Irish 101 Week 4
Searchian 4 of the Irish 101 course on FutureLearn. It only has 4 sections: pastimes, music, sport and a review of the course. It also has the least tasks, just 25 this time.
Pastimes
This first section starts off with a video of Stiofán and Mairéad discussing their hobbies and we're told to listen to it before looking at the transcript to see if we can work out what their hobbies are. Well, I picked up on the words pictiúrlann from the directions section and spóirt but that was about it! It was nice to recognise a word from a previous section though, it made me felt like I'd actually learnt something! There's examples of questions to ask someone about their hobbies, such as An dtéann tú chuig an teach tábhairne ag an deireadh seachtaine?/Do you go to the pub at the weekend? Well, that's a very important question, isn't it. It seems that there's no specific words for yes or no which is interesting, it's either Téim/I go or Ní théim/I don't go. There's also a very entertaining animated video of Stiofán's extremely long list of hobbies, which includes boating, horse-riding, and a huge amount of sport!
There's some information about the days of the week with the history behind the names. In Latin, the days of the week are named after planetary bodies, most of which are named after Roman gods. In Germanic languages, the days are mostly named after Norse gods: Tyr - Tuesday, Woden/Odin - Wednesday, Thor - Thursday, Freya - Friday. Monday is Moon's day, Saturday is Saturn's day and Sunday is obviously Sun's day. However, in Irish, most days are named after planets while Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are named for the religious practises that were associated with those days.
Monday - Dé Luain = Moon's day
Tuesday - Dé Máirt = Mars' day
Wednesday - Dé Céadaoin = Day of the First Fast
Thursday - Déardaoin = Day between two fasts
Friday - Dé hAoine = Day of the Fast
Saturday - Dé Sathairn = Saturn's day
Sunday - Dé Domhnaigh = Day of the Lord
The word aoine means 'fasting', as seen in Dé hAoine/Friday. Céad means 'first' with aoine again to make Céadaoin/first fast, and Déardaoin comes from Dé idir dhá aoine, which means 'day between two fasts'.
Music
This section starts by giving the Irish terms for various kinds of music. I am amused to find that Snagcheol is the word for jazz. It goes on to explain how to ask someone if they play an instrument. As with the pastimes question, there aren't words for yes or no, instead the response is either Seinnim/I play or Ní sheinnim/I don't play.
The next part talks about Irish music and song. There's an organisation called Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann who are responsible for promoting Irish music, dance, and culture across the world. They organise Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann/Ireland's Festival of Music which was first held in 1951 in Mullingar as a weekend festival. It has since grown to a major festival drawing over 250,000 visitors. It now lasts for a week in August and is held annually in a different town or city each year.
There's a particular style of singing from Ireland, known as sean-nós/old-style, where the singer is unaccompanied by any instruments. There's obviously the well-known Irish dancing, although there's also sean-nós dancing which is specific to the Gaeltacht parts of Ireland. It has musical accompaniment though ;) The main difference between sean-nós dancing and the familiar style of Irish dancing, is that sean-nós is closer to the floor, without all the high kicks and dancing on tiptoe. There's an example of sean-nós Irish dancing in this video which shows Breandán Seoigheb winning the prestigious sean-nós competition in November 2017.
Finally there's another festival, Oireachtas na Samhna which takes place around the end of October each year. It promotes Irish language arts, including sean-nós singing, sean-nós dancing, literature, poetry, and storytelling. I love the idea of a storytelling competition! In the videos of both festivals, it was nice to see a huge amount of young people playing traditional instruments and taking part in the competitions.
Sport
Once again this new section starts off with a huge long list of Irish terms for various sports, including peil/Gaelic football, iománaíocht/hurling and camógaíocht/camogie. There's some information about these Irish sports which are promoted around the world by the Cumann Lúthchleas Gael/Gaelic Athletic Association. Use of the Irish language has been a major focus of the GAA. There's now a Dublin based club called Na Gaeil Óga/The Young Gaels which was set up specifically for people living and working in Dublin who want to play Gaelic sports in Irish. It's nice that there's a growing community of Irish speakers in the city which isn't part of the Gaeltacht.
Obviously the tasks in this section include talking about the sports you like to play, but I don't like sport! I managed to come up with the sentence Ní maith liom spóirt áfach bím ag rothaíocht uaireanta. I'm not entirely sure that I've got the grammar or word order right though; that is one of the downsides to these kinds of courses, not getting that feedback from an instructor.
Summary
And that's the end of it! As usual, the course itself finishes off with a proverb of the week and this week's proverb is Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine which literally means people live in each other's shadow, or people rely on each other to live. I suppose 'no one is an island' would be the closest English phrase for that sentiment.
We were asked to give some feedback as to how we found the course and anything we would have found useful so I suggested a basic guide to sentence structure (as in word order), and pronunciation. I know there's the issue of the three dialects, but it would still be useful to know how to pronounce things like 'bh' or 'dh'. There's an Irish 102 course also from Dublin City University on FutureLearn but as of yet it has no start date. I've sent a request to be notified when the start date is announced although I'm not entirely sure how eager I am to continue! It has been quite the experience though.
Pastimes
This first section starts off with a video of Stiofán and Mairéad discussing their hobbies and we're told to listen to it before looking at the transcript to see if we can work out what their hobbies are. Well, I picked up on the words pictiúrlann from the directions section and spóirt but that was about it! It was nice to recognise a word from a previous section though, it made me felt like I'd actually learnt something! There's examples of questions to ask someone about their hobbies, such as An dtéann tú chuig an teach tábhairne ag an deireadh seachtaine?/Do you go to the pub at the weekend? Well, that's a very important question, isn't it. It seems that there's no specific words for yes or no which is interesting, it's either Téim/I go or Ní théim/I don't go. There's also a very entertaining animated video of Stiofán's extremely long list of hobbies, which includes boating, horse-riding, and a huge amount of sport!
There's some information about the days of the week with the history behind the names. In Latin, the days of the week are named after planetary bodies, most of which are named after Roman gods. In Germanic languages, the days are mostly named after Norse gods: Tyr - Tuesday, Woden/Odin - Wednesday, Thor - Thursday, Freya - Friday. Monday is Moon's day, Saturday is Saturn's day and Sunday is obviously Sun's day. However, in Irish, most days are named after planets while Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are named for the religious practises that were associated with those days.
Monday - Dé Luain = Moon's day
Tuesday - Dé Máirt = Mars' day
Wednesday - Dé Céadaoin = Day of the First Fast
Thursday - Déardaoin = Day between two fasts
Friday - Dé hAoine = Day of the Fast
Saturday - Dé Sathairn = Saturn's day
Sunday - Dé Domhnaigh = Day of the Lord
The word aoine means 'fasting', as seen in Dé hAoine/Friday. Céad means 'first' with aoine again to make Céadaoin/first fast, and Déardaoin comes from Dé idir dhá aoine, which means 'day between two fasts'.
Music
This section starts by giving the Irish terms for various kinds of music. I am amused to find that Snagcheol is the word for jazz. It goes on to explain how to ask someone if they play an instrument. As with the pastimes question, there aren't words for yes or no, instead the response is either Seinnim/I play or Ní sheinnim/I don't play.
The next part talks about Irish music and song. There's an organisation called Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann who are responsible for promoting Irish music, dance, and culture across the world. They organise Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann/Ireland's Festival of Music which was first held in 1951 in Mullingar as a weekend festival. It has since grown to a major festival drawing over 250,000 visitors. It now lasts for a week in August and is held annually in a different town or city each year.
There's a particular style of singing from Ireland, known as sean-nós/old-style, where the singer is unaccompanied by any instruments. There's obviously the well-known Irish dancing, although there's also sean-nós dancing which is specific to the Gaeltacht parts of Ireland. It has musical accompaniment though ;) The main difference between sean-nós dancing and the familiar style of Irish dancing, is that sean-nós is closer to the floor, without all the high kicks and dancing on tiptoe. There's an example of sean-nós Irish dancing in this video which shows Breandán Seoigheb winning the prestigious sean-nós competition in November 2017.
Finally there's another festival, Oireachtas na Samhna which takes place around the end of October each year. It promotes Irish language arts, including sean-nós singing, sean-nós dancing, literature, poetry, and storytelling. I love the idea of a storytelling competition! In the videos of both festivals, it was nice to see a huge amount of young people playing traditional instruments and taking part in the competitions.
Sport
Once again this new section starts off with a huge long list of Irish terms for various sports, including peil/Gaelic football, iománaíocht/hurling and camógaíocht/camogie. There's some information about these Irish sports which are promoted around the world by the Cumann Lúthchleas Gael/Gaelic Athletic Association. Use of the Irish language has been a major focus of the GAA. There's now a Dublin based club called Na Gaeil Óga/The Young Gaels which was set up specifically for people living and working in Dublin who want to play Gaelic sports in Irish. It's nice that there's a growing community of Irish speakers in the city which isn't part of the Gaeltacht.
Obviously the tasks in this section include talking about the sports you like to play, but I don't like sport! I managed to come up with the sentence Ní maith liom spóirt áfach bím ag rothaíocht uaireanta. I'm not entirely sure that I've got the grammar or word order right though; that is one of the downsides to these kinds of courses, not getting that feedback from an instructor.
Summary
And that's the end of it! As usual, the course itself finishes off with a proverb of the week and this week's proverb is Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine which literally means people live in each other's shadow, or people rely on each other to live. I suppose 'no one is an island' would be the closest English phrase for that sentiment.
We were asked to give some feedback as to how we found the course and anything we would have found useful so I suggested a basic guide to sentence structure (as in word order), and pronunciation. I know there's the issue of the three dialects, but it would still be useful to know how to pronounce things like 'bh' or 'dh'. There's an Irish 102 course also from Dublin City University on FutureLearn but as of yet it has no start date. I've sent a request to be notified when the start date is announced although I'm not entirely sure how eager I am to continue! It has been quite the experience though.