I was thinking more that we're out own worst critics. Linguistic blips that we'd pass off as nothing much if we heard a learner of English make them become stumbling blocks to us when we're thinking about speaking Irish because we're afraid of not being "perfect."

Redwolf

I totally agree. This is a huge problem in Ireland as many people have reasonable Irish, but all it takes is for them to feel its not good enough or will be open to criticism for them to stop using what they have. The irony is that if they used their 'imperfect' Irish, they would soon iron out many of those 'imperfections'. Beatha teanga í a labhairt. Your Irish, Redwolf, would put many an Irish person to shame. I wish more school students could hear people like yourself speaking Irish to help them to realise that it is something worth having.

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I agree, Saoirse. I've seen people in Ireland say that they have no Irish at all when they could actually speak it reasonably well, and could definitely read it pretty well. It's somewhat ironic that, in several generations, it's gone from people who were fluent native speakers who were embarrassed to speak Irish publicly because they felt it marked them as ignorant country folk, to a time now when people are embarrassed to speak it for fear that they will seem ignorant if they don't speak it fluently. People of all ability levels need to just shake off the "shame factor" and use what Irish they have, and be tolerant of one another's mistakes (and accents).

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Redwolf,
I'm not America bashing. I love visiting the country and I wouldn't exist were it not for it (two of my grandparents met and married there before coming back) and I've numerous relatives spread over Maine, California and Montana, but I did teach English for 5/6 years alongside many North Americans and many Americans that were there did say things that were very sloppy, such as the weakening of count/non-count distinctions. Time and time again I would say something is wrong to have someone else advise the opposite, and since they were deemed the higher class of speaker, they were deemed the more credible.

I used to keep a file on the things some of them would say or I would read. The file is in storage so I don't have it to hand, but I wasn't the only person to notice these things.

The only reason I mention it, as it was not all Americans, but the ones who were the most judgmental tended to say things like adding a 'the' in for no reason. Somethings are semantic ('the culture' because the Us sees itself as hegemonic and this having the most important one); or dialectical, as in the dropping of the the, as in "the game is on [snip] Playstation 3" which is weird to my ear as it is a machine, so understandable, but some of them were clangers

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

Ah yes, there is that, too. Learning a language requires enough self-consciousness to feel the impetus to improve but not so much as to freeze up (and enough gumption to keep at it despite the begrudgers).

Conversation groups (or classes) with people of similar level (like Is Leor Beirt) are good for breaking through this barrier of embarrassment. At Oideas Gael, I actually asked to be dropped down from Cruinneas to Level 4 so I would be able to practice conversation in this way rather than struggling with more difficult concepts. The higher level would have been more benefit grammatically but I felt I needed the conversation practice.

It is important not to neglect application of the language in order to try to improve fluency.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

I did the same. I started out in Cruinneas in my final week, but decided that grammar is something I can do at home (in fact, they were using Gramadach Gan Stró, which I have), whereas the conversational experience just isn't something I can easily duplicate here, at least on a regular basis. We do have a "ciorcal comhrá" in the Bay Area once a month, but I'm not always able to go because, depending on who's hosting it, it can be quite a drive.

Redwolf

Here is an example of weird English from America:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/video ... t-20140211



What does that mean?

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