had any English at all), and by the end of our junior year, they were all quite fluent. The one that really amazes me, though, is my brother in law. His family came here from Vietnam when he was 10 or so, and he speaks with such a marked California accent you'd swear he had been born here.

Redwolf

While there are schools in the Gaeltacht that do not teach all in Irish, there are also schools in the Galltacht that DO teach all in Irish, and THAT is a most welcome thing...

oisin718 wrote:While there are schools in the Gaeltacht that do not teach all in Irish, there are also schools in the Galltacht that DO teach all in Irish, and THAT is a most welcome thing...

I don't know the name or exact location but in the school my grandmom went to (waaaay back in the day- in the 1910-20's) in Maigh Eo...she had to have all her subjects in Irish (I don't understand why b/c that area isn't a Gaeltacht and most likely wasn't even then, so I'm guessing it must've been an all-Irish school). Sadly, she came here when she was about 18-19 stayed and worked, sending money back home and she didn't use her Irish here, so she must've forgotten it. When she took my Mom on her 2nd trip there in '52, I think, (when my Mom lived there for a year) she'd be askin them (relatives) how to say things in Irish and they'd have to think about it for a minute, so I'm sure they didn't use it daily either. It's interesting and odd, for me.

Le meas,
~_~Mícheál

Last summer, I was at a Gaeltacht course for 2weeks

Most enjoyable

Oh, just to clarify: My Mom was asking how to say things in Irish, not me granny