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Jay Bee · **Joined:** Tue 15 Nov 2011 7:35 am **Posts:** 1098

Look, if only everyone would listen to me, then they're be no problems

:good:

Breandán · **Posted:** Thu 05 Dec 2013 7:29 pm

NiallBeag wrote:

And by the same token, reopening a flame war that has already naturally petered out and been replaced by a productive discussion on Irish grammar and learning materials is probably not going to do anyone any good.

Thanks, Niall. :wave:

I agree that things are much better when we all concentrate on learning the language. :yes:

It would be good if ALL PARTIES would tone down the invective. We are here to encourage the learning of the Irish language at all levels. We have a wonderful opportunity here to introduce people to the better forms of Irish, but we won't achieve that by telling someone else their Irish is crap, no matter what our personal beliefs.

Try to be patient and respectful. Encourage and entice people with the good stuff. We sometimes need to make corrections and to be critical, but if we totally deny the other parties' right to an opinion or disparage their Irish completely, we defeat our own purpose, which is to encourage people to learn better Irish.

(Crossed with Jay Bee)

WeeFalorieMan · **Posted:** Thu 05 Dec 2013 7:50 pm

A famous quote from The Wee Falorie Man (and Gore Vidal):
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise."

My advice is to listen to Breandán on this one. :winkgrin:

Braoin · **Joined:** Sat 17 Sep 2011 11:52 pm **Posts:** 460

Ossian wrote:

I don't see the point in this bickering over whose language it is. The point is the language is struggling, it needs people who want to learn it, more specifically it needs people in Ireland who want to learn and use it, and you'll catch a lot more flies with honey than you will with vinegar.

As I understand it, there exists a traditional nationalistic claim that the Irish language belongs to the Irish people, native speakers or not. Irish will undergo changes as more and more non-natives learn to speak it, and that's just the price to pay if you want the language to survive.

If you want to keep it in a closed off zone for natives only, then you might as well start counting the days till there are only a few of you left.

Don't mean to be caustic, but that's undoubtedly where the language is headed if that's the attitude native speakers are going to take.

I understand it can be frustrating when some sod who mangles the language pretends that he's speaking some made-up dialect, but people like that are relatively few and their mere existence doesn't justify this sort of territorial attitude over ownership of the language.

Well said.

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