{"id":111,"date":"2012-04-10T02:58:49","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T02:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/sla2012\/?page_id=111"},"modified":"2012-09-27T18:08:26","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T18:08:26","slug":"mckenna-robert","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/ireland\/mckenna-robert\/","title":{"rendered":"McKenna, Robert"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Name: Robert McKenna<\/strong>
\nE-mail: rmckenn2@nd.edu<\/strong>
\nLocation of Study: Galway, Ireland<\/strong>
\nProgram of Study:\u00a0Dianch\u00farsa M\u00edosa na nEachtrannach<\/strong>
\nSponsors: Bob Berner & Joe Loughrey<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A brief personal bio:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Dia duit!\u00a0 I’m Rob McKenna, a sophomore in the Irish Language and Literature minor from Richmond, Virginia.\u00a0 After three semesters of studying the Irish language, I’m off to Galway for a month to study in the Gaeltacht – the Irish-speaking region of Ireland.\u00a0 I’m also a cadet in the Army ROTC, and I’m active in the Glee Club.<\/p>\n

Why this summer language abroad opportunity is important to me:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This grant is important because it will allow me to make a leap to the next level of competence in Irish.\u00a0 Only so much progress can be made in the classroom; to achieve my goals, I need to immerse myself in the Gaeltacht and get to a level of near-fluency.\u00a0 More importantly, Irish is a minority language, and because of that, it’s necessary to learn the language firsthand from the relatively few native speakers in the world.\u00a0 The more Irish is learned, appreciated and spread by non-native speakers, the longer it will survive.<\/p>\n

What I hope to achieve as a result of this summer study abroad experience:<\/strong><\/p>\n

First and foremost, I want to become semi-fluent in Irish by the time I leave the program.\u00a0 This has been the object of my language study thus far, regardless of the actual language.\u00a0 At the very least, I want to be able to read and hear competently in Irish, to the point that I can read a newspaper or watch TV and understand what is being said.\u00a0 That being said, it’s important to have fun as well.\u00a0 Irish culture is rooted in music, dance and camaraderie, so I plan on partaking in all three as much as humanly possible.<\/p>\n

My specific learning goals for language and intercultural learning this summer:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. By the end of the summer, I will be able to converse with native Irish speakers about current events and other matters of political, economic and social importance to the Gaeltacht.<\/li>\n
  2. By the end of the summer, I will be able to carry on a casual conversation with native Irish speakers for up to a half hour.<\/li>\n
  3. By the end of the summer, I will be able to acquire new vocabulary and integrate it into my working knowledge of the Irish language.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    My plan for maximizing my international language learning experience:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I plan on abandoning my use of English, or B’arla, as soon as I arrive in the Gaeltacht.\u00a0 If I can’t understand something my host family is telling me, I won’t be the one to initiate English usage.\u00a0 In any and all cases, I will try my best to learn more Irish by using more Irish.\u00a0 If I go to the supermarket, I’ll point to things and ask what’s the word for them; if I read a magazine, I’ll ask what unfamiliar words mean; and so on.\u00a0 Most importantly, I will act as if this place is my new home, and I’ll try to adapt as best I can.<\/p>\n

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    Reflective Journal Entry 1: <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Given that I have three semesters of Irish language under my belt, it stands to reason that I would be half-competent in communicating. Not so at the moment. As it stands, I\u2019ll be able to say \u2018Dia duit\u2019 (hello) and perhaps \u2018Cen chaoi a bhfuil t\u00fa?\u2019 (How are you?). My skills have rusted the two months I\u2019ve been away from the language in Africa and elsewhere, as is evident when I listen to Irish language radio and understand almost none of it.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Does this worry me? A little, perhaps. But I\u2019m not one to let worry dull my sense of optimism. I believe that even though the first week or so living with an Irish-speaking family and taking a class taught in Irish will be difficult, the benefits I can reap from the next month of study will far outweigh the hassles, or so I\u2019ve been told. God willing, this will be a great month.<\/p>\n

    On the other hand, I don\u2019t really know a lot about this place. I\u2019ve seen it on maps, read about it, met a couple of people from the area, but never really had a taste of the life. I find myself wondering about particulars: what will it smell like? What\u2019s the weather really like in summer? What does the earth feel like when you break it in your hand? Most importantly, will the people be accepting of my effort to learn their language? I believe they will; it\u2019s been my experience with many foreign languages that the native speakers appreciate an honest effort at speaking it when abroad.<\/p>\n

    Anyway, back to not understanding R\u00e1idio na Gaeltachta.<\/p>\n

    Sl\u00e1inte.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Reflective\u00a0<\/strong>Journal Entry 2:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The first week was a trip, as I suspected it would be. After all the trouble it took to get out here to the Conemara Gaeltacht, it feels as if I\u2019m truly at the edge of the Western world. I\u2019m not far off; I learned a short while ago that the name of the island is believed to be derived from some Indo-European root word for \u2018west.\u2019 The ancients were probably fully aware of where this island was in comparison to the rest of Europe.<\/p>\n

    \n

    I digress. Irish is very alive in An Cheathrua Rua, as most signs are written \u2018as Gaeilge,\u2019 but it exists side by side with English since the past two generations were taught both languages in school. While this allows a little security when I can\u2019t find the words, it is frustrating when people don\u2019t bother to speak Irish to us students. Because they are used to tourists, they often speak in English even when we initiate conversations in Irish. It\u2019s getting better as they start to recognize us as students of the language, so hopefully we\u2019ll be having full conversations \u2018gan Bearl\u00e1\u2019 with the locals by the time we leave.<\/p>\n

    Classes and my homestay have been great thus far. Being in a classroom and a house where hardly any English is spoken has helped me not only reclaim the knowledge I acquired the past three semesters, but also to quickly acquire and process a wide range of new words, structures and idioms. It has been a great challenge so far, but it\u2019s a lot of fun too. I wouldn\u2019t be doing this in the first place if it wasn\u2019t fun, naturally.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s a beautiful, sunny day in Ireland, so I\u2019m not going to spend any more time wasting it indoors.<\/p>\n

    Sl\u00e1inte.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Reflective\u00a0<\/strong>Journal Entry 3:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Yes, I\u2019m not lucky, I\u2019m blessed. Here I am in the west of Ireland, first and greatest of the Gaeltachts, learning the language every day. After two solid weeks of asking people to speak n\u00edos maille (slower) and to repeat themselves, my conversations are beginning to flow much better. I\u2019m getting the same grammar I\u2019ve already been taught, but taught now in greater depth and as Gaeilge. Although my skills are eclipsed by about half the class, I\u2019m improving, and that\u2019s why I came here.<\/p>\n

    For the most part, I make mistakes in forming the proper noun cases in rapid conversation. Often in Irish, nouns are modified when preceded by compound prepositions, some simple prepositions, and another noun. These modifications are sometimes as simple as adding an extra letter to the front of the word and other times as complicated as altering the word entirely. Composing these on paper has become easy, but applying them in daily conversation is the worst \u2013 most younger native speakers don\u2019t bother to use these noun cases. I know this because I\u2019ve been trying to speak with locals of all ages to get a better feel of how different demographics use Irish. In general, the oldest generation, including people born in the 1920\u2019s-1940\u2019s, has the best Irish because they didn\u2019t really have English in their lives until they were grown.
    \nIrish speakers are a minority in Ireland. That ironic statement is based on a generous estimate that out of some four million people on this island, perhaps 30,000 people use Irish as their daily means of communication. An Rialtas (the Irish government) publishes much more gracious numbers based on how many students coming out of the secondary schools can compose Irish, but many people never gain any ability to speak the language in conversation. Reading and writing the language are stressed, not speaking it; sounds a lot like Latin, non?<\/p>\n

    My host couple, M\u00e1ire and Steve (very Irish name), have been speaking Irish in the home since they were born, but they\u2019ve also had the influence of English from the mass media and the school system. Considering that R\u00e1idio na Gaeltachta and TG4 were established to promote Irish in radio and television, respectively, and all students have to perform to a certain standard in Irish to graduate secondary school. Nevertheless, Irish and the Irish-speaking community are essentially relics, and shrinking relics at that. At the establishment of the Irish Republic in 1922, there were around a half-million speakers of the language, and that number is now reduced by roughly 90%. According to M\u00e1ire, Steve, M\u00e1ire\u2019s mother, and others here in the Gaeltacht, the language and its speakers are \u201crevered\u201d by the Irish, but there\u2019s little substantial effort to make the language a living, breathing part of the national fabric. Rather, it has become an adornment; ageing, honored, and soon entombed.<\/p>\n

    Just in case anyone\u2019s actually reading this thing, I want you to know that I\u2019ve hitch-hiked back to the house three times so far, mostly with locals who knew where to drop me just from the name of my beann an t\u00ed (lady of the house). That\u2019s what I call community.<\/p>\n

    Postcard(s) from Abroad:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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    Reflection on my language learning and intercultural gains:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I did not gain the level of fluency I wanted to reach during the month I spent in An Cheathru Rua.\u00a0 Even though I spent all day hearing and speaking the Irish in the home and at school, I was impaired by the considerable prevalence of English in the community there and amongst the other students.\u00a0 The most important lesson I took away from this trip about language acquisition is the same lesson I’ve been gradually learning my whole life: listen twice as much as you speak.\u00a0 It wasn’t enough to try and stumble through a conversation with native speakers; I had to articulate very brief, concise statements after I digested what I just listened to (with).\u00a0 I’m certainly no Yeats or Synge yet, but with more practice hear at school, I can continue to build on what I learned in Galway.<\/p>\n

    Reflection on my summer language abroad experience overall:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Although I did not gain the level of fluency I desired in four weeks, I made huge leaps towards capturing the spirit of the culture that the Irish language represents.\u00a0 First, I was a bit over-ambitious to think I could make too much ipmrovement in just one month, but ambition isn’t the worst fault I could have.\u00a0 Second, I see language as one tool to understand people and their culture, and even if I cannot yet speak Irish fluently, I listen and understand.\u00a0 After just one month, I know what the West of Ireland is all about – tradition, family ties, stubborn independence, and except for matters of the weather, a happy life.<\/p>\n

    How I plan to use my language and intercultural competences in the future:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I have believed from the start, and still believe, that the best way I can use my brief experience in the Gaeltacht is to teach the Irish language.\u00a0 Does that mean I need to become a professor of letters in Irish?\u00a0 I think not.\u00a0 Right now, I’m working as an Irish tutor, and when I leave Notre Dame, I plan to stay active in Celtic associations wherever my military career takes me.\u00a0 As a language that is swiftly falling out of regular use in its own country, Irish needs to be studied and spoken by its aspiring students with great diligence and passion, and though I’m not the most skilled Irish speaker, my love for the language takes me a long way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Name: Robert McKenna E-mail: rmckenn2@nd.edu Location of Study: Galway, Ireland Program of Study:\u00a0Dianch\u00farsa M\u00edosa na nEachtrannach Sponsors: Bob Berner & Joe Loughrey A brief personal bio: Dia duit!\u00a0 I’m Rob McKenna, a sophomore in the Irish Language and Literature minor … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":0,"parent":36,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-111","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111\/revisions\/402"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}