Do you think they are actually good at producing Irish speakers?

My mother was offered a job at the local Irish medium school (she didn't take it). She is not even a qualified teacher. She got a degree at the Open University in 'general studies' (I asked her what her degree is and she couldn't even tell me - she just said that it was a 'general' degree) and she taught in schools for about 15 years. They've cracked down on unqualified teachers now so she hasn't worked as a teacher in years. She got an E in her A-Level Irish. She was phoned up by the principal of the Irish medium school and offered a job. She told them that she had no Irish. He told her, "Ah, sure it'll come back to you." If people like my mother are teaching in Irish medium schools. I wouldn't have much hope for them.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE THAT I FORGOT TO MENTION: The situation I described occurred in Northern Ireland. I think the mention of 'A-levels' made that obvious, but I wasn't thinking about the North / Republic (or Free State, as some in my parents' generation still call it, even though the name was changed before they were born) divide. It wasn't my intention to mislead people.

Nothing against your mother and other teachers, but that's exactly the problem with the Gaelscoileannaí. They're not being taught by fluent speakers of Irish, but by English speakers. Thus it leads to their "New Irish", which is barely even Irish.

Depends on the school I supose. My primary school had very good speakers, a good nunber of whom were native.

I would think this is true. My children's school have a mixture of native and fluent speakers. The native speakers represent Ulster, Connaught and Munster Irish and so the children are exposed to all dialects from the start which is brilliant. I think that Gaelcholáistí (Irish medium second level schools) have huge difficulty finding people suitably qualified in their subject who are also totally competent in Irish. This is a real challenge and doesn't seem to be getting easier. Without any of the Irish language concerns, I cannot understand this as I do not know of any school employing unqualified teachers for anything any more. This sounds very strange - in any language!

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I wonder if she was offered a job as something other than a teacher...perhaps a teacher's aide or school secretary?

Redwolf

I myself am recently out if one such Gaelcholáiste and I can tell you with certainty that the level of Irish is atrocious. The teachers have no interest in using correct or native-like language, and simply spout out the few subject-specific vocabulary they googled on tearma.ie, frequently selecting incorrect terminology (especially Geography and Chemistry in my experience ) and even worse pronunciation . Btw this was a very well-reputed 2ndary school now, with high grades in JC and LC.
Most teachers have no understanding of Irish grammar beyond an Aimsir Láithreach, Chaite is Fháistineach, yet claim fluency (Abair mé is heard from the younger oidí ). The Modh C could for all the world be nonexistant It's a real problem, because it encourages the stigma against Irish among students: sure if the teachers themselves can't string a decent sentence together as Gaeilge, what's the point at all?
This sentiment is countrywide and needs to be addressed by training teachers of a higher standard across the board as part of their degrees or hdip shtuff....
This all leads to students who have absolutely no understanding of Irish save the essays they were forced to learn off for exams.....

The very same thing happens in Brittany. But in Brittany, it's much worse...

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

My default assumption is to assume that X-medium instruction is atrocious for all values of X, having attempted to teach English to Spanish kids after several years of 1/3 English immersion schooling. "Theess no eez quest-yawn?" No, it isn't.

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

My impression is that language teaching, like most industries is full of bullshit, and most of the books, schools are rubbish

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

I don't think the problem in the Gaelchóláistí is the standard of Irish of those teaching Irish; it is the standard of Irish used by those teaching other subjects through the medium of Irish. This has been an issue for years and the government refuses to put money into training teachers through the medium of Irish.

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