Week Nine

            I haven’t had too much of a problem adjusting to the way they talk over here. There are certain slang words that I wasn’t aware of upon arriving. Like, instead of saying, “What’s up?” like the do at home, people will greet you with “What’s the craic?” Which is something I’m still not sure I fully now how to respond to. Other than that, I’m just enamored by the marvelous accents of my fellow Irish people! :]

            Something that I’ve noticed while being here, however, is the use of Gaelic that I wasn’t aware of before I came over. I knew that the Irish had their own language. However, I didn’t know that it was still pretty prevalent in their culture to this day. Of course, everyone primarily speaks English. However, I’ve come across a few people who still use Gaelic as their common tongue. It’s really interesting to listen to, because the phonetics of the language give you a bit of an understanding as to why their accent sounds the way it does.

            I’ve met a girl who learned Irish all throughout primary school and wasn’t introduced to English until she was in our equivalent of the fifth grade. Because of that, she says she has a hard time translating in her head and finds that it sometimes gets mixed up along the way. It’s really interesting to hear these sorts of stories in a country that most people find primarily English speaking.