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That's just Paris being a city of nasty people. Legolas Send a noteboard - 24/09/2010 06:32:40 PM
It is indeed. For example the main opposition party just appointed someone as their spokesperson for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht (including Irish language) affairs who doesn't even speak Irish The problem is that the vast majority of people will never speak a word of Irish outside of school so it's hard to develop your ability. Also many of the principal promoters of the language come across as having a holier than thou attitude which does Irish no favours.

That's fairly embarrassing, alright. But yeah, Irish is quite limited in daily use of course... but you would think nationalism and pride in the Irish culture would've made it more popular in the past, so that it wouldn't have come this far.
The fact that it is compulsory also seems to cause a build up of resentment in a lot of people who dislike the fact that they are forced to learn it when they are never going to use it.

Yeah, heard that before. I hardly find it unreasonable to make people learn the second language of the country and the language of its cultural heritage, though...
Yup, once you enter formal education (at age four or five) you are thought both English and Irish

That's just awesome. Instead of one language that is impossible to spell, you get two at the same time, with sounds pronounced totally differently in the two of them. How does anyone in Ireland manage to learn either language properly, never mind both? :P
Perhaps, but my experience of trying to use my French in Paris once fairly much put me off. I still use it when I go on holidays and I generally have good enough French to ask for stuff in a shop or restaurant but I wouldn't be up to holding a full conversation.

That's Paris for you. But yeah, the French in general are chauvinistic enough that some of them don't really appreciate tourists speaking intermediate or fluent but accented French. There's a lot of bad things one can say about Americans in terms of languages, but they're more welcoming of foreigners speaking their language than anyone else. Then again, they'd have to be.
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/Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 01:37:42 PM 1308 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 01:49:32 PM 723 Views
Answering the survey myself... - 24/09/2010 02:04:39 PM 732 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:10:57 PM 719 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:20:45 PM 858 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:24:01 PM 746 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:14:52 PM 774 Views
We have a similar situation in Belgium. - 24/09/2010 02:32:25 PM 645 Views
It is all double dutch to me - 24/09/2010 02:41:41 PM 724 Views
Hah! - 24/09/2010 06:58:49 PM 804 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 03:32:09 PM 669 Views
That is rather sad to say the least. - 24/09/2010 04:15:32 PM 893 Views
Indeed - 24/09/2010 06:23:52 PM 713 Views
That's just Paris being a city of nasty people. - 24/09/2010 06:32:40 PM 856 Views
I never noticed that - 24/09/2010 07:05:18 PM 749 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 04:00:04 PM 782 Views
I didn't mean just in Sweden, or Scandinavia. - 24/09/2010 04:19:32 PM 776 Views
Well... - 24/09/2010 10:50:09 PM 678 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 05:47:09 PM 748 Views
Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:04:30 PM 696 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:42:02 PM 848 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:05:44 PM 755 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:21:24 PM 869 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 08:18:30 PM 731 Views
Re: Interesting. - 25/09/2010 08:02:30 PM 801 Views
American who just got a C+ on a French quiz reporting in. - 24/09/2010 06:09:31 PM 804 Views
What was it on? - 24/09/2010 06:22:35 PM 715 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 06:16:22 PM 662 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 09:38:05 PM 846 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 05:49:05 AM 832 Views
Real quick - 25/09/2010 12:03:51 PM 809 Views
Self-study can be worth as much as formal classroom study, I suppose - 25/09/2010 03:43:14 PM 802 Views
Certainly it can. - 26/09/2010 12:35:56 PM 802 Views
You know, gen eds typically include a language. *NM* - 26/09/2010 07:28:57 PM 316 Views
Yes, but other things as well. - 26/09/2010 08:08:20 PM 738 Views
Interesting - 27/09/2010 03:14:00 AM 897 Views
Re: Interesting - 27/09/2010 11:04:37 AM 808 Views
You don't have to prove it's economically valid? - 27/09/2010 08:31:46 PM 828 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 04:54:40 PM 942 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 07:38:29 PM 866 Views
The amount of German is more surprising. - 25/09/2010 07:55:29 PM 620 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM 880 Views
They should have asked about second languages rather than foreign languages. - 26/09/2010 11:34:27 AM 733 Views
Aye, they should have. - 26/09/2010 12:26:51 PM 840 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 27/09/2010 03:18:30 PM 779 Views

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