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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 1765 Views
I am now confused Camilla - 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM 1130 Views
You won't be the only person Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:21:23 PM 1027 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 1158 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 1095 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 1059 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 1011 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM 1187 Views
Really? Camilla - 24/01/2011 12:03:38 AM 992 Views
But... Wibble - 24/01/2011 07:28:17 PM 1052 Views
Re: But... Camilla - 24/01/2011 07:30:39 PM 1297 Views
What protests? Wibble - 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM 1134 Views
Re: What protests? Camilla - 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM 989 Views
Re: What protests? Nebhead - 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM 1127 Views
There's a new objection Camilla - 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM 1041 Views
I didn't object... Nebhead - 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM 935 Views
Re: I didn't object... Camilla - 25/01/2011 11:49:36 AM 912 Views
If you look at the bottom of that list... Nebhead - 25/01/2011 11:58:24 AM 987 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 530 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? Joel - 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM 1024 Views
Why not? Camilla - 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM 1084 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing. Joel - 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM 1117 Views
Re: 'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing. Camilla - 26/01/2011 08:42:04 AM 1136 Views
I misconstrued your sarcasm, sorry. Joel - 26/01/2011 10:23:40 AM 1280 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it. Legolas - 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM 1063 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM 1131 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM 1069 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM 1175 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM 1019 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM 1137 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM 1094 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM 1054 Views
Re: I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one. Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:53:12 PM 1043 Views
The part that I find strange is... Tim - 23/01/2011 11:58:27 PM 1020 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:45:39 PM 926 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better. Tim - 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM 1238 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"? Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM 1035 Views
Today's news: it got better again! Tim - 26/01/2011 07:51:51 PM 1103 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords. Tim - 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM 1067 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM* Legolas - 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM 513 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair. Tim - 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM 1010 Views
"This is the voice of a life peer" Michael - 28/01/2011 02:18:04 PM 1139 Views
Here you go Elaine - 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM 1158 Views
That's the site I found too. Tim - 25/01/2011 01:25:56 PM 992 Views
Right. Elaine - 25/01/2011 01:42:49 PM 1230 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions... jh - 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM 1107 Views
That's interesting Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:32:05 PM 1072 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people? Tom - 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM 1083 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim Camilla - 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM 1077 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven Tom - 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM 1014 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more. Tom - 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM 1021 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 1064 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 947 Views
Schweden schafft sich ab, eh? Tom - 24/01/2011 07:31:33 PM 1213 Views
Not to mention... ßelals Girl - 26/01/2011 07:55:26 PM 939 Views
ßelals Girl - 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM 1058 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 1014 Views
I'd support that Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM 1081 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM 981 Views
I never realised that Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:54:43 PM 1012 Views
But why, why? Tom - 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM 965 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British? Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM 1022 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children). Tom - 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM 998 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages? Legolas - 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM 1032 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM 1058 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k. Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM 1424 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM* Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM 513 Views
Inflated statistics from what I've read. Tom - 26/01/2011 09:45:51 PM 967 Views
They might be, indeed. Elaine - 27/01/2011 01:08:09 PM 1213 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish? Tom - 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM 972 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you? Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM 1118 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 1067 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 955 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 1111 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans? Tom - 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM 1067 Views
I never said I agreed . Tim - 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM 1033 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well majander - 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM 1077 Views
That's a very good point. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:06:32 AM 1046 Views
Indeed. Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:06:00 PM 1089 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 916 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 906 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 459 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM* Blaine - 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM 587 Views
Thrown away on bling and tat, unfortunately. Elaine - 24/01/2011 01:01:27 PM 945 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 1022 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 915 Views
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