{"id":3058,"date":"2018-07-29T16:36:21","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T20:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/?p=3058"},"modified":"2018-07-29T16:36:21","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T20:36:21","slug":"slan-abhaile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/2018\/07\/29\/slan-abhaile\/","title":{"rendered":"Sl\u00e1n abhaile!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to believe, but I\u2019m nearing the end of my stay here in Gleann Cholm Cille.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This week has been a little different for me, because I decided to really challenge myself by moving up a level in my language classes. The instructor speaks almost exclusively in Irish. We aren\u2019t even allowed to use dictionaries; instead, the instructor defines vocabulary we don\u2019t know using other Irish words that (hopefully) we do know.<\/p>\n

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I went back to the Sliabh Liag cliffs one last time — as you can see, it was quite windy!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of the other members of the class are more advanced than I am, to be honest. But I\u2019ve already noticed my speaking ability improving. My classmates are incredibly dedicated to learning, and they really encourage my own efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been exciting to compare my current abilities with my language fluency back when I first arrived in Gleann Cholm Cille. I am still by no means fluent, but I can respond to basic questions in Irish much more naturally and quickly than before. One of the most challenging parts of learning Irish, in my opinion, is the simple act of saying \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno.\u201d There are no general words for \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d in the Irish language; instead, you answer a question with the positive or negative form of the verb contained in the question. For example, if someone asks you, \u201cAn \u00e9isteann t\u00fa leis an radi\u00f3?\u201d (Do you listen to the radio?), the response should either be \u201c\u00c9isteann\u201d (listen) or \u201cN\u00ed \u00e9isteann\u201d (do not listen). Such a structure comes naturally to a native speaker, but when you are first learning the language it can be difficult to do the mental work of identifying the verb in question, putting that verb into its positive or negative form, and then using it in the correct tense. Constant daily practice has greatly improved my ability to respond to these types of questions, however, at least with the more commonly used verbs.<\/p>\n

Overall, I have had a wonderful time in Gleann Cholm Cille. As I said in my first post, I have been so inspired by my fellow students. They all have different reasons for coming here, but everyone is dedicated to the language and passionate about its continued survival. I look forward to coming back to class at Notre Dame as a more fluent speaker and to continuing my involvement in the Irish-language community beyond graduation!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This picture was taken at a Dublin pub, on my last night in Ireland. Farewell!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Joyce quote I found in the pub. It seems to be an accurate summation of my time here!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to believe, but I\u2019m nearing the end of my stay here in Gleann Cholm Cille.\u00a0 This week has been a little different for me, because I decided to really challenge myself by moving up a level in my language classes. The instructor speaks almost exclusively in Irish. We aren\u2019t even allowed to use … Continue reading Sl\u00e1n abhaile!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3007,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sla-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3063,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions\/3063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}