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What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages? Legolas Send a noteboard - 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM
Obviously a child can't make an informed decision about learning his first language (or languages - our daughter speaks English and Russian). However, after that point language learning should be a completely voluntary process. Forcing someone to learn a language that is completely useless is an incredible waste of time, effort and money, and there is no tangible benefit to doing so. Sure, throw a few fun Irish words into the landscape and people will remember them. They'll say "Slainte" (with the accent mark) and learn how to say "I think I've thrown up on your dog" or something like that and the language can die naturally. Anything else is just like what they're doing to Ariel Sharon right now.

To anyone who's Irish and intends to remain so, learning the language spoken by a minority of his/her compatriots and the language which is so important to his/her culture can hardly be considered "completely useless", regardless of the importance of Irish on a global level. With that sort of reasoning, you'd have to expect everybody to just switch to English, Spanish or Chinese, letting all other languages fall by the wayside as they're not as useful.

As long as Irish is the mother tongue of some Irish people, it makes sense for it to be a co-official language, and as long as it has that status, it also makes sense for it to be the first "foreign" language taught to students in school. And no doubt many students dislike it, as students in other countries dislike other "foreign" languages they are taught, but I don't see you as the type of person who'd advocate schools in which students are only taught the subjects they choose themselves.
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So the Irish government has basically imploded. Stephen - 23/01/2011 04:47:10 PM 1609 Views
I am now confused Camilla - 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM 982 Views
You won't be the only person Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:21:23 PM 888 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment? Legolas - 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM 1012 Views
Re: You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment? Camilla - 23/01/2011 06:34:47 PM 950 Views
I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood). Legolas - 23/01/2011 06:41:34 PM 926 Views
Re: I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood). Camilla - 23/01/2011 06:43:41 PM 865 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM 934 Views
Really? Camilla - 24/01/2011 12:03:38 AM 838 Views
But... Wibble - 24/01/2011 07:28:17 PM 898 Views
Re: But... Camilla - 24/01/2011 07:30:39 PM 1153 Views
What protests? Wibble - 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM 984 Views
Re: What protests? Camilla - 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM 837 Views
Re: What protests? Nebhead - 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM 969 Views
There's a new objection Camilla - 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM 902 Views
I didn't object... Nebhead - 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM 786 Views
Re: I didn't object... Camilla - 25/01/2011 11:49:36 AM 752 Views
If you look at the bottom of that list... Nebhead - 25/01/2011 11:58:24 AM 834 Views
And Britain had to live with the Conservative Wilderness for 15 years before it could get there *NM* Roland00 - 24/01/2011 02:43:16 AM 463 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? Joel - 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM 820 Views
Why not? Camilla - 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM 934 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing. Joel - 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM 932 Views
Re: 'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing. Camilla - 26/01/2011 08:42:04 AM 987 Views
I misconstrued your sarcasm, sorry. Joel - 26/01/2011 10:23:40 AM 1145 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it. Legolas - 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM 912 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM 984 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM 929 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM 1025 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM 879 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM 984 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM 940 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM 899 Views
Re: I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one. Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:53:12 PM 901 Views
The part that I find strange is... Tim - 23/01/2011 11:58:27 PM 855 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:45:39 PM 779 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better. Tim - 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM 1058 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"? Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM 898 Views
Today's news: it got better again! Tim - 26/01/2011 07:51:51 PM 948 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords. Tim - 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM 915 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM* Legolas - 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM 446 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair. Tim - 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM 848 Views
"This is the voice of a life peer" Michael - 28/01/2011 02:18:04 PM 982 Views
Here you go Elaine - 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM 1001 Views
That's the site I found too. Tim - 25/01/2011 01:25:56 PM 846 Views
Right. Elaine - 25/01/2011 01:42:49 PM 1077 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions... jh - 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM 969 Views
That's interesting Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:32:05 PM 920 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people? Tom - 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM 930 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim Camilla - 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM 904 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven Tom - 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM 863 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more. Tom - 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM 881 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here. Legolas - 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM 917 Views
... the fact that they are asylum seekers, and their skill certainly shouldn't matter in that case. jh - 24/01/2011 07:08:14 PM 800 Views
Schweden schafft sich ab, eh? Tom - 24/01/2011 07:31:33 PM 1069 Views
Not to mention... ßelals Girl - 26/01/2011 07:55:26 PM 796 Views
ßelals Girl - 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM 914 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs. Tom - 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM 858 Views
I'd support that Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM 928 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM 836 Views
I never realised that Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:54:43 PM 860 Views
But why, why? Tom - 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM 822 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British? Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM 875 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children). Tom - 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM 850 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages? Legolas - 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM 819 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM 892 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k. Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM 1268 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM* Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM 449 Views
Inflated statistics from what I've read. Tom - 26/01/2011 09:45:51 PM 826 Views
They might be, indeed. Elaine - 27/01/2011 01:08:09 PM 1054 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish? Tom - 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM 800 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you? Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM 963 Views
I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. Tom - 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM 925 Views
Re: I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. Legolas - 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM 790 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance. Tim - 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM 966 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans? Tom - 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM 917 Views
I never said I agreed . Tim - 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM 889 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well majander - 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM 913 Views
That's a very good point. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:06:32 AM 887 Views
Indeed. Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:06:00 PM 959 Views
The thing is, people who feel really strongly about that usually insist it's a separate language. Tim - 28/01/2011 04:20:57 PM 772 Views
It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM 761 Views
You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value . *NM* Tim - 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM 395 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM* Blaine - 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM 495 Views
Thrown away on bling and tat, unfortunately. Elaine - 24/01/2011 01:01:27 PM 785 Views
The Celtic Tiger is dead, Ireland had a GDP contraction of 14% in the last two years. Roland00 - 24/01/2011 01:47:06 PM 872 Views
It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched. Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM 750 Views
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