Kyle's Ireland Trip: Week Seven

Dia Dhuit. Conas atá tú? Tá mé go maith. Do not worry I will not be writing this blog in complete Irish. This is one of the more difficult things that I would say that I have learned, since being here in Ireland. Just that simply greeting, question and response took me quite a few tries to say and even now I still cannot say that I pronounce it correct. The first part, the greeting, Dia Dhuit and is pronounced like GeeHa whicht which is a typical greeting in Ireland meaning "Hello, good day". The second part, the question, Conas atá tú and is pronounced like Koonas atah twoo which is a question for asking "how you are doing". The third and final part, the response, Tá mé go maith and is pronounced like Tah May Go Mah meaning "I am good". While I try to learn this language I resort to trying to sound the words out, like we were taught in elementary school. For the most part this does not work. As you can see the words do not have much of a pattern to try to sound out and have two consonants together. The only thing that can make understanding this language is when a really thick accent is placed on top of the words. This makes listening to people in the pubs or around town really difficult to understand. If you think this could not get much worse you are wrong. The thing that can make this language even more difficult is the unique pronunciations that each region in Ireland. Some places have totally different ways to say hello or they change where the emphasis is at in the word. Maybe you are thinking "hey, that is pretty bad, no way this can get any worse", well I am here to tell you it can and it does. The part that makes this language even harder to understand is when a few pints of Guinness are in an Irish man wanting to have a conversation. I have found it easier to not ask him to repeat himself, because it can and possibly will get worse. While the language is difficult to foreigners to speak and understand not many of the locals choose to speak much of the language. Since I have been here I have not found a single person who solely speaks Irish, many people are bilingual. And fret not all of the signs for direction and caution are in both Irish and English, so you do not have to speak the language to get around and have a good time in Ireland. Go raibh maith agat le haghaidh léamh/Thanks for reading.