“She wants us to sing this?” I thought to myself as I looked down at the lyrics in front of me.  We sing along slowly with our teacher, gaining a little confidence.  But then, she presses the button on the Youtube video and we are shocked back to beginners!  We do not sing or speak that fast in Irish.

Yes, that song (that will be stuck in your head now!) is in Irish! I signed up for Beginner’s Irish thinking: it’ll be practical and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.  So I couldn’t say no to a weekend immersion trip, and I’m glad I didn’t try to!

There are schools in gaeltachts, which are towns where Irish rather than English is the first language, where people can go to improve their Irish or take courses in other things through Irish.  We went to An Cheathru Rua (English name: Carraroe).  So Friday afternoon, we took a bus from NUI Galway to the school.  Friday night we went over pronunciation and basic phrases, since we had only been learning the language for four weeks at this point!  (Only one two-hour class each week, at that.)

Saturday we got down to business. We practiced and expanded topics like family, where we’re from, where we’re living, time, age, counting and weather! It’s frustrating at times because it’s so different.  For instance, “mh” and “bh” can make a “w” or a “v” sound depending on what kind of vowel comes after it.  There’s also a bunch of grammatical things I don’t understand, like eclipsing and aspirating consonants.  Then there’s letters you don’t say, like “t” sometimes and “dh” when it comes at the end of the word (so why put it there?!).  There’s also sounds we don’t have in English, like that throaty Scottish “h” sound.  But, hey, it’s another language! And this weekend trip was great extra practice.

Not all the learning goes on in the class room though! Since Irish is the primary language in the town, we got to practice at the pub each night.  I ordered cupan tae amhain (cup-on tay ah-wan, one cup of tea) and others ordered a pionta Guiness, le do thoil (pee-onta Guiness, lay doe hell, pint of Guiness, please). But before we could get to the live music session at the pub on Saturday, we had to learn some group dances at a ceili (kale-lee) first!  It was great craic (crack, fun)!

All in all, I greatly appreciated the extra lessons and practice and enjoyed exploring the town with my dance partner, Dan, and some old and new friends!

Here are some more fun phrases (that will probably illustrate my frustrations) for you guys!
Irish: Dia dhuit.  Cen chaoi a bhfuil tu?
Pronunciation: Dia gwit.  Care khwee a will tu?
English: Hello, how are you?

Ta me go maith, go raibh maith agat.
Taw may go ma, go rah ma aad.
I’m well, thanks.

Ta me togha.
Taw may taow.
I’m grand.

Slan / Slan go foill.
Sloan / Sloan go foyll.
Goodbye / Bye for now.

Ni thuigim
Nee hig-im
I don’t understand.

Cen seoladh riomhphoist ata agat?
Cane show-la reeovfwisht ata aad?
What’s your email address?

Ta muid inar gconai i mbruachbhaile.
Ta moo-id inar gah-ni ee mruach-vallye.
We live in a suburb.

Location: Carraroe, Ireland