Name: Patrick Walsh E-mail: Location of Study: Ireland Program of Study: Sponsor(s): Robert Berner
4 thoughts on “Walsh, Patrick”
Prior to getting of the plane at Dublin Airport, I had never been outside of the U.S. before. I was anticipating the event the whole summer and had been working all summer to save up money for all the things I wanted to do. But I did have to remind myself that I was there for a reason, and that reason was to continue my learning in the Irish language. At the start of the trip I have a decent amount of Irish on me considering I had taken 3 semesters of it at school, but this was my opportunity to really polish what I knew and to gain a lot of confidence in an immersion setting. After what seems like an eternity of bus rides later, we pull up to the Acadamh where I’d be spending 6 of 7 days a week for the next few weeks. The adventure begins.
After the first week, I am pretty excited about how things are going. The constant classes are really making it easy to get used to the cadence of the language. I have found that my stuttering has significantly decreased in just the first week. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have a long way to go though. I am still far from perfect. It is especially evident in the pubs where everyone hangs out in town. I can grasp the gist of what the younger people are saying, but I am barely make heads or tails of a single syllable from the older folk. I still have three weeks at this point so I am not discouraged, I just gotta keep improving.
Prior to getting of the plane at Dublin Airport, I had never been outside of the U.S. before. I was anticipating the event the whole summer and had been working all summer to save up money for all the things I wanted to do. But I did have to remind myself that I was there for a reason, and that reason was to continue my learning in the Irish language. At the start of the trip I have a decent amount of Irish on me considering I had taken 3 semesters of it at school, but this was my opportunity to really polish what I knew and to gain a lot of confidence in an immersion setting. After what seems like an eternity of bus rides later, we pull up to the Acadamh where I’d be spending 6 of 7 days a week for the next few weeks. The adventure begins.
After the first week, I am pretty excited about how things are going. The constant classes are really making it easy to get used to the cadence of the language. I have found that my stuttering has significantly decreased in just the first week. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have a long way to go though. I am still far from perfect. It is especially evident in the pubs where everyone hangs out in town. I can grasp the gist of what the younger people are saying, but I am barely make heads or tails of a single syllable from the older folk. I still have three weeks at this point so I am not discouraged, I just gotta keep improving.